A CALL TO PROTEST THE DENIAL OF ENTRANCE OF ADRIANA PEREZ, WIFE OF GERARDO HERNANDEZ, INTO THE U.S. PLEASE RESPOND
Below is a statement from Cuba, of an outrageous act committed by the U.S. government, when Adriana Perez, the wife of Gerardo Hernandez, was denied entrance to the United States on July 25 as she arrived at the Houston airport. This was despite the fact she had an entry visa to the U.S. She was forced to return to Cuba without being allowed to visit Gerardo in Lompoc prison.
We urge supporters to call George W. Bush at the White House (202-456- 1111, fax: 202-456-2461), and the State Department (Colin Powellfs office: 202-647-5291) and demand that 1.) Adriana Perez, wife of Gerardo Hernandez, and Olga Salanueva, wife of Rene Gonzalez, be allowed to visit their husbands; 2.) that the five Cuban political prisoners and their families stop being treated in a punitive way. Allow the family members of the Cuban 5 to visit their loved ones! Message from the National Committee to Free the Five.
The news from the Cuban press:
New arbitrary act against the five Cuban patriots Gerardo's wife detained at Houston airport and stopped from entering the United States of America
US Authorities carried out another cruel and shameful act when they stopped the wife of U.S. political prisoner Gerardo Hernandez from entering the United States of America. Adriana Perez was detained at Houston airport where she was held in communicado and then interrogated. The young woman had all her traveling documents according to the stipulated rules. She has not seen her husband for the past four years. The Cuban Round Table Television Broadcast of July 29 denounced the cynicism of the US authorities who in this case once again violated the VIII Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America and articles 36 and 29 of the Geneva Convention. more on the issue By: Iliana Garcia Giraldino Havana 29 july (AIN)This is yet another example of the outrage of the US authorities against the Cuban heroes, this cynical and shameful behavior against the wife of Gerardo Hernandez, Adriana Perez. Keeping her detained, incommunicado and subject to interrogation at Houston airport, stopping her from entering the United States of America on her way to try to see her husband, speaks for itself. This new action against the five Cuban prisoners was vigorously denounced today at the Round Table Broadcast. It also demonstrated that it adds up to a long series of irregularities and manipulations to which Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino and Antonio Guerrero, unjustly incarcerated for fighting against terrorist organizations inside the US , are subjected, as victims of a political lynching action in Miami.
After four years without seeing her husband, Adriana, who carried all her travel documents according to the rules and regulations, was forced to exit the United States of America and saw her hopes of visiting Gerardo vanish, as a consequence of an obscure and cruel maneuver by the US authorities.
This is something irrational and inhuman, as the young women had the visa required. In what constitutes still another sanction for Gerardo, she was subjected to an arbitrary and treacherous detention, and thus he was not allowed to see his wife, as it was explained during the Round Table.
The members of the panel insisted in the fact that all those pressures are for naught because of the integrity of Gerardo and the rest of the Cuban heroes.
MORE VIOLATIONS
Other legal violations made by the US authorities in relation to this situation were also exposed. The VIII Amendment to the US Constitution that states that cruel and unusual punishment should not be imposed, and articles 36 and 29 of the Geneva Convention that regulate Diplomatic and Consular relations were both violated because of the fact that Adriana was held incommunicado for several hours.
Adriana did not left the United States of America voluntarily, she had no option but to leave, because the only possibility was to show up at an Immigration and Naturalization Service Court, without having the least guarantee of what was going to happen, as her case was not of an immigration nature.
She complied with all the bureaucratic paperwork requirements. What happened to her had to do with a political decision due to the influential action of the Cuban-American Miami Mafia and their thugs of the Federal Bureau of Investigation vis-a-vis the US government.
The young women was the victim of a shameful act of cruelty. When she was detained at the Houston, Texas airport, they took away from her the airline ticket and the passport, then they took her fingerprints and personal data, and she was subjected to interrogation for more than an hour, while she was kept away from the Cuban official who accompanied her, leaving her incommunicado and practically disappeared for several hours.
The pressures exerted are apparently not enough, the harsh sentences are not enough, the severe conditions at the prisons are not enough. Now they are also stopping a family meeting, but this outrages have not made any of the five Cuban heroes change their patriotic positions.
A MESSAGE FROM GERARDO During the Round Table , a message from Gerardo himself, sent on the 26th of July, the National Holiday of Cuba, when the 49th anniversary of the attack on the Moncada Barracks in 1953 by a group of young Cubans led by Fidel Castro, was made public. The message says: "Congratulations for all of our people who today advance with steps that are more solid on the path set by the blood of those youth of the "Moncada", It is always and it will always be the 26th."
With this new arbitrary act, this time against the wife of Gerardo, one of the Five Heroes, what they are trying to do is impose another additional punishment against Gerardo and against his relatives.
Previous to this action, the US authorities had revoked the already- issued visa granted to Olga Salanueva, the wife of Rene Gonzales, an action that stopped her and their little daughter from seeing Rene.
In the case of Adrian, the cynicism of the US authorities, for the pleasure of the extreme right wingers of the Cuban exiles in Florida, there is also the fact that her visa was granted during early April, and they had until the 24th of July to revoke it, something they didn't do. Instead they blocked her from entering the US when she was already at the Houston airport.
"They awaited until Adriana traveled to the US to set up this show", members of the panel of the Round Table broadcast commented.
During the Round Table, an interview with Ricardo Alarcon, President of the Cuban Parliament was broadcast. Alarcon stated that, in his opinion, this act of cruelty violates the US Constitution, human rights, and all standard practices and procedures plus common sense.
Why deny this young women who has never visited the United States of America, the opportunity to see her husband?
Why isolate and interrogate her and take her fingerprints? Alarcon asked. He then assured that it is an abominable act to subject Gerardo, unjustly sentenced to two life terms, to yet another sanction of not letting him see his wife.
Alarcon also denounced that the "evidence" against the men, who have been declared "Heroes, prisoners of the empire," are still in the "secret" category. He declared that the judicial process against them was a great farce, and at the bottom of that trial,which ended June 8, 2001, is the fact that these young Cubans were acting against terrorist organizations that operate from US territory.
If the American Citizens knew the truth... If the American citizens knew the truth... Are they going to back their authorities tolerance and connections with the Miami terrorists, or are they going to demand that their government act in its battle against terrorism in a real way? Will they see that the terrorist are imprisoned, instead of the ones who fight against them? Alarcon asked. The arbitrary and punitive actions against Adriana are another attempt against the integrity of the Five, something that failed against the dignity and principles of these valiant young men, for whom international support is growing more and more every day.
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