Feb. 14, 2008
Reprinted from Cuban News Agency

Havana, Feb 14 (acn) More than 100 personalities from 27 countries sent a letter to U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey and Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff urging temporary visas to two Cuban women denied the rights to visit their husbands wrongly imprisoned in that country.

The announcement was made by the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five. It says that on top of the harsh sentences being served by Five Cuban men imprisoned in the United States, another punishment has been added to them and that is the denial of visits from their wives.

Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez have not been allowed to visit Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez for 8 and 9 years. On last September 12th, on the 9th anniversary of the arrests of their husbands, the U.S. government once again denied visas for the purpose of visits to Olga and Adriana. On 8 separate occasions they have applied for an entry permit and each time they have been denied for a different reason without real justification.

To deny these two prisoners their right to be visited by their wives has become with the passing of the time another form of cruel and inusual punishment. The more than 100 members of the International Commission of the Right of Family Visits are asking the Bush administration to immediately grant visas for Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva.

The International Commission for the Right to Family Visits, headed by Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, Rigoberta Menchú and Danielle Miterrand, have been joined by members of the religious community, actors, writers, members of parliaments from around the world, and known personalities from the United States.

The long list includes former Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton, former General Secretary of the National Council of Churches, Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, Angela Davis, Danny Glover , Alice Walker, Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, former Congressman Esteban Torres, former Chief of the US Interests Section in Cuba, Wayne Smith , Mayor of Richmond, CA, Gayle McLaughlin and Michael Parenti.

A copy of the letter has also been sent to members of the US Congress and Senate and to the United Nations Human Right Council.

15 de febrero de 2008
Reimprimado de Prensa Latina

La Habana, 15 feb (PL) Más de un centenar de personalidades mundiales reclamaron hoy a autoridades norteamericanas el otorgamiento de visas para viajar a Estados Unidos a las esposas de dos de los cinco antiterroristas cubanos presos en ese país.

A las injustas condenas que cumplen cinco hombres cubanos en Estados Unidos, la administración Bush ha sumado otro castigo: la prohibición, en el caso de dos de ellos, de recibir visitas de sus esposas, señala la carta divulgada en el sitio digital antiterroristas.cu.

El texto, firmado por artistas, políticos, escritores y los Premios Nobel de la Paz Rigoberta Menchú y Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, está dirigido a la secretaria de Estado, Condoleezza Rice, al fiscal general, Michael B. Mukasey y al secretario de Seguridad Interior, Michael Chertoff.

La misiva precisa que negarle a los dos prisioneros –Gerardo Hernández y René González- el derecho de ser visitados por sus esposas –Adriana Pérez y Olga Salanueva, respectivamente-, se ha convertido con el paso del tiempo en otro castigo cruel e inhumano.

Recuerda además que ambas mujeres no ven a sus cónyuges desde hace nueve y ocho años por la posición del gobierno norteamericano “sin razón alguna” para impedir el encuentro.

Gerardo, René, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero y Fernando González fueron detenidos en septiembre de 1998 cuando monitoreaban actividades de grupos anticubanos radicados fundamentalmente en Florida.

Sus sentencias, las máximas aplicadas en cada caso, oscilan desde 15 años de privación de libertad hasta doble cadena perpetua, más 15 años.