Ricardo Alarcon Calls for Increase of Int’l Solidarity in Favor of the Cuban Five

Speaking to participants in the International Conference of Studies on the Americas that began yesterday in Havana, Alarcon referred to the importance of intensifying efforts in the battle for the release of Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez and Ramon Labañino – internationally known as the Cuban Five – who were arrested and given harsh sentences in Miami for monitoring extreme right-wing anti-Cuba groups that were planning and carrying out terrorist actions against the Caribbean nation from South Florida.

The top legislator recalled that during Guerrero’s re-sentencing hearing last October, the judge of the Southern District of Florida recognized the importance of the international movement of solidarity with the Five.

During the hearing, Guerrero was re-sentenced to 21 years plus 10 months – more than what the Defense and the Prosecution teams had agreed to – and the Government’s only argument in favor of the defendant was the pressure exerted by international solidarity groups and personalities.

Other topics such as the injustices and violations in the legal process against the Five as well as President Barack Obama’s ability to order the release of the five Cuban antiterrorists were also analyzed by Alarcon during his address at the Center of Studies on the Americas in Havana.

He also recalled that the US Supreme Court received 12 Amicus Curiae (Friends of the Court) reports in favor of the Five signed by 10 Nobel Prize laureates, hundreds of legislators from all over the world and many associations such as the International Federation of Human Rights and the National Lawyers Guild of the United States.

Alarcon recalled that the re-sentencing hearings of Fernando and Ramon are scheduled for December 8 and he announced that, in the case of Gerardo and Rene, the Defense team will file a petition for a writ of habeas corpus – their last legal resource - before June 2010.