On the evening of May 28, Commemoration Committee for the Black Panther Party (CCBPP) hosted and co-sponsored a Cuban Five Solidarity Celebration as one of ten sessions comprising a three-day Oakland-Santiago de Cuba Sister Cities Association Summit held May 27-29 in Oakland, California. The Summit marked the tenth anniversary of the Oakland chapter of the U.S.-Cuba Sister Cities Association (USCSCA). “The standing-room only celebration at the Commemoration Committee for the Black Panther Party was the highlight of the weekend summit,” stated Tina Flores, Secretary and Director of the Oakland Sister Cities Association and organizer of the three-day summit. CCBPP Chairperson Melvin Dickson opened the Friday night Cuban Five event by welcoming Alicia Jrapko, Director of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five, and members of the Bay Area Cuban Five support committee to CCBPP’s south Berkeley office. Jrapko presented two films on the case, one narrated by actor-activist Danny Glover and another by the noted author Alice Walker, and then led a question and answer period. Discussion followed the film showings, with refreshments featuring traditional Cuban beans and rice. During introductory remarks, Dickson recalled how he had met Alicia Jrapko last fall and subsequently invited her to speak about the plight of the Cuban Five at the 43rd Anniversary Celebration of the founding of the Black Panther Party held at Oakland’s Laney College in October 2009. “So few people in the United States have even heard of the Cuban Five’s cases because of the U.S. media blackout on the topic,” explained Dickson. “Yet their arrests, trials and convictions have been acknowledged as a travesty of justice and contrary to both U.S. and international rule of law by U.S. constitutional attorneys who are aware of it, the parliaments of France and several other nations, elected officials around the world and the United Nations Working Group on Arbitrary Detention. But because this case is about Cuba, and so many are swayed by the negative and false U.S. government propaganda against Cuba, the general public has none of the facts about this case. “That is why we saw it was our duty and honor to host this event. CCBPP is committed to the goals of the Black Panther Party (BPP) as outlined in its Ten-Point Program, including Point 8 that states:
WE WANT FREEDOM FOR ALL BLACK AND POOR OPPRESSED PEOPLE NOW HELD IN U.S. FEDERAL, STATE, COUNTY, CITY AND MILITARY PRISONS AND JAILS. WE WANT TRIALS BY A JURY OF PEERS FOR ALL PERSONS CHARGED WITH SO-CALLED CRIMES UNDER THE LAWS OF THIS COUNTRY.”
- Point No. Eight: Ten-Point Program
The Cuban Five are patriotic Cuban citizens who were sent by the government of Cuba in the late 1990’s to the United States for the purpose of infiltrating and carrying out surveillance of organizations of émigré Cubans residing in the U.S. that had committed acts of terror against Cuba in the past, including bombing a plane in which the entire Cuban fencing team was killed and bombing nightclubs in Havana as part of an ongoing effort to destabilize and overthrow the sovereign government of Cuba. “The mission of the five men was to monitor the activities of violent groups of Cuban exiles to report back to Cuba about these terrorist plots. They carried no guns; they never killed anybody; they were never a threat to U.S. national security. They went to Miami to infiltrate these [anti-Cuban terrorist] groups to be the eyes and ears of the Cuban people,” explained Jrapko. As stated in the narrative of one of the films: “They are sons, husbands, brothers, poets, pilots, college graduates and artists. Three of them were born in Cuba and two were born in the United States. Three of them fought in Angola …against the South African apartheid government.” The five Cubans prosecuted and imprisoned by U.S. courts are Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo, Ramón Labañino Salazar, René González Schwerert, Antonio Guerrero Rodríguez and Fernando Gonzáles Llort. They were arrested in September 1998, taken from their homes in the Miami area in the middle of the night by FBI agents. They have been held in isolation units in U.S. maximum-security prisons ever since. The unjust imprisonment of these five Cuban patriots by the U.S. government has inspired international demands for their release and for immediate approval of visas to allow their spouses and loved ones to visit them in prison. The U.S. government has denied two of the men the right to be visited by their wives. René González has not seen his wife, Olga, for almost 10 years. Gerardo Hernandez and his wife Adriana Perez have not seen each other for almost 12 years. Gerardo has been sentenced to two life sentences, and Adriana sentenced to never seeing her husband again. The wives, mothers and whole families of these men are active on the international campaign for their freedom, and letters of correspondence from the men to their families and friends are being shared through the Committee, some of which were featured being read by Danny Glover in the films shown at the May 28 event. Jrapko explained that the reason the Cuban Five left behind their loved ones and came to the United States was because of the lack of response from U.S. administrations to stop violent acts against Cuba. For almost 50 years, Cuba has been victim to all types of aggressions, military invasion, attempted assassination of Cuban leaders and violent actions that ended the lives of close to 3,500 Cubans. The presence of the Cuban Five was completely justified to prevent more deaths and suffering. “These courageous brothers infiltrated known violent rightwing groups and provided critical information to foil some of the plans for illegal attacks against their country during the Clinton administration,” Dickson said. “In 1998, under the political influence of Miami’s rightwing CIA-controlled anti-Castro groups that have carried out numerous attacks against Cuba since the socialist revolution of 1959, the U.S. government and bourgeoisie media have unjustly framed these brothers. Although preventing acts of terrorism, and even reporting their evidence of planned terrorist acts to the U.S. government, the U.S. federal government instead turned the attack against these brothers and Cuba.”
The Cuban Five: Why We Must Act
Just months before the arrests of the Cuban Five, the Cuban government had voluntarily supplied an in-depth report of all that they had learned so far of the plans of these anti-Castro terrorists, documenting for the U.S. government the imminent dangers posed by the actions and plans of those they were watching. Instead of taking action to insure these acts were not carried out, the U.S. government sent in FBI agents to arrest the Cubans who had successfully exposed the illegal actions of these U.S.-based terrorists. Upon arrest they were placed in isolation with no bail for 17 months until their trials and charged with various counts of spying and of conspiracy to commit murder. The U.S. court refused all motions for a change in location of the trial, despite the overwhelming and self-evident fact that a trial in Miami, with a jury from Miami, where the media is saturated with anti-Castro propaganda, could never be a fair trial. The jury voted them guilty and the judge gave them sentences of 15 years, 17 years and life.
Today they remain in isolation in various maximum-security prisons throughout the U.S. The defense team has brought numerous appeals, all the way to the Supreme Court. The high court refused to hear the case, despite the fact that the petition to the Supreme Court was filed along with a record number of “friends of the court” statements from legal, civic, academic and international organizations and individuals. After seeing the films and hearing the presentation from Alicia Jrapko, Coordinator of the International Committee to Free the Cuban Five, members of the audience had a great deal to say. “This information needs to get out to the local community. We have to reach out, door-to-door, and let the people know about this and get them to contact their church, their club, and the schools and college campuses,” stated one elderly black woman who has experienced the political repression and oppression firsthand. “You have a lot of big name people but we need to get the youth involved to reach out to the schools, the local businesses, letter writing to politicians and churches,” stated a brother who lives nearby the CCBPP office. “I want to thank the Cuban Five for their courageous stand on behalf of the Cuban People’s revolution and working class people everywhere, and thank you on behalf of all political prisoners inside the United States,” Dickson said to the crowd. “The Cuban revolution has always been an inspiration, and has played a leading role in shaping the world today, and the future. We have not forgotten the solidarity Cuba demonstrated with our comrade Dr. Huey P. Newton, how he and his family were treated – as family – by Cuba’s progressive and revolutionary people. We are honored to host you. This is an intercommunal solidarity gathering on behalf of Cuba, and the Cuban Five for the injustice they and their families face for their work on behalf of their country and the Cuban people.” Dickson also stated that political prisoners are a growing problem in the United States. Mumia Abu-Jamal, a fellow former Black Panther Party member and an award-winning journalist, was denied justice and remains on death row. Eddie Conway and “Chip” Romaine Fitzgerald are also still in prison, fighting for justice, to name a few. “The Black Panthers faced the same media slander and illegal ‘legal system’ for its stand on the Ten-Point Program from the beginning,” he said. “We are proud to host the Cuban 5 Celebration and show our solidarity with their continued stand for justice and peace.”
U.S. Stance Protects Terrorist Luis Posada Carriles
The presentations included material about Cuba’s and Venezuela’s efforts to have the U.S. extradite Luis Posada Carriles to stand trial as one of the known terrorists responsible for masterminding several bombings that killed hundreds of people in Cuba. According to The New York Times, Posada Carriles had a long history as a CIA operative in the 1960s. In 1976, Posada Carriles and an accomplice planted C-4 plastic explosives on a Cubana Airlines Flight headed to Havana, killing all 73 passengers on board. Mr. Posada Carriles is now living freely in the U.S. after a period of being held in an immigration facility in New Mexico. The U.S. government has refused to extradite him to Venezuela or Cuba, an action viewed by these nations as hypocritical on the part of the United States. The Cuban government has no recourse against exiled terrorists lodged in the U.S. in large part because Cuba has no diplomatic ties with the U.S. but also because the U.S. official stance to Cuba is in general hostile, most vividly defined by its 40-year embargo against Cuba. Laws such as the Torricelli Act of 1992 make it illegal for foreign subsidiaries of U.S. companies to trade with Cuba, and travel restrictions set up by the U.S. Treasury Department prohibit U.S. citizens from traveling to Cuba without licensed permission from the U.S. government.
Sister Cities Summit, Oakland
The Cuban Five solidarity event was part of a 3-day summit that opened Thursday May 27 with a reception at the Oakland City Hall. African American and Haitian drummers opened the program at the Rotunda building inside Oakland City Hall, with the Cuban flag flying on the first floor at the base of the stairway entrance next to the American flag. About 40 people gathered, mingled about the various activities that included displays of Santiago de Cuba literature and photos of Cuba. Speakers addressed the audience from an improvised podium. Tina Flores, the secretary of the association, commented briefly on the Oakland-Santiago de Cuba Sister Cities efforts and then introduced VIP’s in attendance, including Delvis Fernandez, President of the Cuban American Alliance Education Fund (CAAEF) and Vice President of the Sister Cities Association; Miguel Angel, Vice President of the Cuba Sister Cities Association and Member of New Mexico Sister Cities Association; and a representative from the City of Oakland.
The cultural and education programs over the next two days featured presentations and panel discussions on a range of topics including Cuba’s contributions to developing nations around the world, U.S. foreign policy towards Cuba, the U.S. embargo against Cuba, Cuba’s health care system and free medical college program, and Cuba’s ongoing aid to struggling Haiti. It ended on May 29 at the Humanist Hall where participants brought medical supplies for the Haitian relief effort. With this Summit, the Oakland-Santiago de Cuba Sister Cities Association celebrated ten years of maintaining a formal relationship of solidarity between the City of Oakland, California and the City of Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, through the U.S.-Cuba Sister Cities Association, a “citizen diplomacy” network building “people-to-people” programs and reciprocal bilateral exchanges between U.S. citizens and organizations with their counterparts in Cuba. Dickson had joined as a member of the Oakland-Santiago de Cuba Sister Cities Association in September 2009 because of his lifelong fight against the oppression of the poor and minorities and for international solidarity with working people of all nations. “I want to thank Tina Flores for her work in putting this Summit together. I hope this event can provide some inspiration and support to end the economic exploitation, repression and oppression against our people here and around the world. “Currently, we of CCBPP are promoting our membership drive. Our membership is a part of our strategic thrust of meeting the day-to-day needs of the masses here in the East Bay. Our membership runs the Li’l Bobby Hutton Literacy Campaign, a volunteer-run literacy program for both youths and adults, based on the motto of ‘Each One, Teach One.’ The program also promotes the Black Panther legacy.” Other Sister Cities representatives participated in the Summit, from Richmond (sister city with Regla, Cuba) and Berkeley (sister city with Palma Soriano, Cuba), as well as representatives from various Cuba Solidarity groups. “Our Sister Cities Association Project here in Oakland has been meeting every month for ten years to promote our bond with the people of Santiago de Cuba,” stated Tina Flores Secretary and Director of the Committee. “We have endorsed, encouraged and celebrated all activities of Cuban people that improve and enlarge their daily lives and ours: universal health care, universal education, and the universal adoption of horticulture. We are endeavoring to follow Cuba’s leadership in living sustainably – both economically and environmentally – and showing the world that health care is the right of all, through their provision of free health care and medical training throughout the world.” “This was a memorable event,” added Flores, speaking of the Summit. “We were especially pleased with the audience participation in the roundtable type of dialog we had about U.S. policy toward Cuba and the Cuban Five and how to go about getting out the word about what’s going on. “It was also important to get the word out about the Cuban solidarity with Haiti which still faces tremendous disaster. We are all very proud of Cuba, in their example of the international solidarity shown to Haiti — even before the earthquake — and especially from the ELAM (Latin America School of Medicine) which is the Cuban university where over 24,000 students throughout the world go and study medicine free of charge.”
Power to the People
