Speech of Andros Kyprianou, General Secretary of the C.C. of AKEL, at the meeting organized by the Cyprus-Cuba Friendship Association for solidarity with the Cuban 5 patriots

 

 2nd October, 2014, Nicosia

 On behalf of the Central Committee of AKEL permit me to convey a warm greeting to today’s event. Cyprus joins, once again, its voice with that of the international movement of solidarity with the Cuban Five patriots and fighters. Allow me to congratulate the Cyprus-Cuba Association for its decision to organise this meeting, but also for its broader activity to deepen the friendship between the peoples of Cyprus and Cuba.

 

The cause of the Cuban Five must stir every democratic consciousness in the world, regardless of the view each person may have about the socio-economic system in Cuba. We are talking here about a scandalous injustice being committed and about a flagrant violation of human rights that has been going on for the last 16 years. This is also one of the most characteristic expressions of arrogance on the part of the USA.

 

The Cuban Five, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón Labañino, Fernando González, and René González, were in Miami in the mid-1990s on the orders of the Cuban government. Their mission was to gather information about the network of terrorists based in Florida USA which was carrying out attacks and sabotage against Cuba. This network consisted of elements from the Mafia and Cuban opponents of the Revolution, while at the same time enjoying the cover and support of the intelligence services of the United States. The actions so far of these groups have led to 3,500 dead, thousands of disabled people and caused enormous damage to Cuba’s economy. In reality, the Miami mafia’s terrorist activities, were promoted and exploited by the USA in its all-out war for the extermination of Cuba which it has been waging since the first day of the Cuban Revolution’s victory.

 

The Cuban Five, therefore, with obvious dangers to their lives and safety, were gathering data and information about the activity of these groups. Under no circumstances, however, did they violate any law of the United States. Besides, the USA intelligence agencies, who were following the Cuban Five with hidden microphones and conducting secret burglaries in their homes, never could find any evidence of an illegal act. committed The former Director of the Pentagon’s Intelligence Service himself admitted that no espionage had been committed against the United States. The prosecutor admitted that the accused had never come into contact with any confidential information.

 

When the Cuban Five were arrested in 1998 it became apparent that the American authorities were not seeking the truth, nor aiming at repulsing some illegal act which in any case did not exist. Their goal was to crush the Cuban Five who were exposing the criminals and those who were behind them. Furthermore, their goal was to send a message to Cuba and the world, that no one can challenge the superpower – even when it is committing crimes or when it provides cover to criminals. An unprecedented anti-Cuban hysteria and a rigged judicial process followed, which can only be compared to the trials conducted by the notorious Senator McCarthy in the 1950’s.

 

The Cuban Five were confined to isolation for 17 months; while the American press was celebrating that it had uncovered and destroyed a network of agents who allegedly wanted to pass on USA military secrets to the Cuban government of Fidel Castro. According to their prosecutors, the Cuban Five intended to “strike at the very heart of our country’s national security system, at the heart of our democratic institutions.” Of course none of these allegations could be substantiated, since there was no evidence, not even in the testimonies of the witnesses for the prosecution. Subsequently, the accusation of “conspiracy” was made, a vague accusation used by the American authorities when they cannot prove actions as being unlawful or criminal.

 

The judicial procedure that followed violated a number of procedural principles and rights of the accused, not only of International, but also American Law itself. This constitutes a unique case in the history of American justice. Restricting communication with lawyers, prohibiting visits by the family members, limiting access to documents relating to the trial, the composition of the jury itself and the conditions of the Cuban Five’s detention, led by one of their lawyers, the American Martin Garbus, to characteristically state that “it is not an exaggeration to say that this is the worst trial in American history.” On their part, Amnesty International itself described the treatment of the Cuban Five as “contrary to the standards of humane treatment of prisoners.”

 

Eventually, the Cuban Five were convicted with the harshest possible punishments. Some were sentenced to life imprisonment, others to prison for many years. They were subjected to the worst possible conditions of detention.

 

Since then, an enormous legal battle has begun with constant twists and turns. In 2005, the Federal Court of Appeal quashed the conviction of the Cuban Five because it acknowledged that the trial conducted in Miami was not fair. In 2008, the Court of Appeals in Atlanta annulled the sentences for the three as having no legal basis and as excessive even for the given situation in the USA. One of the judges, in fact, argued that the prosecution’s evidence is “at best guesses”, namely implying that there was indeed a conspiracy. However every time, some invisible hand would intervene, reversing developments so that the truth would not be revealed and the Five Cuban patriots would not be acquitted. Indeed, in 2009 the United States Supreme Court refused to review the case of the Five, without offering any reasons for its refusal.

 

One of the most interesting details, however, in this judicial ordeal, are the recent revelations that the American government was secretly paying on a regular basis well-known journalists in Miami to incriminate the Cuban Five, through their press reports and articles.

 

All through this terrible ordeal, the Cuban Five did not surrender or yield; they did not agree to be bought off and turn against their own country, but instead defended until the very end their just cause and rights, as well as the rights of their people as a whole. Consequently, this is the reason why the Cuban Five are true heroes of our era; heroes in the era of the so-called new world order, where the superpower crushes every voice of resistance, anyone challenging its plans. Let us also bear in mind that the American state does not hesitate to persecute in a similar devastating manner even American citizens. Edward Snowden is a stark example, who the United States are hunting and chasing all over the world because he revealed the global surveillance network set up by the American intelligence services.

 

Today, two of the Cuban Five, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, have been released after serving their sentences. However, they are still subject to the consequences of their wrongful imprisonment, such as Rene Gonzalez who last month was refused entry to the UK, despite the fact that he had been invited to Britain by twenty Members of Parliament of the country. The other three, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero and Ramón Labañino still remain in the dungeons of American injustice.

 

Until the very last of the Cuban Five is released we will continue, together with many other people and organizations around the world, to raise our voice of protest and denunciation. We shall all continue to undertake initiatives of solidarity and to provide support. It is extremely encouraging that such courageous voices are now also being heard inside the United States as well, by people from the arts and culture, from the legal world and organizations defending human rights.

 

We are all aware that the cause of the Cuban 5 is but one example of the USA’s aggressive campaign against the Island of the Revolution and their plans to overthrow the system in Cuba. It is a war being waged which includes the continuation – in violation of tens of decisions of the United Nations General Assembly – of the inhuman economic, commercial and financial blockade of Cuba by the United States for 60 years now. This war also includes thousands of acts of sabotage against Cuba, countless assassination attempts on the life of Fidel Castro, the waging of biological warfare attacks, on-going fierce campaigns for Cuba’s diplomatic isolation and the transmission of daily anti-Cuban propaganda by the American mass media.

 

Recently revelations were made about new plans of United States’ intelligence services to intervene in Cuba’s internal affairs in order to overthrow the socialist revolution. The “Associated Press” revealed just a few months ago that the American secret services were behind the operation, inside Cuba, of a social networking medium, “Twitter. The goal was, after gaining influence and popularity among the youth of Cuba, to gradually start transmitting political messages against the government, in order to provoke “anti-regime protests and promote the destabilization of the country’s government”. The program, however, was interrupted in late 2012 when it was exposed by the Cuban authorities. Continuing the revelations, the “Associated Press” made public another program of the Office of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which using the volunteer programs as an instrument for treating Aids, would then set up a network for recruiting anti-government Cubans inside Cuba.

 

All these actions prove that 55 years after the victory of the Cuban Revolution, the United States and its allies have not yet accepted the fact that Cuba is not going to yield and surrender; that it will not agree to make the people and its natural wealth prey to the American business giants; that it will resist defiantly and proudly, asserting the right to choose its own way of development and leadership.

 

Cuba, apart from the crushing external pressure exerted on it by the USA, but also from the European Union as well, at the same time has to address the objective difficulties and challenges involved in the enormous task of building socialism. Of course, in addressing these challenges, Cuba does not reply by going backwards or abandoning the Revolution. On the contrary, Cuba is taking decisions that boost the country’s social and economic development, hence defending socialism and its gains. In truth, which of the capitalist countries around the world, who are indeed preaching and give lessons to Cuba on human rights, can be compared with Cuba as regards to all that Cuba is offering to its people in education, social and labour rights, health, science, culture, sport, the position of women and the participation of society in governance?

 

At the same time, Cuba remained a pioneer in international solidarity. Tens of thousands of people in Latin America and all over the world have been treated by Cuban volunteer doctors. Only last month, Cuba became the first country to send a large number of medical staff on a mission to Sierra Leone for the treatment of Ebola (also accepting the congratulations of the World Health Organization), whilst simultaneously offering suffering Palestine six tons of medical supplies and scholarships to young Palestinians for the new medical faculty in Cuba. This is Cuba! That is socialism!

 

It is therefore both an honour and a duty, not only for the Left of Cyprus, but also for the whole of Cyprus, to maintain and deepen our relations of friendship and solidarity with Cuba and its people. Besides, from 1990 onwards, it is difficult to find another state, in addition to Greece, which supports the Republic of Cyprus and of our struggle so consistently in international bodies

 

AKEL is proud to be in the forefront of the solidarity movement and campaign with Cuba and its struggle to lift the American blockade. We are proud that we are struggling from the arena of the European parliament as well to repel the unjust attacks of the European right-wing against Cuba. We are fighting to abolish the so-called “EU Common Position on Cuba” which in reality seeks to overthrow the Cuban government. We also doubly proud because the government of Demetris Christofias proceeded to take concrete steps to promote closer relations between Cyprus and Cuba and was not led astray by the anti-communist obsessions of the DISY Rally party that on the advice of others reacted so strongly to these steps. AKEL assures from this podium as well that it will be vigilant so as to ensure that the relations between Cyprus and Cuba will not suffer any downgrading as a result of the current government’s firm pro-Western orientation.

 

We believe that the struggle of Cuba, the cause of the Cuban Five and the defence of Cuba from American aggression is not only a matter of the Left. It is a cause of every person in Cyprus and around the world, who believes that all people have an inalienable right to decide their own future; to choose the path of development and the leadership of their country; to be the sovereign ruler and master of their homeland. Cuba is not only a raised banner of revolution and socialism; it is at the same time the universal symbol of dignity, patriotism and uncompromising stance towards the Goliaths of modern imperialism.

 

Let me conclude by congratulating the organizers of today’s event, but also each and every one of you here tonight. You have all contributed to sending out a strong message from Cyprus for the release of the remaining three Cuban fighters; a message of solidarity with the struggle of Cuba and its defiant people.

 

Long live socialist Cuba!

 

Long live the friendship between the people of Cyprus and Cuba!