The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five in the United States calling on the Obama administration to immediately free the five Cuban antiterrorist

The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five in the United States announced that it will soon begin a campaign to raise funds for a full-page ad in the Washington Post, calling on the Obama administration to immediately free the five Cuban antiterrorists unjustly imprisoned in the US since 1998.

“A tortuous court process has denied them justice. Three presidents have not only aggressively prosecuted their imprisonment, they have also ignored the appeals of two of the wives to even be able to enter the United States to visit their husbands,” said the coordinator of this group, Gloria La Riva, during a press conference on Friday.

Fernando Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Rene Gonzalez —internationally known as the Cuban Five— were arrested on September 12, 1998, and given harsh and unjust sentences for monitoring anti-Cuba extreme right-wing groups in South Florida that were planning and carrying out terrorist actions against the island.

The press conference, held to mark the twelfth anniversary of their imprisonment, featured a range of speakers that included Col. Lawrence Wilkerson, the former Chief of Staff to US Secretary of State Colin Powell; Wayne Smith, the head of the US Interests Section in Havana under President Jimmy Carter; Andres Gomez, director of the Antonio Maceo Brigade and representing the Alianza Martiana; Brian Becker, the national director of the A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition; Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, the co-founder of the Partnership for Civil Justice (PCJ); and Gloria La Riva,coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five.

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