The five Cuban heroes jailed in the U.S. were sentenced to severe penalties ranging from 15 years to double life sentences by a Miami jury which was far from impartial. Despite the August 9, 2005 decision of the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals of Atlanta to reverse the convictions and sentences, they remain in prison.
The case of the Cuban 5 is clearly related to the right of a sovereign country to defend itself against terrorist actions coming from a neighboring country which harbors the terrorists and doesn’t lift a single finger to stop these activities. This case reveals the hypocrisy of the U.S. ruling class as it parades around as the leader of a “war against terror”. It also sheds light on the important role played in U.S. politics by the reactionary anti-Cuban mafia in Miami, in both the Republican and Democratic parties. This is without a doubt an overtly political case which the U.S. ruling class and its mass media are not interested in publicizing, as it would bring to the surface many incriminating details of their own activities.
Along with vindicating the work they were doing, the struggle to free the Five must be directed at unmasking and exposing once and for all the terrorist machinery of the Cuban-American mafia, which has caused so much mourning and suffering for thousands of Cuban households in these years of Revolution. It must also denounce the protection and encouragement these mafiosi have received from one U.S. Administration after another. It is important to denounce U.S. imperialism in the strongest possible terms for its hypocritical and double-edged policy towards terrorism.
The International Marxist Tendency considers that these comrades are on the front line of the struggle, in the vanguard, of the cause for world socialism. Against the attacks of the most blood-thirsty and reactionary right-wingers, they were defending the Cuban Revolution, which represents so much hope for the working class and oppressed of the world. Therefore, the struggle for their freedom is the duty not only of the Cuban people, but of all those who believe in the socialist future of humanity.
4 August, 2006
International Marxist Tendency
See also:
- Fidel Castro’s illness: Time to wake up to the real danger by Pablo Roldan (7 Sep. 2006)
- IMT statement on Cuba: Solidarity with the Cuban Revolution — down with capitalism and imperialism by In Defence of Marxism (3 Aug. 2006)
- The Cuban “Miami Five”: Jailed in the US for fighting terrorism by Jorge Martin (15 Oct. 2004)
- The targets are Venezuela and Cuba — New intrigues of US imperialism by Alan Woods (21 May 2004)
- Cuba: Executions and repression — A class point of view by Alan Woods and Roberto Sarti (13 May 2003)
- The Cuban Revolution at the crossroads by David Rey (15 Jul. 2002)
- 40th Anniversary of the Cuban Revolution by Jorge Martin (15 Jan. 1999)
