This eastern city with a population of over 300 thousand opened its doors
for the seventh consecutive year to dozens of friends of Cuba, challenging
U.S. pressures, to condemn the unjust prison terms given to the Cuban Five.

Delegates from over 50 countries around the world traveled to the eastern
region which is the site of the International Colloquium for the Release
of the Cuban Five full of friendship, solidarity and demands for justice
in the case of Ramon, Rene, Fernando, Antonio and Gerardo.

The gatherings agenda was open to common positions as said by Italian
Mauricio Cerboneschi who noted that Cuba is an example, above all when it
confronts the U.S. and the different aggressions of terrorist groups based
in Florida.

Each space of the meeting was dedicated to Ramon Labañino, Fernando
Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Gerardo Hernandez who have been in prison
since 1998 as well as Rene Gonzalez who served his sentence and was
released last October but was punished with another sanction: supervised
release for a period of three years in the United States.

Mary Alice Waters, leader of the Socialist Workers Party in New York also
gave convincing reasons why the U.S. has violated its own and
international laws.

Without any translation, she was clear and expressed that “it’s an
obligation for us to talk about the Five in our Party publication because
due to the silence in the mass media we must report the truth of our
Heroes anyway we can”.

The U.S. journalist and activist, small in height but huge in human
feelings, was accompanied by Cindy Sheehan, mother of a U.S. soldier that
was killed in Iraq who criticized Washington’s double standard regarding
terrorism.

She pointed out with profound conviction on the injustice committed on the
five Cuban anti terrorist fighters: “It is a shame that the Cuban Five
have been incarcerated when the true terrorists like Luis Posada Carriles
are free in U.S. territory”.

The colloquium was witness to the heartbreaking testimonies of Venezuelan
sisters Brenda and Marlene who still have the scars inflicted on them by
the protected CIA agent, when he tortured and humiliated them on June 3rd,
1972.

This encouraging expression of solidarity for the Five was held in Holguin
and multiplied throughout the world for the immediate return of the Cuban
men to their country and the condemnation of state terrorism.

This was the common denominator in the eastern city site of the Seventh
International Colloquium where delegates from all over the world spoke one
language and shouted: “Enough, we demand the return of the Cuban Five to
their Homeland”.