Cuban Embassy hold press briefing on the Cuban Five

The Cuban Embassy in Ghana on Wednesday held a briefing to educate the media on the issues surrounding the arrest and incarceration of five Cuban nationals by the United States of America (USA).

The briefing was part of efforts by the Cuban Government to raise public awareness on the injustices relating to the issue and solicit for global support through a campaign to mount pressure on the US Government to revisit the case and free them.

Mr Jorge F. Lefebre Nicolas, Ambassador of Cuba, said the embassy would soon roll out activities for its annual campaign in Ghana to solicit for public support to call on the US Government to free the Cuban nationals currently serving varying jail terms in the USA.

The Cuban Five, also known as the Miami Five, include Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Remon Labanino, Fernando Gonzalez, and Rene Gonzalez.

They are intelligence officers who were convicted in Miami of conspiracy to commit espionage, conspiracy to commit murder, acting as an agent of a foreign government to undertake other illegal activities in the USA.

Mr Nicolas said the five had been denied access to their families over the past 15 years and though two of them were released in October 2011 and February 2014 respectively, the campaign calling on the US to release the other three would be intensified to achieve the desired results.

The Ambassador explained that the five were in the United States to observe and infiltrate the US Southern Command and the Cuban-American groups, known as the Alpha 66, the F4 Commandos, the Cuban American National Foundation, and the Brothers to the Rescue.

He said although Cuba had contended that the men were sent to South Florida in the wake of several terrorist bombings in Havana which were masterminded by those anti-communists terrorists based in Miami, the US Government did nothing about it.

He said those terrorists groups had operated with complete impunity from the US to attack Cuba killing at least 3,478 Cubans and injuring about 2,099 over the past 40 years.

However, the five were able to infiltrate the terrorist organisations in Miami to inform Cuba of imminent attacks and to thwart their plots, “but instead of arresting the terrorists, the FBI arrested the Cuban Five who have been incarcerated over the past 15 years, serving various terms including life imprisonment.”

He said the campaign had received appreciable global support by institutions including the United Nations Commission on Human Rights which had adopted a report by its Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, calling on the US to remedy the situation; the Amnesty International, eight Nobel Prize winners as well as 110 members of the British Parliament.

The Ambassador appealed to Ghanaians to join in the crusade against world terrorism and the call for justice by the US by releasing the other three political prisoners and lifting the present blockade on Cuba.

He said the embassy would soon communicate to the media on a number of programmes and activities such as public lectures and a walk to create awareness and also marked the 16th year since the five were incarcerated.