“Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo, after having health problems, requested in July the visit of a physician; in return, he was confined to a punishment cell, known as “the hole”, reads the document.

The almost 100 brigadistas, coming from 11 nations, demanded from the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp in the municipality of Caimito, on the outskirts of Havana, the cessation of this way of torture, as they described it.

While reading the declaration, Colombian Estela Giacometto accused the US Federal Bureau of Investigations of this abominable act and also demanded the immediate release of the five Cuban antiterrorists.

During the welcoming of the Brigade, Enrique Roman, first vice-president of the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, recalled how international support is indispensable in the struggle for the release from prison of these fighters.

He recalled that Gerardo, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez, incarcerated since September 12, 1998, were condemned to long and unfair sentences for monitoring the activities of Florida-based terrorist groups in order to warn the Cuban government about their actions against the island.