Cuban Five Inmate Turns 50 in US Prison
Sentenced to life imprisonment and two additional five-year sentences,Antonio Guerrero, one of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unfairly imprisoned in the United States, turns 50
HAVANA.— Antonio (Tony) Guerrero, one of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters imprisoned in the United States, turned 50 on Thursday, October 16.
His mother, Mirta Rodríguez, sent him a congratulations letter and spoke about efforts to free the Cuban Five, reported the Cuban News Agency (ACN).
Rodríguez said that in her letter she told her son that his birthday present is to show the world the injustice of the case of the Cuban Five —Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernández, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino and René González.
“This year I won’t have the opportunity of hearing your voice to congratulate you and give you a kiss. The duty of fighting requires me to be away. On October 16, I will be in Argentine, denouncing the injustice. That’s my present, to raise my voice to denounce the injustice, and you know that you will be with me everywhere I go,” she wrote.
In statements to ACN, Mirta Rodríguez denounced the unjust situation being faced by Guerrero in the high security prison in Florence, Colorado, where —according to experts on prisoner rights— the federal government places “the worst of the worst.”
In her letter she recalled every detail of her son’s life, and wrote, “It seems that it was yesterday when I had you in my arms.” She said that she trusts that future years will be more fortunate for the family than the last 10.
In 2008, Antonio Guerrero had spent more than eight months in the “lock down,” solitary confinement imposed by the prison’s authorities against all inmates faced with violence.
“It’s a prison within a prison,” said the mother, “where the men are deprived of telephone calls, visits from counsel, lawyers and relatives, personal hygiene and warm food.”
The mission of Antonio, René, Ramón, Gerardo and Fernando was to warn Cuba of violent actions that were planned by terrorist organizations based in South Florida with the consent of Washington.
The Cuban Five —as they are called in the campaign for their freedom— were arrested on September 12, 1998 in Miami and sentenced in 2001 to four lives terms and 77 years more in prison, accused without proof of conspiring to commit espionage, among other charges.
