BY LYNDA HANSEN & JULIE WEBB-PULLMAN
BRISBANE — Latin American solidarity activists here have combined forces to launch a campaign to free five Cubans imprisoned in the United States on espionage charges.
The "Miami Five", as they have come to be known, infiltrated and monitored far-right groups in Miami who were plotting terrorist actions against Cuban civilians and shared this information with US authorities. They were convicted in June 2001 after a politically charged trial in which the US government claimed that they had engaged in espionage against US military bases and were a threat to national security.
Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo received two life sentences plus 80 months, Ramon Labanino Salazar was sentenced to life, Rene Gonzalez Sehweret got 15 years' imprisonment, Fernando Gonzalez Llort got 19 years' and Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez was sentenced to life plus two additional sentences of five years' and eight months'.
Ricardo Martinez, the co-ordinator of the Brisbane Free the Five Committee, told Green Left Weekly that the group believes the five are being imprisoned on false charges and that "We in Australia must lend our support to the international campaign underway to free these political prisoners".
The Brisbane committee includes members of Australian Solidarity with Latin America, the Australia Cuba Friendship Society and the Committee in Solidarity with Latin America and the Caribbean.
It will launch its campaign at a public meeting on May 31 at 7pm at the Brisbane Ethnic and Multicultural Resource Centre at 120 Main Street, Kangaroo Point. The launch will discuss the international campaign to free the five and the legal and human rights issues raised by their trial and imprisonment.
The Brisbane Free the Five Committee can be contacted by email at From Green Left Weekly, May 29, 2002.
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