Despite more than enough proof of their heroism and innocence, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez, Fernando González Llort, Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Ramón Labañino Salazar and René González Sehwerert  --internationally known as the Cuban 5--  are still behind bars 12 years after their arrest on Sept. 12, 1998.
 
For decades, terrorist attacks originating from the US have plagued the Cuban people.  There is a long history of the complicity of the CIA, Cuban American National Foundation, and Congress members who are anti-Cuban in these attacks.  One prime example is CIA-trained self-confessed and convicted terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who continues to walk free in the US, protected by the government.
 
Prior to their being sentenced, the Cuban 5 worked to monitor and document human rights violations perpetrated by CIA-trained, extremist Cuban-American para-military groups operating out of South Florida. They also worked to defend the people of not only Cuba, but other countries, including the U.S.

I caught up with Lorne Gershuny, coordinator with the Canadian Lawyers' Committee in Support of the Anti-Terrorist Cuban Five, in Toronto on International Human Rights Day.  I wanted to know about the latest on the case, the media taking U.S. government cash during the trial, what keeping the Cuban 5 in jail means for Canadians, and more.


For more info on the Cuban 5:

National Committee to Free the Cuban Five  http://www.freethefive.org/

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migrantmatters@cfru.ca