------------------------- Via Workers World News Service Reprinted from the April 3, 2003 issue of Workers World newspaper -------------------------
CUBAN 5 HELD IN ABYSMAL CONDITIONS
By Gloria La Riva
Olga Salanueva is the wife of Ren� Gonz�lez, one of five Cubans imprisoned by the U.S. for trying to stop terrorism against their country. She hasn't heard a word from her husband since he and his four comrades were locked down Feb. 28 in "Security Housing Units" of the U.S. prison system. SHU are brutal isolation cells that have become standard in almost every U.S. prison.
"This latest indignation has only served to strengthen us," she said in a telephone interview from Havana. "The families of our compa�eros will continue being fine, but we miss them deeply. And although we cannot communicate with each other, our hearts are together."
Salanueva has been prohibited from entering the U.S. and has not seen her husband for five years. His sentence is 17 years.
Ren� Gonz�lez, Fernando Gonz�lez, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hern�ndez and Ram�n Laba�ino--the Cuban Five, as they are known to their supporters--are political prisoners of the U.S. government. They had penetrated right-wing Cuban groups in Miami that have carried out terrorism against their country. Now they are serving sentences of from 17 years to double-life in prisons scattered around the U.S.
Since late February they have been in tiny cells where the lights are kept on around the clock and there is no way to tell day from night. No natural light can enter the windowless rooms. Reading and writing materials are prohibited.
For the first two weeks of isolation, even Cuban consular officials in Wash ing ton were denied the right to talk with or write to their compatriots. Now a visit requires 16 days' notice.
Attorney Leonard Weinglass, legal counsel for Guerrero, flew out west to see him and Hern�ndez, who is serving two trumped-up life sentences in Lompoc prison. Weinglass is preparing crucial appeals to be filed on behalf of all five on April 7.
Weinglass wrote in a memo that he was shocked at Hern�ndez's "deplorable conditions." He has been stripped of clothing except for underpants and t-shirt. His shoes were taken away and he is denied all reading material. A letter from his lawyer, Joaquin Mendez, was confiscated before he could read it. He is denied all contact with the outside world and fellow prisoners.
Weinglass said that Hern�ndez's situation is even worse than that of many thousands of prisoners held in isolation around the U.S. He is in what is called "the box," for violent offenders.
In five years of incarceration, none of the five has been accused of misconduct. But they are being collectively punished as victims of 43 years of U.S. hostility toward revolutionary Cuba.
Weinglass traveled in a blinding snowstorm to see Guerrero on March 20 in Florence federal prison near Colorado Springs. He had been warned by the Bureau of Prisons that their ability to communicate and exchange legal documents would be greatly restricted. But that didn't prepare him for the prison's treatment of Guerrero.
"It is the worst visiting conditions I have ever encountered," Weinglass said. "It was a very small cubby with a thick glass between us and a telephone which we had to use to communicate. The space was so small that my associate counsel and I could not fit in it together. He had to stand behind me and share the one phone on our end. Antonio was locked in on his side and we, the attorneys, were also locked in on our side."
Weinglass added, "Antonio was inform ed in writing that he is to remain in this condition until Feb. 24, 2004--when it could be extended for another year."
The confinement order against all five was authorized by Attorney General John Ashcroft. It says they pose a risk of "disclosing classified information" that "could pose a threat to the national security of the United States."
The five never even attempted to engage in gathering classified information about the U.S. Their activities were strictly related to stopping terrorism from anti-Cuba groups in Miami and defending Cuba from possible paramilitary or military actions.
The U.S. is concerned, however, about the growing international and national support they are receiving. There are over 120 committees around the world on their behalf.
A FIGHT FOR THEIR FREEDOM
An emergency worldwide campaign is underway to demand their release from SHU isolation and a new trial. Appeals will be filed on April 7 in Atlanta. The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, the Atlanta Cuba Solidarity Com mittee and the National Lawyers Guild, among others, are sponsoring a public community forum at Atlanta's Spelman College on April 6. Two important websites have all the pertinent information on their case and the campaign for their freedom: www.freethefive.org and www.antiterroristas.cu.
Fernando Gonz�lez, in the spirit that the five Cubans have exhibited during their incarceration, told his attorney Joaquin M�ndez by phone, "Please assure all our friends at the National Committee that regardless of the conditions of confinement I am in at this moment or could be placed in the future, and regardless of anything the government comes up with, I will always be certain of the triumph of justice and I will always be alongside the Cuban people, our revolution, and all our friends." n
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