Ricardo Alarcon Calls for World Campaign in Favor of Cuban Five

HAVANA, Cuba, Jan 29 .The President of the Cuban National Assembly (Parliament), Ricardo Alarcon, urged participants in the Pedagogy 2009 International Congress underway in Havana to carry out a world campaign in favor of five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters who remain unjustly imprisoned in the United States since 1998.

Speaking during a plenary session of the event, Alarcon said that Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez – internationally known as the Cuban Five - are also educators who teach with their example, their patriotism, their dignity and their spirit of self-sacrifice.

He recalled that, in fact, the Cuban Five have helped many inmates in different US prisons learn to read and write.

Alarcon announced that next Friday, the defense team of the Cuban Five will present a petition to the US Supreme Court asking this judicial body to revise the case.

He described the current moment as complex and decisive in the legal battle to demand the release of the anti-terrorist fighters and to annul the sentence against Gerardo Hernandez (two life terms plus 15 years).

The Cuban top legislator stressed that international solidarity is essential for the Cuban Five now and recalled that the US Supreme Court accepts only nearly 1.5% of all cases presented to it.

The Cuban Five were arrested in Miami in 1998 for infiltrating extremist right-wing groups that were planning and carrying out terrorist actions against Cuba.

(Convoca Alarcón a movilización mundial por Los Cinco)