MORE than 100 prominent individuals from 27 countries, among them Nobel Peace laureates Adolfo Pérez Esquivel of Argentina and Rigoberta Mechú of Guatemala, as well as actor Danny Glover and writer Alice Walker from the United States, are members of the International Commission for Family Visitation Rights, supporting Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez, wives of René González and Gerardo Hernández respectively, two of the Five Cuban anti-terrorists imprisoned in the United States for nine years. The U.S. government has denied the women visas to visit their husbands eight times; they have not been able to visit them since their arrests.

The initiative taken by the International Committee to Free the Five was announced yesterday to the Cuban and international press through a press release, in which the group indicates that its position is based on humanitarian rights and family rights defined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Convention Against Torture.

Graciela Ramírez, coordinator of the committee, reiterated the call for action by human rights organizations, women’s organizations, social movements, religious groups, trade unions, political and government officials, to be directed in particular to the U.S. Secretary of State, Attorney General and Congress, as well as the United Nations Human Rights Council, among others.

Olga Salanueva indicated that the battle was part of a broader struggle to free the Five and that “The pain we feel grows stronger every instant they remain in prison.”

Roberto González, René’s brother, insisted that political efforts “that go beyond the courts” need to be intensified.

Also present were Rosa Aurora Freijanes and Magali Llort, wife and mother of Fernando González; Mirta Rodríguez and María Eugenia Guerrero, mother and sister of Antonio Guerrero and Elizabeth Palmeiro, wife of Ramon Labañino.

Translated by Granma International

Granma 12-12-2007