Category Archives: Cuban Revolution

Cuban Revolution, The Cuban Five

FREE THE CUBAN 5 MONTH!

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“Ours may be one of the most ridiculous accusations of espionage in the history of this country”- Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo, The Cuban 5

This September 12th, 2012 will mark the 14th year anniversary of the arrest of the Cuban 5; five US held Cuban political prisoners incarcerated for protecting Cuba from U.S. sponsored terrorist actions.

In 2006, President Ricardo Alarcon, of the Cuban Parliament, declared Sept. 12th through October 6th to be a period of time to raise awareness on the case of the Cuban 5. The Popular Education Project to Free the Cuban 5 is committed to building an international movement for the Cuban 5’s freedom by extending this period of time to be a full month (Sept. 12th-October 12th) and calling it “Free the Cuban 5 Month.” During this month we organize a calendar of events to raise awareness about the Cuban 5 and how people can support their release!

Please support the Free the Cuban 5 picket on Sept 12th, the Vicente Feliu concert on Saturday Sept. 15th at 1199, the special Film screening of “South of the Border” on Sept. 22nd and support the Cuban 5 call in day on Oct. 12th!

Cuban Revolution, The Cuban Five

A Move to Free the Cuban Five

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Danny Glover and Saul Landau

By
Counterpunch

Gerardo Hernandez, Danny Glover y Saul Landau (director del documental). Gerardo Hernandez, Danny Glover and Saul Landau, director of the documentary. Photo courtesy Saul Landau

People stop in Victorville California 85 miles northeast of Los Angeles because they have to see someone at one of its several prisons (federal, state, county and city) or have prison-related business, or
because they’re hot and tired coming back from Las Vegas to Los Angeles and the thought of a swimming pool and an air conditioned room seem irresistible.

We book rooms so we can get to the prison early and spend more time with Gerardo Hernandez. We know the way from Highway 15 west into rolling desert hills from whence one sees a massive gray concrete structure – the federal penitentiary complex.

We fill out the forms, pass through the X-ray machine, get patted down by a guard, get our wrists stamped with indelible ink that shows up under a scanner in the next room, and by 8:45 we are seated in the Visiting room, with black and Latino wives and kids who are seeing husbands and daddies.

Gerardo emerges; we hug and start talking. He told us that Martin Garbus, his lawyer, had filed a new writ (available at www.thecuban5.org) declaring Gerardo’s trial violated basic law and the Constitution, and should be voided – freeing him and his comrades from their long sentences.

Documents show, according to the brief, that the U.S. government paid a host of Miami-based journalists to file negative stories on Gerardo and his fellow defendants (The Cuban 5). These U.S. government paid-for stories appeared in newspapers, magazines, radio and TV and influenced public opinion in the community, including jury members and their families, the writ argues, and therefore calls into deep question whether a fair trial in Miami was possible for the five accused men.

The brief states that the U.S. “government’s successful secret subversion of the Miami print, radio, and television media to pursue a conviction was unprecedented,” and “violated the integrity of the trial and the Due Process Clause of the Constitution.”

Garbus further argues that “The Government, through millions of dollars of illegal payments and at least a thousand articles published over a six- year period, interfered with the trial and persuaded the jury to convict. The Government’s Response to this motion is factually barren and legally incorrect. The conviction must now be vacated.”

In the lengthy brief, Garbus shows how journalists wrote and spoke for news outlets for the sole purpose of painting a distorted picture of what the defendants were doing, which was trying to prevent Miami-based terrorism in Cuba, and instead, as Garbus’ brief shows, to portray them as military spies trying to prepare south Florida for a military invasion from Cuba.

The Miami Herald fired the journalists on the grounds they had broken a basic code – taking money from the government to write stories. The brief states that “Thomas Fiedler, the Executive Editor and Vice President of The Miami Herald, when talking about the monies paid to his staff members and members of other media entities by the Government, said it was wrongful because it was “to carry out the mission of the U.S. Government, a propaganda mission. It was wrong even if it had not been secret.” It was secret because the government officials knew it wrong and illegal.

Gerardo and four companions have served almost 14 years in federal lock up for trying to stop right wing Miami thugs from bombing Havana. In 1997, a series of bombs hit hotels, restaurants, bars and clubs. One tourist died and many Cuban workers in these establishments were wounded. The bombings were orchestrated by Luis Posada Carriles, resident of Miami today, and financed by right wing exile money.

As we sat in the visiting room surrounded by mostly people of color, with four guards watching us and the other visitors, we nibbled on salted snacks from the vending machine (“prison gourmet”).

Gerardo told us about his time in “the hole,” for no bad behavior on his part, but for his “protection”! He spoke of deprivation of the routine monotony. “Look around,” he said, “you don’t see a lot of middle class people here. There were none. Most of the prisoners were black or Latino, plus one who Gerardo thought was a descendent of poor Okies. All share a lack of money to hire good lawyers.

“I was transferred here from Lompoc in 2004 because Lompoc was not going to be a maximum security prison any more,” Gerardo told us. As if this cultured, disciplined man needed maximum security. We wondered how we would endure the punishment of imprisonment in a supposedly correctional and rehabilitative institution, where no correction or rehabilitation takes place.

We drove from the prison to the Ontario airport and asked ourselves: What, we asked ourselves, was a well-educated Cuban man doing in such a place? The U.S. government knew the Cuban agents had infiltrated Cuban exile groups that intended to cause damage to Cuba’s tourist economy. The five were fighting terrorism and sharing information with the FBI. They should never have been charged and now, almost 14 years of prison later, they should at last be freed.

President Obama could and should pardon them and send them home. Cuba has indicated it would respond by freeing Alan Gross, who worked for a company contracted to USAID with a design to destabilize the Cuban government and was convicted in Cuba. It’s time for President Obama to put this issue on his agenda.
_______________

Danny Glover is an activist and actor.

Saul Landau’s WILL THE REAL TERRORIST PLEASE
STAND UP plays in Portland Sept. 12, Clinton
Theater and Toronto Sept. 21.

Cuba - Social, Cuban Revolution

U.S. still says Cuba on its list of “countries which sponsor international terrorism”

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PERMANENT MISSION OF CUBA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
315 Lexington Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10016 (212) 689-7215, FAX (212) 689-9073

PRESS RELEASE

STATEMENT BY THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA

On July 31st, the U.S. State Department once again included Cuba on its arbitrary, unilateral list of “countries which sponsor international terrorism.”

Yet again, the only reason Cuba is kept on this list is exposed as an attempt to justify the U.S. blockade of our country, as well as the adoption of new measures to limit our financial and commercial transactions, to strangle the Cuban economy and impose a regime which responds to U.S. interests.

On this occasion, the U.S. government attempts to sustain this discredited exercise with a new, slanderous accusation as to the supposed failure of Cuba’s banking system to take measures to confront money laundering and financial transactions linked to terrorism.

With this tall tale the United States hopes to conceal the fact that Cuba regularly provides precise, truthful information to the appropriate United Nations bodies charged with addressing these issues and others related to confronting terrorism. The U.S. blatantly ignores the Cuban government’s repeated proposals, made again as recently as February, 2012, to agree upon a bilateral program to confront terrorism. The U.S. government has not responded.

The United States does not have any moral authority whatsoever to judge us. It is widely known that the U.S. government has used state terrorism as a weapon in its policy toward Cuba, causing 3,478 deaths and 2,099 permanent injuries and has harbored, over time, dozens of terrorists, some of whom live freely within the country, while Cuba’s five anti-terrorist fighters remain unjustly imprisoned or detained. The U.S. is also the principal center of money laundering on the planet and the lack of regulation of its financial system detonated the current global economic crisis.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs forcefully rejects the manipulation of an issue as sensitive as terrorism for such narrow political ends against Cuba and demands that the U.S. government stop lying and put an end to this shameful practice which offends the Cuban people and discredits international efforts in the struggle against terrorism.

Havana, August 1st, 2012

U.S. still says Cuba on its list of “countries which sponsor international terrorism”

Cuban Revolution

LA VERDAD VERDADERA

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ESPECIAL PARA MONCADA

ADRIANA VEGA

MONCADA

Desde el pasado 22 de julio, se han publicado más de mil informaciones de prensa y mensajes en las redes sobre el accidente de tránsito donde fallecieron dos ciudadanos cubanos más las lesiones de un español y un sueco. Nada raro, la mafia anexionista de Miami atribuyó a Cuba la perpetración de un atentado político, a través de un auto sospechoso que probablemente manejarían Raúl, Ventura y Pombo, (cascarrillo que va por mi cuenta)

Entre los calumniadores advertimos al candidato republicano de Estados Unidos, al Departamento de Estado y al vocero de la Presidencia de Chile reclamando una indagación transparente, en tanto pruebas indiscutibles de expertos marcan que no es Cuba sino USA quien hace gala de una maligna superioridad de crímenes políticos manejando prácticas extrajudiciales con aviones no tripulados, raptos, chantajes y torturas en campos de concentración (Guantánamo) y en sus presidios diligencias injustas y discriminatorias de la pena de muerte, más crímenes de civiles inocentes como en Iraq, Afganistán, Pakistán y otros estados.

Se conoce con pruebas fehacientes la participación de algunos de sus aliados europeos de la OTAN en dichos actos, en particular los secuestros de ciudadanos de otros Estados, vuelos secretos de la CIA, cárceles clandestinas en Europa con intervención de su personal y torturas que entonan con voz de tenor “el terrorismo soy yo”

La Revolución Cubana triunfó y ha sido preservada desde 1959 sin una sola ejecución extrajudicial, sin desaparecidos, torturados, secuestrados ni actos extremistas que puedan dar vergüenza, ya que se fundan en una Constitución aprobada por todo el pueblo revolucionario que sostiene ,a pesar de ellos, su inaugural y veraz independencia desde el primero de enero de 1959, en tanto el monopolio financiero-mediático que difama a Cuba, se agrupa y paga a los apócrifos “luchadores por la libertad” sin honrar metas éticas ni la muerte de seres humanos.
Pese a la censura y el manejo, es ya re contra conocido que en CUBA la contrarrevolución ha sido y es asalariada, que son agentes del gobierno de USA y que sus gusanitos fomentan arrodillados provistos e instruidos traicionando a su Patria por monedas, tal como Judas. Ellos mismos con sus aliados perversos armaron una fiesta para la prensa enemiga extranjera que detuvo, en plena calle, el cortejo fúnebre de uno de los fallecidos en el accidente, en tanto la rápida y enérgica respuesta del pueblo obligó a la Policía Nacional Revolucionaria a excluirlos del lugar. Generosamente, no se les instruyeron cargos y regresaron a sus casas pocas horas después.

La cobertura de prensa internacional adversa nunca se preguntó qué hacían en la isla los dos políticos europeos lesionados.

El conductor Ángel Carromero Barrios no era solo un turista español sino el ahora Vicesecretario General de Nuevas Generaciones, sector juvenil del Partido Popular de España, íntimo de los anticubanos José María Aznar, ex presidente del gobierno, y Esperanza Aguirre, cabeza de la Comunidad de Madrid. El otro pasajero es Jens Aron Modig, líder del Partido Demócrata Cristiano Sueco, émulo del ultraconservador “Tea Party” norteamericano, y presidente de su Liga Juvenil, con nexos en el Instituto Republicano Internacional (IRI) y afín a la derecha nórdica más recalcitrante.

Todos ingresaron el 19 de julio como Turistas para involucrarse en actividades contra el orden constitucional, operación organizada por Anikka Rigo, jefa de la Sección de Relaciones Exteriores del Partido Demócrata Cristiano Sueco y con el motivo de financiar al microscópico Movimiento Cristiano de Liberación, cuyo Presidente era Oswaldo Payá, fallecido con mojitos, traiciones y farándula después de recibir dinerillos para la creación del grupúsculo juvenil en tanto marchaban a Santiago de Cuba cuando ocurrió el accidente.
Los ciudadanos extranjeros fueron asistidos por su cónsul y Ángel Carromero Barrios asume un cargo por homicidio al conducir el vehículo. El sueco Jens Aron Modig retornó a su país, pese a la violación de su estatus migratorio y las actividades ilegales que realizó,todas operaciones organizadas desde Miami, Madrid y Estocolmo.

Asimismo, antes de la “inspección” de Benedicto XVI, ocho mexicanos cruzaron como turistas para incitar al pueblo a silbar, tomar iglesias, distribuir volantes y crear desórdenes en las actividades del Pontífice, que muy diplomáticamente no los recibió.

Cuatro de los mejicanos fueron detenidos y reconocieron haber sido financiados, entrenados e instruidos por Orlando Gutiérrez Boronat, del Directorio Democrático Cubano de Miami e informaron además que el jefe del operativo en México fue René Bolio Hollarán, ex Senador suplente del Partido de Acción Nacional (PAN), vinculado estrictamente a la mafia de la Florida.
Otras agencias e instituciones norteamericanas y europeas canalizan fondos con idénticos objetivos: el Instituto Nacional Demócrata (NDI); el Instituto Republicano Internacional (IRI); la Fundación Nacional para la Democracia (NED); la Fundación Nacional Cubano Americana (FNCA); Solidaridad Española con Cuba; el Grupo “Prisa”; la Federación Española de Asociaciones Cubanas; el Instituto Democrático Europeo (EDI); “People in Need”; el Centro para la Apertura y Desarrollo de América Latina (CADAL, que funciona repartiendo sueldos y ediciones de libros en Argentina) y la Fundación Panamericana para el Desarrollo (FUPAD) sin referir los millones en fondos secretos que los servicios de inteligencia, como CIA, consagran a la sedición contra Cuba.

Otros programas, dirigidos a fabricar eventuales líderes de “oposición”, les proporcionan y les pagan el acceso a Internet, a las redes sociales, les regalan computadoras y medios técnicos, con propósito político, en contraste con la aplicación del bloqueo que hace USA en el área de las telecomunicaciones.

La Sección de Intereses de Estados Unidos en La Habana maneja directos propósitos subversivos porque facilita millares de horas de conexión ilegal a Internet e imparte cientos de horas de cursos conspirativos en abierta violación de leyes nacionales y de la Convención de Viena sobre Relaciones Diplomáticas.
Hay copiosa evidencia de que el gobierno norteamericano sigue la política de “cambio de régimen” en la nación caribeña, mediante un bloqueo económico, político, mediático y su apoyo monetario a la sedición.

Solo entre el 2009 y el 2012, el Departamento de Estado y la Agencia de los Estados Unidos para el Desarrollo Internacional (USAID) han recibido un presupuesto público de 75 millones de dólares para programas conspiradores contra Cuba.
Con toda razón, el Presidente y General de Ejército Raúl Castro Ruz, expresó que “Estados Unidos no cesa en su afán de formar una quinta columna en suelo patrio y en el empleo de novedosas tecnologías con fines subversivos”.

Los grupos más reaccionarios y violentos de Miami no cejan en sus propósitos de incitar al pueblo a la “rebelión” contra el gobierno que, libre y soberanamente el pueblo ha elegido desde una democracia participativa.

Ellos sueñan con desestabilizar el país, crear condiciones para repetir lo ocurrido en Libia o Siria y provocar una intervención militar norteamericana.
En el informe al VI Congreso del Partido, Raúl advirtió que lo que nunca se le negará al pueblo es el derecho a defender su Revolución porque protege su independencia, las magníficas conquistas del socialismo que se mueven solidariamente en el mundo y que junto a sus viviendas, plazas y calles seguirán aumentando ya que es el más importante deber de todos los patriotas cubanos.

Cuba es Martiana Y Marxista Leninista, le pese a quien le pese. Como diría el Gran Allende, sus alamedas están muy, muy bien custodiadas.

Buenos Aires, 2 de agosto del 2012

LA VERDAD VERDADERA