THE case of the Five is a “legal aberration,” affirmed Miguel d'Escoto, president of the 63rd Session of UN General Assembly, during a meeting with family members of the anti-terrorist Cubans, who have been political prisoners in U.S. jails for the last 11 years.D'Escoto, who is currently in Havana on a working visit, reiterated his criticism of the self-proclaimed war on terrorism launched by the White House and said that it is totally absurd that Gerardo, Antonio, Ramón, Fernando and René are imprisoned precisely for having obtained information on criminal plots being prepared from Miami against the sister Republic of Cuba, always full of solidarity.”
That will be one of the issues covered in the final speech of his presidency before the General Assembly on September 14, D’Escoto stated, going on to confirm his personal commitment to this cause, “until justice is done.”
He added that President Barack Obama has the power to immediately correct this injustice and urged him to put into practice the proposal of change that won him the U.S. presidency because, “in relation to this case, that change is not being seen.”
The outgoing president of the UN General Assembly also referred to the “tremendous suffering” that these years of arbitrary detention have brought “for them and their families.”
At the end of the meeting, in an aside to the press, the Nicaraguan priest and revolutionary said that he is the bearer of the book Cartas de amor y esperanza (Letters of Love and Hope) and a letter to Obama from family members of the Five, asking him to grant them visas, particularly Adriana Pérez and Olga Salanueva, the wives of Gerardo and René, respectively, who have repeatedly been denied them by the U.S. government.
Likewise, he stated that this case is damaging the image of the United States and observed, “Now, it is not about rectifying anything, but releasing them immediately.”
Lastly, D'Escoto condemned the coup d’état in Honduras and called for the return of constitutionality to that Central American nation. He also described the U.S. bases in Colombia as a “terrible setback. It is a threat to peace,” he affirmed.
