UWC to host ‘Cuban Five’

The Deputy International Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), Zanele Matebula, said everything is ready to receive the five Cubans imprisoned in the USA for fighting terrorism. Matebula told Prensa Latina that an interesting program has been prepared from June 21 to July 3, a period in which Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, internationally known as the Cuban Five, will stay in South Africa.

The Deputy International Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), Zanele Matebula, said everything is ready to receive the five Cubans imprisoned in the USA for fighting terrorism. Matebula told Prensa Latina that an interesting program has been prepared from June 21 to July 3, a period in which Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, internationally known as the Cuban Five, will stay in South Africa.

Published Jun 21, 2015

Share

Cape Town - Cuba’s five former prisoners who served more than 15 years in US jails are on a South African tour to meet local activists and politicians who campaigned for their freedom.

Known as the Cuban Five – Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González – have been in the country since last week. They will hold a public symposium at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) on Monday.

Speakers lined up for Monday’s event include Trade and Industry Minister Rob Davies and UWC chancellor Archbishop Thabo Makgoba.

Deputy Minister of International Relations and Co-operation Luwellyn Landers will also host the five at a meeting at Parliament on Tuesday.

Carlos de Cossio, Cuban ambassador to South Africa, said their release a few months ago was vindication of the perseverance of his countrymen against intense adversity.

“Solidarity has triumphed as a weapon in the hands of the poor,” said De Cossio.

He said they were bringing a “message of appreciation and the triumph of solidarity” for the extensive efforts by the government and local solidarity groups to have them released from custody.

De Cossio lauded the “role of the South African government, the tripartite alliance, the trade union movement... and the unprecedented support of solidarity groups throughout South Africa and African” as critical.

While acknowledging the role of US president Barack Obama for bold steps taken to release the five, De Cossio said much still needed to be done to restore relations between the US and Cuba.

“We still have the embargo which continues to damage the lives of all Cubans. We still have not been compensated for our losses of more than 50 years,” said De Cossio.

Mlungisi Noludwe, president of the UWC convocation, said it was appropriate for the Cubans to be hosted by the institution. He said various structures at UWC had lobbied for their release.

UWC’s former convocation president Brian Williams had played a key role in lobbying locals to support calls for their release. One of his poetry books, One Renaissance, Many Revolutions, was dedicated to the former prisoners.

Mlungisi said “poetry readings and cultural events helped to highlight the injustice faced by the Cuban Five”.

Hernandez read Williams’s book and at the time wrote to him that he “enjoyed your excellent book of poems”.

Keith Gottschalk, political scientist and vice president of the UWC convocation, said the university was a “bastion of struggle, which is why the case of the Cuban five resonated with the campus community”.

The Cuban Five were arrested in Miami in 1998 and charged with conspiracy to commit espionage and conspiracy to commit murder. They were sentenced to a total of four life sentences plus 77 years.

They were imprisoned in five separate maximum security prisons spread across the US without the possibility of communication with each other.

An international outcry ensued, drawing intense criticism from Nobel laureates, top legal experts, judges, governments, diplomats and even US legislators.

Weekend Argus

Related Topics: