Ivette finally embraced René

by Joel Mayor Lorán
Jan. 27, 2007
Reprinted from Daily Granma

After eight years of separation, Rene Gonzalez, one of the Cuban Five, and his daughter Ivette finally got together at the Marianna, Florida, US prison on the 30th of December of 2006, according to a statement from the family of the hero, who is a political prisoner of the United States.

This information was made public during Friday’s Cuban Round Table Broadcast.

The girl went accompained by her sister Irma, due to the criminal and insane decision of impeding the presence of her mother and wife of Rene. This is a humane right accorded to all prisoners all over the world.

It was the first time that their communication was not by telephone since father and daughters were abruptly separated, when the Ivette was just four months old.

For years, the family has wanted to have the opportunity of all meeting together, but they have not been able to do so. Psychologists had advised that during Ivette’s meeting with Rene, the mother should be present, but the time had arrived when it was necessary for the meeting of the father with his daughter again.

Because the US government was still impeding her mother from visiting him, Rene had asked Irma if she would take Ivette to the US. "As soon as my father appeared, she recognized him," the elder sister affirmed. "I saw the tears, and I felt very happy because I saw him happier."

Ivette told how she kissed him and they talked, but that she would have preferred that her mother be there too. This, said the elder sister who has seen her father on several occasions, raised in her even more the urgency to see him freed.

Every visit becomes more difficult. It’s another pressure to struggle for his return, Irma added.

Meanwhile his wife, Olga Salanueva, declared that she was even removed from her husband’s visitors list. They deny her the right to enter the United Status, when all she wants is to see her husband. "Ivette will soon to be 9 years old, and we don’t have a single family group photo. How long will we have to wait for a photo of the four of us embracing together?

A girl meets her Cuban spy father

The daughter of a convicted Cuban spy recently traveled to a Florida prison to meet her father for the first time.

by Frances Robles
Jan. 30, 2007
Reprinted from the Miami Herald

Clutching her mother's side, 8-year-old Ivette González describes her dad as "handsome" and says she gave him lots of kisses.

Her father is convicted Cuban spy René González, and she met him for the first time last month. Location: the Federal Correctional Institution in Marianna.

"I really wanted to see him," Ivette told Cuban state TV. "I really wanted to see him. We talked about all the things here [in Cuba], and about my mom."

Ivette's father is serving a 15-year sentence for failing to register as an agent of a foreign nation and fraudulently obtaining and using U.S. passports to pursue his undercover work. Convicted in 2001, he is one of the so-called "Cuban Five" arrested in 1998 as part of a spy team dubbed La Red Avispa -- the Wasp Network.

BROKEN HOME

Ivette was just a few months old when her father was arrested, and she hasn't seen him since. González's wife, Olga Salanueva, deported two years ago, has been denied a visa to return to the United States to visit her husband.

So the family tried a different approach: They sent Ivette. Born in the United States, she wouldn't have to apply for a visa to visit her dad.

She visited him Dec. 30 accompanied by her older sister Irma, who has visited her father before.

"We've been in a struggle for this encounter to take place for a long time," Salanueva told Cuban TV's Round Table news program Friday night. "There was a lot of anxiety, a lot of expectations. He was so happy and content to meet his daughter."

CUBAN HEROES

González and his four co-defendants -- Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando González -- are heroes back home. Cuba has steadfastly claimed the five men were only spying on Cuban exile groups to avert attacks on the island.

In Cuba, they are called "the antiterrorists."

Three of them were convicted of conspiring to gather information at the Miami-Dade-based U.S. Southern Command and the Boca Chica Naval Air Station near Key West and received life sentences. Although the Pentagon said from the start that the spy ring never compromised security at the two locations, the United States argued that was their objective.

A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta threw out the convictions in 2005, finding that Miami's anti-Castro political climate and intense media coverage made a fair trial impossible. A full panel of judges later reinstated the convictions.

APPEALS

The case could go before the U.S. Supreme Court. If that fails, the defendants have a second opportunity to appeal their convictions to the Atlanta court, claiming insufficient evidence. The appellate court had postponed that matter until the venue issue was resolved.

Although several of their relatives have visited, visas have been denied to Salanueva and to Hernández's wife, who was implicated in the case.

U.S. Interests Section spokeswoman Demitra Pappas said she was unaware of Ivette's visit. The families of the five must apply for visas like anyone else, she said, and are rejected if they do not qualify under U.S. law.

"The Cuban government makes a big deal out of the Cuban five; we don't," Pappas said. "We don't give them preferential treatment, or unpreferential treatment."

Ivette pudo abrazar a René

por Joel Mayor Lorán
27 de enero de 2007
Reimprimado de Granma Diario

Tras ocho años separados, René González y su hija Ivette pudieron al fin reunirse en la cárcel estadounidense de Marianna, Florida, el 30 de diciembre del 2006, según declaraciones de la familia del Héroe prisionero político del imperio brindadas en el espacio de la Mesa Redonda Informativa.

La niña acudió a verle acompañada de su hermana Irma ante la criminal y ensañada decisión de impedir la presencia de la madre y esposa, derecho que le asiste a cualquier preso en el mundo. Fue la primera vez que no medió una línea telefónica, desde que fueron abrupta e injustamente separados cuando la pequeña tenía apenas cuatro meses de nacida.

Durante años, la familia ha querido tener la oportunidad de reunirse completa, mas no lo ha logrado. Los psicólogos aconsejaban que en el encuentro de Ivette con René estuviera presente la madre, pero llegó el momento en que ya era necesario el reencuentro del papá con la hija.

Él le había pedido a Irma, que como el gobierno estadounidense impedía a su mamá visitarlo, fuera ella entonces quien llevara a Ivette. En cuanto mi papá salió, ella lo reconoció, dijo la hermana mayor. Le noté las lágrimas, y me sentí contenta porque lo vi más feliz.

Ivette contó que lo besó y hablaron, pero hubiera querido tener allí también a su mamá. Sin embargo, asegura la hermana, quien lo ha visto en varias ocasiones, que le provocó más urgencia de verlo libre.

Cada visita se hace más difícil. Es otra presión para luchar por su regreso, añadió.

Entretanto, Olga Salanueva declaró que a ella incluso la borraron de la lista de visitantes. Le niegan el derecho a entrar a Estados Unidos, cuando solo desea ver a su esposo. "Ivette va a cumplir 9 años, y no tenemos ni una foto familiar. ¿Hasta cuándo tendremos que esperar por una foto de un abrazo los cuatro juntos?"

Exige esposa de antiterrorista cubano visitarlo en la cárcel

26 de enero de 2007
Reimprimado de Prensa Latina

La Habana, 26 ene — Olga Salanueva, esposa de uno de los cinco antiterroristas cubanos presos en Estados Unidos, exigió hoy aquí a Estados Unidos el derecho de su esposo a recibir su visita en la cárcel.

"Yo no quiero ir a Estados Unidos, quiero ir a la cárcel de mi esposo", dijo Salanueva a la Televisión Cubana en alusión a las reiteradas negativas del gobierno norteamericano para que ella visite a su cónyuge, René González.

Señaló que, incluso, en la Oficina de Intereses de Washington en La Habana le retiraron el derecho a sostener una entrevista con los funcionarios en su objetivo de viajar para ver a René en la cárcel, de donde también fue eliminado su nombre del listado de visitantes.

René González permanece en un penal norteamericano de alta seguridad desde hace ocho años, tras ser condenado en un cuestionado proceso a 15 años de prisión, acusado de presuntas actividades de espionaje.

Junto a él fueron juzgados y condenados también a largas penas de prisión, incluyendo varias cadenas perpetuas, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero y Fernando González.

Los cinco trabajaban dentro de las filas de organizaciones contrarrevolucionarias radicadas en Estados Unidos para prevenir actividades terroristas contra su país.

En la entrevista, Salanueva informó que su hija menor de siete años, quien no ha visto a su padre desde muy pequeña, sólo ha podido pudo visitarlo una vez en 2006 junto a su hermana Irma González Salanueva.

La niña, de ocho años, describió a su padre "muy lindo y muy cariñoso", pero manifestó que en la visita todos extrañaron a su mamá, quien no ha podido ver a René desde su arresto.

Salanueva denunció que las maniobras del gobierno norteamericano para desestabilizar a René comenzaron con el arresto, y luego con el de ella.

Relató que la condujeron vestida de presidiaria frente a su esposo para que definieran si se retractaban y entraran en una negociación con las autoridades.

"Nos negamos, porque decidimos conservar nuestra dignidad", señaló Salanueva al describir ese momento.

Expuso que las autoridades norteameridanas se han ensañado con Gerardo Hernández, acusado a dos cadenas perpetuas más 15 años de cárcel, y con su esposa Adriana Pérez, quienes no han podido verse en ocho años.

Hace varios años Adriana había sido admitida para ingresar a Estados Unidos, y una vez allí, la hicieron retornar a la Isla sin explicaciones, luego de un interrogatorio de varias horas, y nunca más la aceptaron.

"Piensan que ensañándose en Gerardo, él puede flaquear y traicionar, y por eso no les han permitido verse a él y a su esposa, pero no lo lograrán", afirmó.