Cuban Five show their gratitude
THE Cuban Five received a heroes’ welcome when they visited UWC as part of their tour to South Africa yesterday.
The five – Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González – are in South Africa to thank the country for continually calling for their release.
Speaking to hundreds of people in UWC’s Main Hall, René González thanked South Africans for their support and said they were in the country to pay tribute and show their gratitude for the role SA had played in securing their release.
González thanked the Friends of Cuba Society (Focus) for being part of the international campaign.
The five were jailed in the US after being arrested by the FBI on September in 1998. They were convicted in the federal court in
He said the struggle against apartheid resonated with Cuba’s people
From Page 1 Miami in 2001, in a political prosecution by the US government. The five men were accused by the US government of committing espionage conspiracy against the US and other related charges.
Their release was sanctioned by US President Barack Obama in what was seen as a first step in the easing of political relations between the US and Cuba. They were released as part of a prisoner swop with the US in December 2014.
Focus founder Father Michael Lapsley said the reason the Cuban Five had been in prison was because they had been preventing terrorism. He said the five were in prison for saving lives.
Focus had been one of the organisations at the forefront of the solidarity movement calling for their release.
Lapsley said the people of Cuba had taught the world about international solidarity. He said it turned out that the key to the release of the five had been international solidarity.
UWC Convocation president Mlungisi Nolundwe said the celebration of the release of the Cuban Five was a victory for humanity and must be celebrated on the “most inclusive basis”.
UWC Student Representative Council president Vuyani Sokhaba said the Cuban Five are an inspiration to students and young people. He said the struggle against apartheid resonated with the people of Cuba. Cubans assisted in training ANC members at Nova Catengue in Angola in 1977. Three of the Cuban Five spent years with MK comrades in Angola in the 1970s and 80s.
The ANC established a diplomatic office in Havana in December 1978 and in 1994 it became the official South African embassy in Cuba. The office was active throughout the anti-apartheid period.
Cuba participated in the International Conference on Sanctions Against South Africa in Paris from May 20 to 27 in 1981.
THE heroes’ welcome accorded the Cuban Five by the tripartite alliance this week is not only an emotional response to comrades in arms, but a strategic move to mobilise solidarity around South Africa for the full liberation of Cuba.
Given the unjust economic embargo Cuba has been subjected to since Castro’s revolution in 1959, and the continued occupation by the US of Cuban land, there remains a long way to go. The release of the five former Cuban intelligence officials from more than a decade and a half of incarceration in the US is just the first step on a long road to justice and full emancipation.
Since the dawn of our own independence, South Africa has always stood in solidarity with the oppressed peoples of the world as part of the progressive forces fighting neo-colonialism and injustice. Many of these battles have been won, but the full emancipation of Cuba, the Palestinians and Western Sahara are causes we continue to rally behind.
The value in having the Cuban Five engaging with local communities across the country lies in the fact that they will analyse the current balance of forces in the international arena, and highlight how tough the fight will be to tilt the balance towards justice for the developing world.
The Cuban Five have already depicted for us the obstinacy of the counter-revolutionary forces in the US who will go to extreme efforts to block any attempts by the US Congress to approve the lifting of the embargo, despite moves in this direction by the Obama administration.
What offers hope is the fact that the staunchest members of the right-wing Cuban lobby in Miami are ageing, and the new generation of Cuban exiles may take a different approach, having grown up in the post-cold war era.
The challenge remains the US Congress. This is the same Congress that today gives Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu repeated standing ovations and seeks to block any realisation of a Palestinian state.
The presence of the Cuban Five reminds us that the struggle must continue until we are all free.