“This is a clear example as to why the Cuban Five, who infiltrated
right-wing exile groups in Miami in the mid-nineties to stop their plans
for violence against the island, and who ended up serving lengthy
sentences in U.S. prisons, couldn’t have possibly received a fair trial in
Miami,” a statement from the International Committee for the Freedom of
the Cuban Five reads.

“Those groups in Miami, who have made careers out of howling about the
lack of freedom of speech in Cuba, have now fully exposed themselves in
the case of Ozzie Guillen. They have shown that it is they who will not
tolerate a person’s opinion if it does not line up with their backward way
of thinking about Cuba. If he could be so vilified and forced to repent it
shows there is no way the Cuban Five could receive a fair trial in that
city,” the note adds.

On this same issue, Lawrence Wilkerson, a U.S. Army Colonel (Retired) and
former chief of staff to Secretary of State Colin Powell, wrote, “The only
reason there is such a hue and cry over Guillen’s remarks is the deadly
stranglehold over Miami politics maintained by hard-line Cuban-Americans.
This same deadly stranglehold ensured the Cuban Five were railroaded to
jail with sentences their ‘crimes’ did not in any way warrant.”

The International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five announced
that activists from around the U.S. and international representatives
working for the freedom of the Cuban Five are gathering for five days of
activities in Washington DC next week —April 17-21— to demand that
President Obama free the Cuban antiterrorists who have been imprisoned for
more than 13 years.

Ozzie Guillen was suspended five games by the Marlins on Tuesday for
saying he admired Cuban leader Fidel Castro during an interview with Time
Magazine.
 

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