[NYTr] Venezuelan President Demands Release of Cuban Five

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


Venezuelan President Demands Release of Cuban Five

Havana, August 6 (acn) Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez on Sunday 
demanded the release of the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters who 
remain as political prisoners in the United States while, 
paradoxically, Washington protects international criminal Luis Posada 
Carriles.

In his "Alo, Presidente" radio and television program, the Venezuelan 
leader noted that these cases are two faces of one problem adding that 
the United States government uses the so-called war on terror as an 
excuse.

Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Rene Gonzalez y 
Gerardo Hernandez, internationally known as the Cuban Five, are serving 
harsh and cruel sentences for having infiltrated anti-Cuba terrorist 
groups in Miami and for trying to prevent them from perpetrating 
terrorist actions against the Cuban people, which have caused the death 
of 3,500 people since 1959.

According to Prensa Latina news agency, Chavez referred to the Cuban 
Five as "heroes imprisoned within the Empire" and urged the world to 
join the campaign for their release.

In addition, he recalled that Posada Carriles was head of operations of 
the former Venezuelan Secret Police (DISIP) and was in charge of 
planning the torture and assassination of social and political leaders.

Chavez's comments came after a brief intervention by the President of 
the Cuban Parliament Ricardo Alarcon, who stressed that the case of 
Posada Carriles shows that what the Cuban Five were doing in Miami was 
right.