HIGH FIVE FOR OLIVER TAMBO
CELEBRATE ANGOLAN COMRADESHIP AFTER RELEASE
The Cuban Five Fernando González, Ramón Labanino, René González, Gerardo Hernández and Antonio Guerrero visited the grave of OR Tambo at Wattville Cemetery in Benoni yesterday after arriving in South Africa for a 13-day visit. The group will be in Cape Town today.
JOHANNESBURG: The OR Tambo International Airport arrivals hall erupted into cheers of “a luta continua” yesterday as the Cuban Five emerged to the jubilation of the massive crowds assembled to welcome the heroes of the Cuban struggle.
“Thank God for their release. Now I can rest in peace,” cried Blessing Mahlaba, a former MK commander who donned his military fatigues and waved the Cuban flag alongside dancing members of the tripartite alliance.
Mahlaba had trained alongside Cubans in Angola during the 1980s. “They gave us solidarity and support, we will never forget them.”
Three of the Cuban Five spent years alongside MK comrades in Angola in the late 70s and 80s.
After a hard-fought battle that rallied international solidarity in support of their release, the Cuban Five emerged victorious when the US released them from prison in December last year, after most had endured 16 years of incarceration.
The five Cuban intelligence officers were arrested by the US in Miami in 1998 on charges of conspiracy to commit espionage. The Cuban government later admitted they were spying on Miami’s Cuban exile community in the wake of several terrorist bombings in Havana organised by a former CIA operative. The five were released as part of a prisoner swop with the US in December 2014.
“The first 17 months of our incarceration were spent in solitary confinement,” Gerardo Hernandez told crowds at OR Tambo’s grave site. “As prisoners we had great admiration for South African freedom fighters, and we always wanted to come here and thank you for your support.”
Just as Nelson Mandela had made his first visit to Cuba after being released from prison, the Cuban Five chose to make their first foreign visit following their release to South Africa. They will be touring the country for the next two weeks.
The release of the five was sanctioned by President Barack Obama in what was seen as a first step in the easing of political relations between the US and Cuba.
“They may be released, but the struggle continues,” Gwede Mantashe, the ANC’s secretary-general, said at the ceremony in their honour. “The blockade is still in place and Guantanamo Bay is still there. The US must have no claim on any piece of land in Cuba. We must continue to mobilise international solidarity towards that end.”
Under the 1903 US-Cuba Treaty of Relations, a relationship of US dominance over Cuba was established, whereby Cuba was to lease land for naval bases to the US.
This was one of the conditions the US set out in return for the US withdrawing its troops from the island following its war with Spain.
Cuba would like to rid itself of the US base altogether.