Eurodiputados envian carta a Kerry

Nota de prensa de la embajada de Cuba ante la UE:

EUROPARLAMENTARIOS ENVÍAN HOY CARTA A SECRETARIO DE ESTADO NORTEAMERICANO JOHN KERRY SOLICITANDO LA LIBERACIÓN Y EL REGRESO A CUBA DE LOS CINCO HÉROES CUBANOS ENCARCELADOS EN ESTADOS UNIDOS.

Bélgica, 23 de abril 

Un grupo de veintiún eurodiputados del grupo parlamentario GUE/NGL, encabezados por la presidenta del grupo, la alemana, Gabriele Zimmer (Die Linke) y el coordinador para asuntos exteriores del grupo, el español, Willy Meyer (Izquierda Unida), aprovechando la visita a Bruselas del Secretario de Estado de los Estados Unidos John Kerry; le hicieron llegar hoy una carta en la que solicitan la liberación y el regreso a Cuba de los Cinco cubanos encarcelados en Estados Unidos.

En la carta, los eurodiputados denuncian las duras condiciones del encarcelamiento de estos cinco hombres y las violaciones de sus derechos como la negación de visas a algunos de sus familiares para visitarlos, así como las numerosas irregularidades jurídicas del caso.

La carta recuerda que en el 2005 el Grupo de Trabajo sobre Detenciones Arbitrarias de la ONU alertó de las arbitrariedades del caso e hizo un llamamiento a una revisión del proceso judicial.

Según expresara el eurodiputado Willy Meyer, Vicepresidente de la Comisión de Asuntos Exteriores del Parlamento Europeo, esta segunda legislatura del presidente _Obama es “la oportunidad de satisfacer las promesas incumplidas en su primer mandato, incluido el cierre inmediato de la inhumana cárcel de Guantánamo y la devolución del territorio a Cuba, y reorientar definitivamente la política hacia América Latina: acabando con el injusto e ilegal bloqueo hacia la isla y haciendo uso de su prerrogativa para indultar a los 5 cubanos injustamente presos por haber realizado labores de información destinada a impedir actos terroristas"._

La carta fue firmada por veintiún eurodiputados de diez países miembros de la Unión Europea: Alemania, España, Portugal, Grecia, República Checa, Francia, Chipre, Dinamarca, Suecia y Países Bajos.

                                        

                                                                                                                                  Brussels, 25th February 2013.

To Mr. John Kerry

Secretary of State of the USA

Dear Mister Kerry,

Let us congratulate you for your new appointment as Secretary of State. We know that you are in

favor of a better relationship between the United States and Cuba.

From our position as a Member of the European Parliament we would like to share our concern about

the case of the so-called Cuban Five. This is about Gerardo Hernández, Ramon Labañino, Antonio

Guerrero, Fernando González en Rene González. Four of these men are still in federal prisons in the

US. Rene González has finished his sentence but he has to remain in Miami for the three years of his

parole. The wives of René González and Gerardo Hernández have repeatedly been denied visas for

the US, which means they have not been able to practice their visitation rights on regular bases.

Right now there is a Habeas Corpus procedure running for every one of the Cuban Five based on new

evidence that the United States government at the time, through the Office of Cuban Broadcasting,

paid several journalists to put the Five in a negative light, during the time of the court proceedings. The

defense points to the fact that the evidence is important enough to set aside the conviction.

The Cuban Five were gathering information about plans for terrorist attacks on their country, set up by

organizations based in Miami, FL, and passing it on to their government. They were not armed and

they did not do any harm to anybody. They were arrested on September 12, 1998 in Miami, where

they were sentenced to long prison terms. During the court proceedings a number of irregularities took

place, some of which were connected to the charges.

In 2005 the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions characterized U.S. judicial processes in the

case as “arbitrary” and called for remediation. In 2006, Amnesty International urged the US

government to allow visiting rights for the prisoners’ wives. Ten Nobel Prize winners and thousands of

politicians, intellectuals, and concerned citizens worldwide have called for the prisoners’ release.

Hundreds of delegates from at least 20 national parliaments, from the European Parliament and other

regional parliaments have joined in. Amnesty International on October 4, 2010 appealed to the U.S.

government to implement a clemency process.

The case of the Cuban Five has been dragging on for over 14 years and urgently needs to be solved.

You have recently signed a letter directed to the Cuban President Raúl Castro to request the release

of US government subcontractor Alan Gross, on humanitarian grounds. Perhaps in the context of an

effort for better relations between the US and Cuba a prisoner exchange could be possible. This way

there can be an end to the suffering of the families of the five Cubans and of Alan Gross.

We ask you to give attention to the case of the Cuban Five and to strive for a speedy solution.

Yours sincerely,

List of signatories letter to Mr. John Kerry, Secretary of State of the USA

Willy MEYER, MEP GUE/NGL

Gabriele ZIMMER, MEP Chair of GUE/NGL

Inês ZÛBER, MEP GUE/NGL

Joao FERREIRA, MEP GUE/NGL

Nikolaos CHOUNTIS, MEP GUE/NGL

Sabine LÖSING, GUE/NGL MEP

Miloslav RANSDORF, GUE/NGL MEP

Jacky HENIN, GUE/NGL MEP

Sabine WILS, GUE/NGL MEP

Jiri MASTALKA, GUE/NGL MEP

Kyriacos TRIANTAPYLLIDES, GUE/NGL MEP

Soren SONDERGAARD, GUE/NGL MEP

Mikael GUSTAFSSON, GUE/NGL MEP

Helmut SCHOLZ, GUE/NGL MEP

Jean-Luc MELENCHON, GUE/NGL MEP

Cornelia ERNST, GUE/NGL MEP

Kartika LIOTARD, GUE/NGL MEP

Patrick LE HYARIC, GUE/NGL MEP

Marie-Christine VERGIAT, GUE/NGL MEP

Lothar BISKY, GUE/NGL MEP

Vladimír REMEK, GUE/NGL MEP