/ 6 October 2006

Protesters call on US to free ‘Cuban Five’

Protesters gathered outside the United States embassy in Pretoria and its consulate in Cape Town on Friday to demand the release of the so-called Cuban Five.

The protesters — about 200 in Pretoria and what one participant said were about 80 in Cape Town — included representatives of the African National Congress and its alliance partners, the Friends of Cuba Society and the South African Council of Churches.

The five men were jailed in the US for terms ranging from 15 years to double life sentences after being convicted in 2001 on charges including espionage and conspiracy to commit murder.

The men maintained they were in Miami to monitor anti-Castro Cuban exile groups operating out of that city, which they claim were engaging in ”terrorist” activities against Cuba.

ANC deputy provincial secretary Max Ozinsky said about 80 people gathered outside the fortress-like consulate in Tokai, Cape Town, and handed over a memorandum.

The memo called for the immediate release or re-trial ”before an impartial jury” of the five, who it said were all unjustly imprisoned.

”The imprisonment of the five is an assault on the people of Cuba and their inalienable right to defend themselves against acts of terror and aggression,” it read.

The spokesperson for the US embassy, Dan Claffey, said any petition or memorandum handed in was passed on to the Washington office of the US department of state.

The five are Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, and Rene Gonzalez.

The South African protesters joined others around the world who chose October 6 to highlight the call to free the five.

The day is the 30th anniversary of the sabotage of a Cuban airliner over Barbados, which cost the lives of 73 people, an act many point to as evidence of the need of Cuba to spy on those who make plans against the government of that country. — Sapa