Message sent by Antonio Guerrero from the Marianna prison in the U.S. This Wednesday marks 14 years of the [so-called “Cuban] Five’s” wrongful imprisonment.
Dear Friends:
In Cuba, our beloved homeland, they have just enrolled over 2 million students in general education programs, polytechnic institutes, trade schools and universities.
In all of the named medical sciences, which include medicine, dentistry, psychology, nursing and medical technology, 32,171 professionals were graduated last year. Among them were 5,694 doctors from 59 countries of the world; a little more than the 5,315 new national doctors.
Each year, around 1,200 students graduate from 47 schools of the fine and performing arts.
These are just some facts about Cuban education, which is absolutely free.
The infant mortality rate in our country in the last five years has remained below 5 percent for every thousand live births. In 2011, it was 4.9 percent, the lowest in our entire continent. The U.S. [rate] was at 6.06 percent.
Life expectancy is at the level of those of the developed countries, and today it is 77 and 98 years. This is an indicator, according to an expert, “that reflects the living conditions, healthcare, education and other socioeconomic dimensions of a country or region.”
These are just two indicators of Cuban health care, which is absolutely free.
In 2011 a record number of 2.7 million tourists visited Cuba. Ninety-four percent of them, according to a survey taken, would recommend our island as a travel destination to their family and friends. Eighty-four percent said they would come again.
An official from the United Nations [Latin American] Institute for the Prevention of Crime [and the Treatment of Offenders] recently reported that Cuba is the safest country in the region; explaining that it does not exhibit the serious state of violence that characterizes the continent and that it has had great successes in the reduction of crime.* Furthermore, he commended its achievements in sports, culture and healthcare, as well as its eradication of total exclusion.
The UNICEF representative in Cuba declared that its level of adherence to the Convention on the Rights of the Child is excellent.
Our loyal and supportive country has diplomatic relations with 190 other countries. With many of them, it maintains a tight relationship of brotherhood and cooperation. It offers not what we have in surplus, because in reality there is no surplus. It can only offer what we have.
More than 5 million people in various countries have become literate thanks to the Cuban program, “Yes, I can.”
A report to the U.S. Congress this past July, though largely slanderous, recognized that Cuba is neither a major producer nor consumer of drugs. It said that the Cuban government has taken a set of important measures to prevent the development of a drug problem, while offering to cooperate and sign agreements with our northern neighbor to combat this scourge.
High-ranking military officials will remember testifying at our trial that Cuba is not a military threat to the U.S.
Coming up on 14 years of wrongful imprisonment, I examine these facts that no one can refute. I look at the world today, struggling amid a complex economic situation and wars of attrition that could lead to the destruction of our species. When thinking of our selfless people, so fraternal, so heroically noble, I wonder:
Why does the United States have a blockade against us?
Why does it protect and support terrorism against Cuba?
Why does it sustain a group of mercenaries who call themselves “dissidents?”
Why does it constantly distort our reality?
My first response, which I believe sums it up, is because it wants to kill the example.
Why were we arrested, subjected to punishment, tried in Miami, given the maximum sentences and spread out among five prisons?
To uphold this example of the vile scourge of terrorism, or maybe better said, to punish the example: our people.
“One just principle from the depths of a cave is more powerful than an army….”
“… For the righteous man, it is not a sacrifice to die while living in obscurity in the service of his homeland …”
“Humanity is the homeland …”
Thus proclaimed the apostle of our complete independence, Jose Marti.
Thank you for your constant support, for your indestructible solidarity.
Five embraces.
We shall overcome!
Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez
September 9, 2012
Federal Correctional Institution, Marianna
Taken from Cubadebate
*Editor’s note: It could not be verified that Elias Carranza, the director of the United Nations Latin American Institute for the Prevention of Crime and the Treatment of Offenders said this; the article’s author appears to have relied on a Cuban newspaper as its source.
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