|
Jailed for fighting terror
The hypocrisy of the US war on terrorism is revealed by its
treatment of my husband
By
Olga Salanueva
12/07/05 "The
Guardian" -- -- The United States always says that it
is fighting a war against terror. But when it comes to terrorism
that is grown in its own backyard, it somehow chooses to forget
about it. Worse than that, as in the case of the persecution of the
Miami Five, Washington appears to be condoning and protecting
terrorists who have been responsible for the deaths of scores of
innocent victims.
I am talking about the four-decade-long war of terror that the US
government and Cuban emigre groups based in Miami have waged against
Cuba - and about my husband René González, one of five Cubans
imprisoned in Miami seven years ago for doing nothing more than
trying to prevent terrorist attacks being planned against Cuba in
the very territory of the United States.
It was in September 1998 that five armed US federal agents burst
into our Miami apartment and took René away. It was a traumatic
event for our two daughters. This was not the kind of arrest you see
in films. There was nothing ethical about it. No one spoke to him of
his rights. They had no documents to support their actions and it
was not until a day later that I learned that René and the four
others had been charged with conspiracy to commit espionage.
My husband is now in his eighth year of imprisonment for a crime he
did not commit. He was found guilty in a trial so obviously biased
that his lawyers were incredulous that this could happen in the
modern-day United States. Without a shred of evidence being
presented by the prosecution they were given sentences ranging from
15 years, in the case of my husband, to life in the cases of Gerardo
Hernández, Ramon Labanino and Antonio Guerrero. Recently, the
Atlanta court of appeals revoked their convictions. The prosecution
has appealed against this decision and the process may yet take
months or even years to resolve. Meanwhile, my husband and his
comrades remain in jail.
The Miami Five were treated to bouts of solitary confinement far
beyond the limits that other prisoners have to bear and they have
been denied visiting rights. A committee of the United Nations has
found their treatment to be in contravention of international human
rights standards. It is time the United States was held to account
for the injustice that has been done.
Not only has my husband been unjustly imprisoned, his family has
also been treated appallingly. For neither my daughters nor myself
have seen him in five years because the US refuses me a visa to
visit him in prison. Our younger daughter, Ivette, is a US citizen
by birth, as is René. Yet they are denied a fundamental right that
is supposedly guaranteed US citizens by law.
Time and again the United States has arbitrarily denied me the
possibility of visiting René. There is no reason to justify this
denial. Like Adriana Pérez, the wife of fellow-prisoner Gerardo
Hernández, I am suffering as an additional punishment to the unjust
sentence imposed on my husband.
Ivette is now seven, and only knows René through the photos produced
by the worldwide campaign to free him; she goes through life asking
about him and wondering what life would have been like if she had
had her father at home. She asks me constantly when all this will
end, if her father will ever come home. Ivette is an innocent child
who is being vindictively punished.
We demand the cessation of these cruel, dishonest practices - and
denounce and refute all the false arguments and lies that the
authorities have tried to use to continue punishing these political
prisoners, who are in fact fighters against terrorism.
· Olga Salanueva, the wife of René González, one of Cuba's Miami
Five, is on a campaigning tour of Britain this week
www.antiterroristas.cu
www.freethefive.org
© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2005
Translate
this page
(In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational purposes.
Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the
originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.) |
