Richmond California Support the Cuban Five

HAVANA, Cuba, April 9 (acn) The Council of the Californian city of Richmond, in the United States, unanimously approved a resolution in support of the five Cuban antiterrorism fighters unjustly incarcerated in that country and the right of their relatives to visit them.

According to information provided by the International Free the Five Committee, the resolution was adopted on Tuesday during a meeting held by the council of that city, located north of San Francisco Bay.

The initiative, which obtained seven votes in favor and none against, was presented by Mayor Gayle McLaughlin and Councilwoman Maria Viramontes.

The text points out that in this case there has been a violation of international agreements and of the due process of law for the performance of a fair trial.

Likewise, the immediate granting of entry visas for Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez to visit their respective husbands, René González y Gerardo Hernández, two of the Cuban Five, is also requested.

Gerardo, René, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González and Antonio Guerrero have already served 10 years of their harsh sentences, which range from 15 years to life imprisonment, after being condemned by a Miami court.

Their crime was that of monitoring the activities of anti-Cuban terrorist groups in Florida.

In spite of the lack of diplomatic links between Washington and Havana, residents o0f Richmond (with population of over 100,000, most of them African-Americans and Latinos) have a long history of fraternal relations with Cuba, by way of a project for the twining of Richmond and
the Havana municipality of Regla.

In 2007, Mayor McLaughlin, along with another 12 mayors from California, sent a letter to Alberto Gonzales, US Attorney General at the time, which demanded the immediate granting of humanitarian visas to the relatives of the Cuban Five.

The Resolution of Richmond joined the group of 10 Nobel Prize winners, religious and trade union leaders, legal and human rights organizations, artists and parliamentarians who support the petition made by the defence lawyers of the Cuban Five for the US Supreme Court to approve the re- examination of their case.

(Apoyo a Los Cinco en Consejo de ciudad de Richmond, EE.UU.)