A Wave of Solidarity with the Cuban Five

Pedro de la Hoz, daily Granma, 6 November 2007.

Over the last few weeks, thousands of intellectuals from different political, philosophical, and religious backgrounds from around the world have mobilized to speak up in defence of Cuba.

More than 3,400 people from 70 countries have expressed their solidarity with the Cuban Five, demanding their immediate release from US jails where they have been held for more than nine years for fighting against terrorism. Among the signatories are Nobel Prize laureates Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Adolfo Perez Esquivel, Nadine Gordimer, Wole Soyinka, Zhores Alfiorov and Jose Ramos Horta.

Solidarity is rapidly increasing around the world with Brazilian filmmaker Walter Salles signing on, along with a large group of Slovakian lawyers, economists, philologists, artists and entrepreneurs, including sculptor Ladislav Snopek.

From Managua, the Nicaraguan Chapter of the In Defence of Humanity Network circulated a declaration stating, "If Bush is interested in increasing freedom in Cuba, he should immediately order the lifting of the criminal US blockade imposed against the heroic people of Cuba for more than four decades; and he should order the immediate release of five Cubans unjustly incarcerated in the United States for having uncovered terrorist plans conceived in Miami with the full support of the George W. Bush government."

More and more, the voices of US personalities advocating for good sense and decency to prevail are joining this cause against arbitrariness, irrationality and hatred.

Peter Eisner, for example, is a self-described liberal journalist. He has worked as international news editor for The Washington Post and Newsday newspapers. His book The Freedom Line made history when it came out two years ago; rescuing the history of French and Belgium people who took in Allied parachuted pilots in Nazis occupied territories.

Speaking at the American University in Washington, a few weeks ago, Eisner said that the US justice system continues to be a biased instrument with which to punish Cuba’s pursuit of independence.