 British
Solidarity Activist Says the Cuban Five Remain Firm and United
HAVANA, Cuba,
Nov 28 (acn) British Father Geoffrey Bottoms, who has visited three
of the five Cuban antiterrorists unjustly imprisoned in the United
States —Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez—
said that, although they have different personalities and
characters, they act and think as only one.
|
|
Bottoms, a committee member
of the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in the United
Kingdom with special responsibility for the Free the Five
Campaign,
participated in the Seventh International Colloquium for the
Freedom of
the Cuban Five and against Terrorism in the eastern Cuban
province of
Holguin on November 16-19.
The activist was shocked by the negative impact of the U.S.
economic
blockade on the Caribbean nation since his first visit to Cuba
two decades
ago. It was then that he joined the Cuba Solidarity Campaign in
the United
Kingdom and, later, he started to correspond with Gerardo
Hernandez, Ramon
Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, and Rene
Gonzalez
—internationally known as the Cuban Five.
At that time, Bottoms commented, he asked them if they would
like him to
visit them in prison and they said ‘yes’. However, the U.S.
authorities
only allowed him to visit Ramon, Gerardo and Fernando.
“Visiting them is an amazing experience because you come away
feeling
strengthened and heartened by their commitment to their people
and their
revolution. They remain very strong and very firm. Mentally they
are very
alert. They are very well-informed about what’s going on back in
Cuba and
around the world. They also like to discuss other things, very
ordinary
everyday things,” Bottoms said in a recent interview.
He announced during an interview with the Cuban Trabajadores
weekly that
the British committee is organizing a demonstration in front of
the U.S.
embassy in London for December 1, with the participation of the
mothers of
the five Cuban antiterrorists.
The Cuban Five were arrested in 1998 and given harsh sentences
for
monitoring anti-Cuba right-wing groups in South Florida that
were planning
and carrying out terrorist actions against the Caribbean nation.
Hernandez, Guerrero, Labañino and Fernando Gonzalez remain
unjustly
imprisoned while Rene Gonzalez was recently released, but he was
forced to
stay in U.S. territory for three years on probation.
|
