Political prisoners in the US since 1998
By Ray Jackson
comrades, a forum worth attending.
Ailí Labañino-Cardoso, 26, is the daughter of Ramon Labañino, one of the Cuban Five political prisoners held by Washington since 1998. She will be in Sydney speaking at a public event on Saturday 16 August. Her tour is organised by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and supported by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS).
Ailí Labañino-Cardoso has been politically active in the UJC (young communists) since she was a teenager and is a youth leader in Cuba. As a fighter for the freedom of the Cuban Five she has spoken at many meetings and conferences in Cuba and internationally.
"Above all, when one is convinced that what one is doing is always correct, just, and legal, that one defends a humane cause, that one has never put anybody or anything in danger, and that, on the contrary, one has sacrificed everything for the common good, for people’s lives – innocent people – then those ideas themselves lend enormous force of will and persistence against all adversity and adversaries.
The fight is just.
Victory will indeed have to be sweet.''
~Ramon Labañino, July 2, 2014
6pm, Saturday 16 August 2014
6pm Reception
7pm Speakers
CFMEU Headquarters
Level 2, 12 Railway St, Lidcombe
(close to Lidcombe train station)
Contact: Jennifer Glass 9749 0400 or info@sydney-acfs.org
For more information on the Cuban 5 visit www.thecuban5.org
Attached below are prints of 15 prison paintings for fifteen years by CUBAN FIVE political prisoner Antonio Guerrero
“All of these images have one thing in common: they were memories of the unjust
and cruel treatment given to us since the very first day of our detention.”
View from 6pm, Saturday 16 August 2014
CFMEU Headquarters
Level 2, 12 Railway St, Lidcombe
(close to Lidcombe train station)
Contact: Jennifer Glass 9749 0400 or info@sydney-acfs.org
Who are the Cuban Five?
Ramón Labanino and his compatriots, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González are Cuban revolutionaries who, during the 1990s, were sent by the Cuban government to gather information on the plans of violent Cuban-American paramilitary groups with a long history of attacks against Cuba.
In September 1998, they were arrested by the FBI. The Five were framed and convicted of a variety of charges. Without a shred of evidence, three were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the US.
Hernández was also convicted of conspiracy to commit murder, based on the pretext that he bore responsibility for the Cuban government’s 1996 shootdown of two hostile aircraft that had repeatedly invaded Cuban airspace in disregard of Havana’s constant warnings. He is serving two life terms plus 15 years. His wife Adriana Pérez is barred from entering the United States.
René González was released and returned to Cuba in May 2013. Fernando González returned on February 28. The other three remain behind bars in a travesty of justice for defending Cuba against US-based anti-Cuban terrorists.
