POLITICS

Barack Obama must release the Cuban Five!

Justice Piitso also calls on US President to end the fifty year old blockade on Cuba

President Barack Obama has the moral responsibility to end the fifty year economic blockade against the Cuban revolution and the release of its heroes.

This week the international committee for the freedom of the five Cuban heroes is organising the 3th annual ' Five Days' for the release of the remaining heroes in Washington. Three of our five Cuban heroes unjustly incarcerated by the American authorities fifteen years ago are still languishing in jail.

The five days event will culminate tomorrow when thousands of volunteers from across the whole world will be descending to the white house to demand that President Barrack Obama release the five Cuban heroes. President Obama has all the powers and moral obligation to end the fifty years old economic blockade against the Republic of Cuba and to release the remaining Cuban heroes.

The main event at the white house will be graced by the leader of Puerto Rican independence movement Cde Rafael Cancel Miranda, the international peace activist Cde Cindy Sheehan and many personalities and representatives of different solidarity movements for the release of the Cuban five across the world.

The international committee for the freedom of the Cuban five is comprised of concerned people from almost all countries of the world. Its focus is to spearhead the campaign for the end of the US led economic blockade against the Republic of Cuba and the release of the remaining three of the five heroes still languishing in the American jails.

The five Cuban heroes arrived in the USA in the year 1990, armed with courage and determination to prevent further terrorists attacks against their homeland by anti- Cuba groups operating from Miami. The US led imperialism has been the source of material support to this counter revolutionary groups against the Cuban socialist revolution.

For over fifty years, since the triumph of the Cuban revolution in 1959, these counter revolutionary groups acted with impunity, attacking the Republic of Cuba, its humane citizens and anyone of the people advocating for the normalization of relations between the US and the small Caribbean Island. 

There is an overwhelming evidence that the mission of the five Cuban heroes to Miami in the year 1990 was mainly to alert the American authorities about the pending attack organized by the terrorist groups. The mission was to avert criminal acts and to safe the lives of the Cuban people and many others from the world.

Since the triumph of the Cuban socialist revolution in 1959, more than three thousands and five hundred people have been killed by these terrorists groups. The groups have since been operating from the American soil with the full knowledge of the FBI and CIA.

But instead of arresting the gangs of terrorists operating from their own soil, the American authorities chosen to arrest the five, falsely accusing them of committing espionage against the USA. 

On the 9th of August 2005, after seven years of an unjust imprisonment, the circuit court of appeals overturned the convictions of the five and ordered a new trial. In the judgement of the appeal, the court called the persecution a 'perfect storm ' of pervasive community prejudice, government misconduct and extensive negative publicity against the five before and after the trial.

However in a full scale abuse of state power,  the Bush administration, later, without sufficient evidence, and therefore denying the five heroes a free and fair trial, overturned the appeal and reinstated their convictions.

On the 14th of may this year, an international commission of inquiry convened a plenary session at the headquarters of the law society in London, to look into the question of the Cuban five. The main witness was supposed to be Cde Rene Gonzalez, one of the first of the Cuban five heroes to be released from jail.

Consistent with the hostile agenda by the US led imperialism against the Cuban revolution, the British authorities denied him with the visa to attend the hearing in london. The reason was that there were no compelling reasons for him to attend the hearings of the commission in person and therefore instead was forced to give testimony via a skype. 

The question about the most longest economic blockade against the Cuban nation and the plight of its five heroes is unprecedented in history. It is an indictment wether President Barrack Obama is standing true to his moral obligation of constructing a just and a humane peaceful world.

The campaign for the release of the five Cuban heroes is at the heart of the struggle of the millions of the people of the world. It is essentially about the struggle of our people to build a new world social order, free of oppression and exploitation. 

We remain to be inspired by the heroism of the Cuban five, the humane and peace loving people of Cuba, and the revolutionary leadership of the vanguard party under our Commander in Chief Fidel Castro and President Raul.  

The leader of the Russian revolution Vladimir Lenin once said' no force on earth is capable of taking from us the principal gains of our revolution, for they are no more ours but have become the gains of world history' 

The question of the campaign to end the US led economic blockade against the Republic of Cuba and the release of the five Cuban heroes, has become the principal gain our revolution, it is no more the principal gain of the the Cuban people but the whole world. 

We will continue to join the entire world in our forward struggle to fight against the unjust laws perpetuated by the US imperialism against the Cuban people and we hope that eventually, humanity will triumph over adversity.

Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassador to the republic of Cuba and the former provincial secretary of the SACP writing this article on his personal capacity.

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