International Solidarity with Cuban Five Needed Now more than Ever

Relatives of the Five Cubans incarcerated in the United States for preventing terrorists actions being carried out against Cuba said Thursday in Havana that international solidarity for their release is needed now more than ever.
Antonio Guerrero’s mother Mirta Rodriguez and the mother of Fernando Gonzalez Magali Llort told the nearly 270 people who came as part of the Voluntary Work South American Brigade, which arrived on January 24th and leaving next Sunday, that this year is of great significance in the struggle for the release of these men internationally known as the Cuban Five.
In view of the imminent exhaustion of appeals in this case, defence lawyers say they would have to resort to a writ of habeas corpus, which they plan to present in June, and they say that only international solidarity will be able to achieve the release of these five men.
For more than 11 years now, Antonio and Fernando, as well as Gerardo Hernandez, Ramón Labañino and Rene Gonzalez, are serving harsh and unjust sentences, as a consequence of a biased trial that ended in 2001, held in Miami, Florida, where the terrorist groups they infiltrated operate.

Louisville, Kentucky and Eugene, Oregon
to host Antonio Guerrero's Art Exhibition in February and March
"From My Altitude" (Desde mi Altura), the inspiring and insightful art exposition of 28 paintings created by Cuban Five hero, Antonio Guerrero, will tour the month of February at the University of Louisville, in Kentucky, and during the month of March at the Fenorio Gallery in Eugene, Oregon.
In Louisville, Kentucky, Antonio's art will be on exhibit from February 5-19 on the main floor of the Ekstrom Library of the University of Louisville. An opening reception and poetry reading, featuring poetry by the Cuban Five and other Cuban poets, will be held on Feb. 9 from 4-6 pm in the Bingham Poetry Room of the library. Walter Tillow of the Louisville Committee to Free The Five notes, "Activists in Louisville are happy to welcome the exhibit of Antonio Guererro's prison art work. Many will now become familar with the basic humanity of these five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters and the extreme injustice they have suffered at the hands of the U.S. justice system."
In Eugene, Oregon, Antonio's exhibit will open with a reception at 7:00 pm, Friday, March 5, at the prestigious Fenorio Gallery, 881 Willamette St., and will be on exhibit throughout the month of March. In many cities, art galleries have a tradition called "First Friday" in which the public is invited to view the exhibit openings. In Eugene, Antonio's exhibit will be part of the "Art Walk." Dennis Gilbert, coordinator of the Eugene Free the Cuban Five Committee, says, "We have been able to talk with many people who wouldn't otherwise have known of the Cuban Five. We expect a very good turnout for Antonio's art, and our display will include information on the freedom campaign of the Cuban Five, and their anti-terrorist mission." Leonard Weinglass, appeals attorney for Antonio Guerrero, will speak at the gallery in early March (date to be confirmed soon.)
Later in the year, the exhibit will move to Taos, NM, New York City, and other cities. If you are interested in arranging for a stop in your city, please contact the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five.
http://www.freethefive.org,


From today: U.S. doctors working in Cuban hospitals in Haiti
● Seven graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine in Havana
-Leticia Martínez Hernández
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti.—Seven young doctors have just arrived at the Croix des Bouquets field hospital. They have come from the United States and wish "to help their Cuban brothers and sisters in attending to the suffering Haitian people. We are in the process of having our Medical degrees validated, but felt the need to be here, we’re leaving aside our studies so as to say ‘Present’," they affirm. For that reason they will begin attending to Haitian patients today.
American medical graduates from ELAM have arrived at the field hospital to work with the Cubans to attend to Haitian patients.
Elsie Walter talks on behalf of all of them, explaining that they are graduates from the Latin American School of Medicine in Cuba (ELAM). Five of them are from New York and two from California. They responded to a call from the Reverend Lucius Walker, and didn’t hesitate. "There were lots of us who wanted to come, but given our responsibilities there, only seven of us could come for now; others are thinking of joining later on, because we know that the Cuban medical brigade is going to be here for a good long time."
For one month, this first group will be working in the Cuban hospital that, up until yesterday, had attended to 3,590 patients. They will be sharing with its doctors all aspects of field hospital life. Orthopedist William Alvarez, director of the center, explains that the idea is to incorporate them into hospital activities, both on the ground and in consultations, although of course, this will be done in a staggered way. The main concern of these doctors, all women, is their lack of knowledge of Creole, but in that context, Haitian students training as doctors in Cuba and currently in Haiti, will support them.
In the hospital where the American doctors start work today, 3,590 patients have received medical attention.
The doctor highlighted that the young ELAM graduates came with their packs of water and food but, as soon as they arrived, they handed them over to the hospital’s reserves. They also brought backpacks loaded with medicines, which they likewise immediately donated. They have incorporated themselves very well in the group of Cubans, he says. "Without any doubt, they are a great help, and also a challenge, because we are responsible for their preparation and they are in a scenario that they haven’t experienced before. For example, they have never had to confront illnesses like Chagas or Leishmaniasis."
Elsie comments that they came to share everything, as they learned in ELAM. For that reason, they do not see any problem in sleeping in tents and working at any hour of the day or night. "The experience has been fantastic, you have treated us very well, with that great hospitality, we feel privileged to be here; thank you Cuba for opening your doors to us as always."
Elsie says that she and her colleagues are in the process of sitting examinations to validate their degrees and comments that although the assessment in her country is different, they are sufficiently prepared to pass them. This is the attitude of these young women trained in Cuba who have joined our doctors to continue saving lives in Haiti. When consultations begin in the Croix des Bouquets field hospital, the patients will find new faces; however, the attention will remain the same.

Cuba Starts Election Process
By Javier Rodriguez Roque / redaccion ahora.cu
Cuba put in motion the partial elections process with massive participation of citizens as expression of its democratic nature.
Cuba's Council of State convened for April 25 municipal elections of the People's Power, an expresison of democratic will covering all from the ballot and organization to the candidates proposal in popular assemblies starting from February 24.
After setting up over 15,000 commissions in charge of the process and training the commisison members, neighbors will be be able to check out the registration data to make their nominations.
The winners, depending on their work, will be in office for two years. They are also the grass-root candidates to the National Assembly.
The Constitution approved in 1976 established the ballot guiding lines and, unlike other countries, it will be free from the lobbying by political or economic pressure groups. / Prensa Latina

Cuba Starts Checking Electoral Roll
By ACN / 29 January 2010
Cuban authorities will start checking Thursday electoral roll for the upcoming partial elections, to elect delegates to the Municipal Assemblies of the People''s Power on April 25.
A runoff has been scheduled for May 2 if there were a tie or if neither of the candidates in one constituency scores 50 percent plus one of the votes.
National Electoral Commission president Ana Maria Mari recently stated that this step, supported by neighbourhood leaders and the visit to each household, will be run until February 24.
"Electoral authorities, of them 57 percent are women, will do their work with professionalism, ethics, law-allegiance, and impartiality, as part of a process that is an example worldwide," Mari said.
"Our Electoral Roll is different from others at an international level because it is public and permanent," Ruben Perez, vice president of the mentioned commission, stated.
"Each Cuban over 16 years old is automatically registered to vote, that is, a constitutional right, and has the right to consult the list, whose updating is done periodically," he noted.


There has been no change in U.S. policy on Cuba
IN opening the conference of Cubans Resident Abroad against the Blockade and in Defense of National Sovereignty this Wednesday, Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parilla, noted that "we all share the pride of being the sons and daughters of rebel Cuba, marked since the birth of the nation by the dilemma of annexation and independence."
http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2010/enero/juev28/bruno-rodriguez-ing.html,


Siete prestigiosos académicos cubanos debaten sobre la enseñanza de la Historia de Cuba
Los jóvenes harán su propia Historia
http://www.bohemia.cu/2010/02/05/encuba/valores3.html,
http://www.rebelion.org/noticia.php?id=100027,

Las empresas toman la democracia de EEUU
-Noam Chomsky
http://www.publico.es/internacional/292370/empresas/toman/democracia/eeuu,

La revolución y el empoderamiento de las mayorías
-Homar Garcés
http://www.argenpress.info/2010/02/la-revolucion-y-el-empoderamiento-de.html,

Why Washington "Cares" About Honduras and Haiti
By MARK WEISBROT
http://counterpunch.com/weisbrot02052010.html,


AND TO REMEMBER :

We Send Doctors, Not Soldiers
In my Reflection of January 14, two days after the catastrophe in Haiti, which destroyed that neighboring sister nation, I wrote: “In the area of healthcare and others the Haitian people has received the cooperation of Cuba, even though this is a small and blockaded country. Approximately 400 doctors and healthcare workers are helping the Haitian people free of charge. Our doctors are working every day at 227 of the 237 communes of that country. On the other hand, no less than 400 young Haitians have been graduated as medical doctors in our country. They will now work alongside the reinforcement that traveled there yesterday to save lives in that critical situation. Thus, up to one thousand doctors and healthcare personnel can be mobilized without any special effort; and most are already there willing to cooperate with any other State that wishes to save Haitian lives and rehabilitate the injured.”
“The head of our medical brigade has informed that ‘the situation is difficult but we are already saving lives.’”
Hour after hour, day and night, the Cuban health professionals have started to work nonstop in the few facilities that were able to stand, in tents, and out in the parks or open-air spaces, since the population feared new aftershocks.
The situation was far more serious than was originally thought. Tens of thousands of injured were clamoring for help in the streets of Port-au-Prince; innumerable persons laid, dead or alive, under the rubbled clay or adobe used in the construction of the houses where the overwhelming majority of the population lived. Buildings, even the most solid, collapsed. Besides, it was necessary to look for the Haitian doctors who had graduated at the Latin American Medicine School throughout all the destroyed neighborhoods. Many of them were affected, either directly or indirectly, by the tragedy.
Some UN officials were trapped in their dormitories and tens of lives were lost, including the lives of several chiefs of MINUSTAH, a UN contingent. The fate of hundreds of other members of its staff was unknown.
Haiti’s Presidential Palace crumbled. Many public facilities, including several hospitals, were left in ruins.
The catastrophe shocked the whole world, which was able to see what was going on through the images aired by the main international TV networks. Governments from everywhere in the planet announced they would be sending rescue experts, food, medicines, equipment and other resources.
In conformity with the position publicly announced by Cuba, medical staff from different countries –namely Spain, Mexico, and Colombia, among others- worked very hard alongside our doctors at the facilities they had improvised. Organizations such as PAHO and other friendly countries like Venezuela and other nations supplied medicines and other resources. The impeccable behavior of Cuban professionals and their leaders was absolutely void of chauvinism and remained out of the limelight.
Cuba, just as it had done under similar circumstances, when Hurricane Katrina caused huge devastation in the city of New Orleans and the lives of thousands of American citizens were in danger, offered to send a full medical brigade to cooperate with the people of the United States, a country that, as is well known, has vast resources. But at that moment what was needed were trained and well- equipped doctors to save lives. Given New Orleans geographical location, more than one thousand doctors of the “Henry Reeve” contingent mobilized and readied to leave for that city at any time of the day or the night, carrying with them the necessary medicines and equipment. It never crossed our mind that the President of that nation would reject the offer and let a number of Americans that could have been saved to die. The mistake made by that government was perhaps the inability to understand that the people of Cuba do not see in the American people an enemy; it does not blame it for the aggressions our homeland has suffered.
Nor was that government capable of understanding that our country does not need to beg for favors or forgiveness of those who, for half a century now, have been trying, to no avail, to bring us to our knees.
Our country, also in the case of Haiti, immediately responded to the US authorities requests to fly over the eastern part of Cuba as well as other facilities they needed to deliver assistance, as quickly as possible, to the American and Haitian citizens who had been affected by the earthquake.
Such have been the principles characterizing the ethical behavior of our people. Together with its equanimity and firmness, these have been the ever-present features of our foreign policy. And this is known only too well by whoever have been our adversaries in the international arena.
Cuba will firmly stand by the opinion that the tragedy that has taken place in Haiti, the poorest nation in the western hemisphere, is a challenge to the richest and more powerful countries of the world.
Haiti is a net product of the colonial, capitalist and imperialist system imposed on the world. Haiti’s slavery and subsequent poverty were imposed from abroad. That terrible earthquake occurred after the Copenhagen Summit, where the most elemental rights of 192 UN member States were trampled upon.
In the aftermath of the tragedy, a competition has unleashed in Haiti to hastily and illegally adopt boys and girls. UNICEF has been forced to adopt preventive measures against the uprooting of many children, which will deprive their close relatives from their rights.
There are more than one hundred thousand deadly victims. A high number of citizens have lost their arms or legs, or have suffered fractures requiring rehabilitation that would enable them to work or manage their own.
Eighty per cent of the country needs to be rebuilt. Haiti requires an economy that is developed enough to meet its needs according to its productive capacity. The reconstruction of Europe or Japan, which was based on the productive capacity and the technical level of the population, was a relatively simple task as compared to the effort that needs to be made in Haiti. There, as well as in most of Africa and elsewhere in the Third World, it is indispensable to create the conditions for a sustainable development. In only forty years time, humanity will be made of more than nine billion inhabitants, and right now is faced with the challenge of a climate change that scientists accept as an inescapable reality.
In the midst of the Haitian tragedy, without anybody knowing how and why, thousands of US marines, 82nd Airborne Division troops and other military forces have occupied Haiti. Worse still is the fact that neither the United Nations Organization nor the US government have offered an explanation to the world’s public opinion about this relocation of troops.
Several governments have complained that their aircraft have not been allowed to land in order to deliver the human and technical resources that have been sent to Haiti.
Some countries, for their part, have announced they would be sending an additional number of troops and military equipment. In my view, such events will complicate and create chaos in international cooperation, which is already in itself complex. It is necessary to seriously discuss this issue. The UN should be entrusted with the leading role it deserves in these so delicate matters.
Our country is accomplishing a strictly humanitarian mission. To the extent of its possibilities, it will contribute the human and material resources at its disposal. The will of our people, who takes pride in its medical doctors and cooperation workers who provide vital services, is huge, and will rise to the occasion.
Any significant cooperation that is offered to our country will not be rejected, but its acceptance will fully depend on the importance and transcendence of the assistance that is requested from the human resources of our homeland.
It is only fair to state that, up until this moment, our modest aircrafts and the important human resources that Cuba has made available to the Haitian people have arrived at their destination without any difficulty whatsoever.

Fidel Castro Ruz, January 23, 2010

(editor, pablo de belgica )