Bay Area Mayors Petition For Cuban Inmates' Wives
Sept. 10, 2007
Reprinted from CBS-5, KPIX-TV
BERKELEY — Mayors of 13 California cities, including five Bay Area mayors, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today requesting that two Cuban women be allowed into the U.S. to visit their incarcerated husbands.
Their husbands, Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez, are Cuban nationals who were convicted in Miami, Fla. in 2001 for allegedly engaging in espionage, conspiracy to commit murder and false identification, among other charges.
The two men were convicted along with three other Cuban nationals, known collectively as the "Cuban Five." The group has maintained that they were in the U.S. to monitor Miami-based extremist groups responsible for carrying out violent terrorist attacks against Cuba. They are currently appealing their sentences, according to Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin’s office.
"I'm deeply saddened by the fact that our federal government has not yet allowed these two women to visit their husbands in the U.S. ... It seems to me that our nation, who proclaims family values to the world, can do much better than this and allow these families to visit," McLaughlin said in a statement Monday.
Hernandez is serving two consecutive life sentences at the US Penitentiary - Victorville in Adelanto, Calif. According to McLaughlin’s office, Hernandez has not seen his wife, Adriana Perez O'Conner, in nine years.
Rene Gonzalez is serving a 15-year sentence at the Federal Correction Institution in Marianna, Fla. He has not seen his wife, Olga Salanueva Arango, for seven years, according to McLaughlin's office.
"The two women should be able to visit their husbands on humanitarian grounds. People in California and in the United States, as well as around the world, are aware of their situation. Their case is under appeal and there is no justifiable reason to deny these families the right to visitation," the letter stated.
McLaughlin, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, Albany Mayor Robert Lieber, Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue and Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly signed the petition along with eight other California mayors, according to McLaughlin’s office.
Alcaldes de California apoyan visas para esposas de Gerardo y René
Reimprimado de Granma Diario
RICHMOND, California, 10 de septiembre.— Alcaldes de 13 ciudades californianas enviaron a Alberto Gonzales, fiscal general de Estados Unidos, una carta en la que solicitan visas, basadas en razones humanitarias, para que Adriana Pérez y Olga Salanueva, puedan visitar a sus esposos, dos de los cinco antiterroristas cubanos encarcelados hace nueve años en este país.
La petición se fundamenta en las reiteradas negativas de las autoridades estadounidenses para que ambas mujeres vean a sus compañeros Gerardo Hernández, quien cumple injusta condena en la prisión federal de Victorville, en California, y René González, ubicado en la penitenciaría federal de Marianna, Florida.
En la misiva, la alcaldesa Gayle McLaughlin, de Richmond, y sus homólogos sostienen que no existe razón que justifique negar a estas familias el derecho de visitarse. Adriana y Olga no ven a Gerardo y René hace nueve y siete años, respectivamente.
"Estoy profundamente entristecida por el hecho de que nuestro gobierno federal no ha permitido aún que estas dos mujeres visiten a sus esposos en EE.UU. (¼ ) esperamos que este tema sea resuelto favorablemente y que estas dos mujeres reciban visas de entrada a los EE.UU. para visitar a sus esposos", dijo McLaughlin.
Los otros alcaldes son Robert Lieber, de Albano; Sam Pierce, Sebastopol; Emily Reilly, de Santa Cruz; Dennis Donohue, de Salinas; Mary Craton, de Canyon Lake; Maricela Morales, Port Hueneme; Elba Guerrero, Huntington Park; Felipe Aguirre, de Maywood; Tom Bates, Berkeley; Larry Bragman, Fairfax; Bill Bogaard, de Pasadera, y Woody Fridae, de Winters.
Copias del texto también fueron enviadas a Paul D. Clement, quien ocupará temporalmente el cargo tras la próxima salida de Gonzales, también a la secretaria de Estado, Condoleezza Rice, a las senadoras por California, Dianne Feinstein y Barbara Boxer, y a la presidenta de la Cámara Baja del Congreso, Nancy Pelosi. |
