letter of november to Obama.

Mister President Obama
.
The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.

Washington DC 20500

Mr President,

The month of October was marked by the release of one of the Cuban Five, René González. The scenes of René coming out of the prison, hugging his daughters, his brother and his father were deeply moving. René’s joy was profound, but it was not complete. Neither his wife nor his mother was there to welcome him, through lack of visas. His mother had been able to see him at the end of October, but his wife still doesn’t have a visa allowing her to come to the United States. René’s freedom will have no value unless he’s allowed to go back to Cuba with the other patriots, his comrades Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino, and Gerardo Hernández, who are still incarcerated. This is what he said in his first message to the Cuban people:

« (…) For me this moment of happiness we share is, simply, a parenthesis in a history of abuse where an apex of justice has not been made yet. (…)But we still have four brothers we have to rescue and we need with us, with their families, among you giving their best (…). »

Several days before his release, the delegate to congress Ileana Ros-Lehiten declared that René González was a “villain with American blood on his hands”. This is a true incitation to violence on the part of this woman who dared to say, in March of 2006 – I am all for the scenario of seeing someone assassinating Fidel Castro. Ros-Lehtinen is the vice-president of the Committee of International Relations for the House of Representatives. To force René González to stay in the United States for three years is inhuman because not only is he far from his family and from Cuba, but also because his life is gravely threatened.

No, Mr President Obama, the Cuban Five do not have blood on their hands. These Cubans have given up their youth to keep the terrorists that are protected by your country’s successive governments from spilling more blood.

The day before René González was liberated, the Cuban people commemorated the thirty-fifth anniversary of the La Barbade terrorist attack. This attack, planned out by the terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, against Cubana Airlines flight 455, caused 73 deaths. During the campaign to free Orlando Bosch, who George Bush pardoned in 1990, Ileana Ros Lehtinen played a dominating role. She also organized fundraisers to finance Luis Posada Carriles‘s plans for actions against the Cuban people.
While the charges have been dismissed against the terrorists, the Cuban Five are rotting away in prison!

One of the Cuban Five, Gerardo Hernández, is even condemned to more than two life sentences!

Like René, like Fernando, Antonio and Ramón, Gerardo is a worthy man, with a clear conscience.

Gerardo Hernández sent a message to his Belgian friends on the occasion of the yearly day of solidarity with Cuba. This message was read to them in Bredene last September 24th by his wife Adriana Perez in presence of Magali Llort, Fernando’s mother. These two women were touring Europe. Here is an extract:

“(…) We are already benefiting from the surprising “privilege” of being a unique case in the United States, where a group of men is accused of spying, without one single member of this group holding anything minutely resembling any kind of secret whatsoever.
And as if this were not enough, our case is now probably unique in all the world – instead of congratulating itself on the departure of a so-called spy having done his time and wanting to go back to his country, the country that has been “dishonored” is making him stay in its territory for three more years, separated from his family and his people (…).”

The admirable and moving example of these five courageous men, facing the worst kind of injustice for more than ten years now reinforces, Mr President, our determination to demand you one more time to show that you are capable of doing justice. Give these four Cubans, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, and Ramón Labañino, at last, the freedom that never should have been taken from them, and to René González who has done his time, the possibility, at this moment, to go back and live close to his loved ones in Cuba.

More than forty Palestinian prisoners have just been exchanged against one Israeli prisoner. Several months ago, the Cuban government freed a number of “political prisoners”. The international community is now waiting for you, Mr President, to make a gesture worthy of a Nobel Peace Prize holder that would better your relations with Cuba.
As you so well said at the fifth Summit of the Americas: “To move forward, we cannot let ourselves be prisoners of past disagreements.”

Please receive, Mr President, the expression of my most sincere humanistic sentiments.

Jacqueline Roussie

Copies sent to: Mrs. Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano; to Mr. Harry Reid, Eric Holder, John F. Kerry, Pete Rouse, Donald Werrilli, and Charles Rivkin, United States Ambassador in France.

Translated by William Peterson.