The legislative body of the South American nation received on Tuesday the head of the Cuban Parliament, Ricardo Alarcon, and relatives of Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Ramon Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez – internationally known as the Cuban Five.

During a speech before the Venezuelan National Assembly, Alarcon asked the US Government to free the Five and to arrest true terrorists such as Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch, instead of promoting warmongering and building military bases in Latin America.

“President Obama, who spoke of a new beginning of relations with Cuba, should start with this decision. Otherwise, he would only confirm the same policy of terrorism,” Alarcon said.

The top legislator recalled that Posada Carriles and Bosch, both of Cuban origin,
participated, among many other criminal actions, in the mid-air blowing up of a Cuban airliner in 1976 that killed all 73 people on board.

For her part, Cilia Flores, President of the Venezuelan Parliament, stressed that silence will not win the battle in the case of the Cuban Five and reiterated their willingness to continue fighting for their release.

The Cuban Five were arrested in Miami in 1998 and condemned to harsh sentences for monitoring anti-Cuba extremist groups based in South Florida that were planning and carrying out terrorist attacks against the Caribbean nation.