Obama, You’ve Got Mail

International effort for the freedom of the Cuban Five will be filling Obama’s mailbox with postcards

WASHINGTON, January 19.— President Barack Obama’s mailbox might collapse this week as he begins to receive some 20,000 postcards that will be sent to him as part of the international campaign for the liberation of the five Cubans unfairly incarcerated in US prisons.

The Cuban Five, as these men are known internationally, were arrested in 1998 and handed excessive sentences for having infiltrated Florida-based terrorist organizations with the objective of preventing criminal attacks against Cuba.

The postcards bear messages from ten Nobel Laureates demanding the immediate release of the Cuban Five.

“It’s time for Obama to do something (about the Cuban Five). He is a Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and it’s time for him to honor that title,” states the communiqué of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five, which is responsible for the initiative.

The Committee noted that friends and solidarity organizations from Germany, Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Cuba, Lebanon, El Salvador, Spain, France, Guatemala, Ireland, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico, Sweden, Switzerland Uruguay and Venezuela will be taking part in this action.

Three of the Cuban Five –Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez— were resentenced in October 2009, and their prison terms reduced to 30 years, 21 years, and 17 years 9 months, respectively.

The other two, Gerardo Hernandez (two life sentences plus 15 years) and Rene Gonzalez (15 years) were arbitrarily denied resentencing hearings.

PC: Gerardo Hernandez, the Cuban Five, United States, Obama, postcard, terrorism, freedom, 20,000, nobel laureates, nobel peace prize laureate