Exige abogado estadounidense libertad de Los Cinco

LINO LUBEN PÉREZ-agencias

Dean Hubbard, coordinador laboral del National Lawyers Guild (NLG), de EE.UU., llamó en la ciudad de La Habana a incrementar la lucha por la libertad de los cinco antiterroristas cubanos presos en ese país desde hace más de 11 años.
Hubbard intervino en la apertura del XII Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Derecho de Trabajo y Seguridad Social, en el que instó a proseguir la batalla por liberar a Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino y René González, reporta la AIN.
Los abogados laboralistas de Estados Unidos y del mundo tenemos una deuda con Cuba: apoyarla en la excarcelación de Los Cinco, como se les conoce internacionalmente, añadió el experto en el acto inaugural del evento, en el Aula Magna de la Universidad de La Habana.
En estos momentos, subrayó, América Latina y El Caribe cuentan con nuevos modelos de esperanza como la Alianza Bolivariana para los Pueblos de Nuestra América (ALBA) para defender nuestras conquistas y enfrentar al imperialismo.
NLG es un gremio de abogados norteamericanos que apoya la liberación de los antiterroristas cubanos condenados a excesivas penas por monitorear a los autores de planes subversivos contra la Isla.
Profesionales de 15 países asisten a los debates del XII Congreso Centroamericano y del Caribe de Derecho de Trabajo y Seguridad Social, que sesiona en el Hotel Nacional de Cuba, insignia de la hotelería local.
Las deliberaciones hasta el próximo jueves incluyen el IV Congreso Internacional de abogados laboralistas y del movimiento sindical en defensa del derecho laboral y la seguridad social.

--------------------------

Cuba Rejects Hypocrisy of Western Rhetoric in Geneva

HAVANA, Cuba, March 17 (acn) Cuba said on Tuesday that the Western powers’ request to the UN Human Rights Council to pay attention to human rights issues only in countries of the South shows the hypocrisy of their rhetoric, their hegemonic pretensions and their ideological intolerance.
Prensa Latina news agency reports that the Cuban permanent representative before this UN body in Geneva, Rodolfo Reyes, speaking during the third week of the Human Rights Council’s 13th period of sessions, described these maneuvers as “well-known distraction tactics.”
“In their eagerness to hide and extend the impunity they enjoy after flagrant and massive human rights violations against their own peoples and all the human kind, they resort to these methods,” said the Cuban diplomat, who added that “their self-attribution of the role of ‘guardians’ of human rights does not exonerate them from their responsibility for the worst acts ever committed against human dignity and basic liberties.”
The Cuban diplomat recalled that the western nations that today insist on discussing in Geneva issues that, according to their viewpoint, need to be analyzed, “are the creators and beneficiaries of the current world economic order and they are also accomplices in and beneficiaries from slavery, colonialism and neo-colonialism, which condemned the South to underdevelopment.”
Reyes referred to the West’s responsibility for the “brutality and ignominy of the crimes committed in Abu Ghraib, Bagram, Guantanamo and other centers of death and torture.” He also mentioned the CIA secret flights and prisons and he directly accused Sweden, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic, Belgium and Spain regarding the impunity that their authorities enjoy in this respect.
The diplomat also accused the United States and the European Union of being responsible for the destruction of the environment, climate change, the maltreatment of immigrants, and the manipulation of the freedom of expression and assembly.

-------------------------------

Stories with Five reasons to be told

by Dayan Garcia la O, “From the Aconcagua to the Turquino Peak” member
When you lack the strength to climb up the Turquino Peak, use the convictions and principles, said Santiago Vega, an Argentinean who climbed in January, along with two other youngster, the Aconcagua peak to demand the release of five Cuban heroes imprisoned in U.S. since 1998.
Vega, a radio and TV host in the southern province of Neuquén, Argentina, in a statement sent via e-mail, encouraged the members of the “From the Aconcagua to the Turquino Peak”, who listened to his words excited before travelling to the top of Cuba.
The goal of the project was to speak out on the roof of the island, as those Patagonian youngsters, for Ramon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez, unjustly incarcerated in the U.S. for defending their people from terrorist actions of Florida-based anti-Cuban groups based.
Two days later, and with the satisfaction of having fulfil its goal, the group recalled the miles left behind with each step, the resulting hunger for having had to carry only enough food and the not so young that slowed down the ascent but never gave up.
The Argentinean brother proved himself right, when the steep path hit the physical strength the 40 members of the project, made up of relatives of the Cuban Five, as they are known internationally, journalists from the Cuban News Agency, students from the Institute of International Relations and officials from the Foreign Affairs Ministry.
Lourdes Gonzalez, Fernando's sister, kept her promise, “you have to be strong, you are my advanced in Turquino”, the hero had told her over the phone just hours before heading to the East of the country.
Santiago's message was embodied in this woman of 48 years of age: Lourdes came to the bust of Marti with tears in their eyes, “I did for my brother,” she only managed to say before drying her face, take her sweater with the image of the Five and ask a photographer, “Now take my picture.”
Similarly, the Argentinean's accurate words were reflected in Laura and Aili Labañino, daughters of Ramon, who on the 13th at eight o'clock in the night started to search, at over a thousand meters above sea level, some weak telephone coverage to receive a call from their father.
Ramon was able to communicate on Monday while the motorcade was traveling back to Havana, and he became interested in the health of his daughters and the rest of the group, “I heard him very excited,” said Aili and concluded “he always speaks to us like that, with great spirit”.
Labañino, who is serving a 30 years' imprisonment, invited the project members to repeat the deed along the Cuban Five when they return to their homeland.
With sore legs, and that feeling that you will never return to the historic sites of the Sierra Maestra mountain range, we all say a loud “Yes, we will be there with them sharing their strength, convictions and principles”. That’s how battles are won.