Cuban Lawmakers Adopt Declaration on the Cuban Five
HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 1 (acn)
The National Assembly of People´s Power (Cuban Parliament) adopted a declaration calling for urgent solidarity by all legislative bodies, political and social organizations to demand the immediate release of the five Cuban patriots unfairly incarcerated in the United States.Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon read the document during the Third Session of the Parliament´s 7th Legislature underway at Havana´s Convention Center. The declaration reads that Gerardo Hernandez, Nordelo, Ramon Labañino Salazar, Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez, Fernando Gonzalez Llort and Rene Gonzalez Sehwerert, internationally known as the Cuban Five, will soon be serving 11 years of unjust imprisonment. Following a winding and arbitrary process, the US Supreme Court decided, last June 15, to ignore the unprecedented universal claim for the reviewing of the case, the declaration denounces. The judges preferred to abide by the request of the Obama Administration not to consider the strong arguments presented by the defense team. The document points out that the judges also ignored dozen of amicus curiae briefs filed with the court by 10 Nobel Peace laureates, legislative bodies, hundreds of parliamentarians, jurist organization from several countries, including the United States. With that action, the top US legislative entity accepted an endless series of violations of the law and legal proceedings thus becoming an accomplice of the promotion and protection of terrorism, which is at the center of the huge injustice committed against the Cuban Five.The declaration explains that the list of violations is quite long and that just any of them is enough to order the immediate release of the Five. Particularly outrageous is the situation facing Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva, who have systematically been banned from visiting their husbands Gerardo and Rene, respectively.US authorities, the document notes, have thus far denied the women to visit their husbands thus turning a deaf ear on reiterated petitions by religious and human rights organizations, unions and intellectuals around the world. By rejecting to review the case of the Cuban Five, the US Supreme Court practically closed all legal avenues to its solution, the declaration points out.The document explains that a new phase in the case takes place now, in which the US administration and President Obama in particular have the biggest responsibility. The US President has the constitutional power and the moral obligation to have justice made, reads the declaration and insists that Barack Obama may and must do so. In that direction, the document explains that Obama must order the withdrawal of the charges against the Cuban patriots, which have already been severely questioned by the Atlanta Court of Appeals. The US President is obliged to release those brave men if he really intends to give Latin America and the World an image about change. The declaration finally points out that Cuban men and women, for whom the Five sacrificed their lives, will be able to restlessly fight until achieving their release from prison and their free return to their homeland.

US Activists Ratify Solidarity and Commitment toward Cuba
Members of the 20th US-Cuba Friendship Caravan and the 40th Venceremos Brigade ratified on Friday their commitment to continue supporting the Cuban people’s struggles.In a mass meeting held at the Mount of Flags in front of the US Interests Section in Havana, the over 250 US activists stated their decision to carry on with their struggle for the lifting of the 50-year blockade on Cuba maintained by successive US administrations.Venceremos Brigade member Shaka Barrows assessed as a step to eliminate that policy the trips they have made to Cuba despite travelling restrictions.“The Supreme Court has failed us”, said Barrows, with regard to the decision of the top legislative body of not reviewing the case of the five Cuban antiterrorists unjustly incarcerated in the US for monitoring the activities of Florida-based, anti-Cuban terrorist organizations.“We voted for Barack Obama because we needed changes, and we’ll demand him to release the Cuban Five”, he added.Reverend Lucius Walker, leader of the Caravans since their first visit to the island in 1992, highlighted the example the Cuban people represents to the world in the struggle against Washington’s hegemonic pretensions.On behalf of Fernando Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramón Labañino,Antonio Guerrero and René Gonzalez, Irma Gonzalez –Rene’s daughter-thanked all the persons, organizations and governments that have shown their solidarity toward their cause.“It's the people’s support what gives the Cuban Five and their relatives the strength to resist every injustice committed against us” said the young girl.Meanwhile, Jorge Marti, head of the Department for International Relations of the Cuban Communist Party’s Central Committee, labelled the US activists’ actions as an eternal example of friendship.

`Cuban Five' defendants to get new sentences Oct. 13
Associated Press
A Miami federal judge has set an October date to impose new sentences on three of the so-called ``Cuban Five'' accused of spying in the United States. A federal appeals court last year ordered new sentences for Fernando Gonzalez, also known as Ruben Campa; Luis Medina; and Antonio Guerrero. Medina and Guerrero had been serving life terms, and Gonzalez was sentenced to 19 years. The appeals court ruled their sentences were too long. U.S. District Judge Joan Lenard will impose new sentences on Oct. 13. The five men were convicted in 2001 of acting as unregistered Cuban agents and of espionage conspiracy for attempting to penetrate U.S. military bases. The U.S. Supreme Court in June refused to review the case. They are considered heroes in Cuba.