Rene Gonzalez, Thirteen Years in Prison Are Not Enough

A product of the sick hate for everything that means the Cuban Revolution, the U.S. government has toughened the conditions of probation for René González Sehwerert, one of the five Cuban secret agents who infiltrated terrorist organizations based in Miami with the purpose of thwarting their criminal activities, and in doing so saved hundreds or maybe thousands of Cuban as well as foreign lives. René was born in Chicago; he is the son of Cuban parents who, during the Batista era, immigrated to the United States and returned to their country once the tyranny of Washington fell. In the trial of “The Five,” which is the best proof of the moral and legal decay of the U.S. justice system, the anti-terrorist fighters were condemned with outrageous penalties.

René was the first to be released, after more than 13 years in prison, where he served his time until the last day. The accusation that hung over “The Five” was “conspiracy to commit espionage.” But that “espionage” was not done to U.S. installations or government organizations (armed forces, intelligence agencies, etc.) but terrorist organizations that, covered by the three branches of the “democracy” example of the north, are dedicated to plotting bloody attacks, destabilizing governments and assassinating leaders and social activists. They did this then and continue to do so today as well.

Precisely to combat against that scourge, René had to waste many years in prison, while his four companions, who have been in jail for 15 years, have to comply with the following convictions: Fernando González Llort, until Feb. 27, 2014; Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez, until Sept. 18, 2017; Ramon Labañino Salazar, until Oct.30, 2024 and Gerardo Hernández Nordelo has been convicted not with one but with two life terms! (More information available HERE)

Coming back to René’s case, once he served the unjust sentence, the judge who heard his case, Joan Lenard, obligated him, as a U.S. citizen, to remain in the country for three more years, even more ridiculously prohibiting him from “going near or visiting specific places where it is known that there are or that are frequented by terrorist groups or individuals.”* The underlying reason for the prohibition is that those groups should not be bothered by someone who will snoop or try to learn about their plans, which demonstrated the fallacy of the “fight against terrorism” that Washington loudly proclaims.

As if this were not enough, René’s wife, Olga Salanueva, has been systematically denied a visa to visit him. She and the other family members of “The Five” constitute, according to absurd declarations by the Department of State, a danger to U.S. national security. Without a doubt, this is good news because if this is going on, the prognostics that assure that the empire is about to collapse obtain an unexpected point in their favor: If a small group of family members of Cuban heroes — mothers in their 80s, in some cases, and wives reaching their 40s, not to mention some young children and family members — are capable of threatening U.S. national security, a new and bigger Occupy Wall Street would suffice for the most potent and lethal empire in the history of humanity to miserably collapse, belatedly fulfilling Mao’s prediction that the empire was a paper tiger. It did not seem to be the case, but the declarations of the Department of State accredit this conjecture.

What motivated these reflections is the fact that since September of last year, the Department of State prevented officials of the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. from visiting the prisoner, in this way violating its obligations under the Vienna Convention (1963) under Consular Relations, which establishes the right of a detainee to communicate with his embassy officials and for them to do the same and visit him to guarantee his security and well-being. For the imperial executioners, serving 13 long years in prison was not enough. They added three more and, on top of that, constrain his ability to exercise the right to communicate not only with his loved ones but also with Cuban representatives in the United States, also putting his life in danger. In all of this there is not only injustice but also extreme cruelty, trying vainly with this new warning to put Cuba on its knees and — as Jose Marti included in his famous letter to his friend Manuel Mercado — make possible “that the United States could expand over the Antilles and fall with that additional force over our American lands.”

But, as Fidel remembered in the final words in the Second Declaration of Havana in 1962, “For this great mass of humanity has said, ‘Enough!’ and has begun to march. And their march of giants will not be halted until they conquer true independence — for which they have died in vain more than once.” Conscious of that march and that process, Washington punishes the anti-terrorist fighters and protects the terrorists with whom it pretends to preserve its dominion. And for all of this, what does the Nobel Peace Prize winner of the Oval Office say? Does Obama think that in global public opinion, and of course for certain sectors in the United States, his indifference is not repulsive? Does he suppose that his complicity with the monstrous injustice and inhumanity of “The Five”’s case will not have any costs? Does he not worry about the place that his name will take in history? He is wrong; even if it were only for the love for his daughters, he should worry.

*Editor’s note: The original quotation, although accurately translated, could not be verified.