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During an ecumenical church service for the recovery of Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez at the Riverside church of Harlem, New York, Rodriguez passed on greetings from the leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro, “to an emblematic church that is close to God and away from Wall Street.”
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Rodriguez, who is in New York to participate in the 66th period of sessions of the United Nations General Assembly, spoke during the service and paid tribute to icons of the struggle for civil rights in the U.S. such as Martin Luther King, Jr., and Malcolm X.
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The Cuban diplomat also paid homage to late Rev. Lucius Walker, former leader and founder of the Pastors for Peace U.S.-Cuba Friendshipment Caravan, who always fought against Washington’s economic blockade of Cuba and for the release of the five Cuban antiterrorists who remain unjustly imprisoned in the United States since 1998..
“René Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez put their lives at risk to protect the Cuban and also the American people,” Rodriguez highlighted.
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The Cuban Five —as they are internationally known— were arrested and given harsh sentences ranging from 15 years to two life terms for monitoring anti-Cuba extreme right-wing groups in South Florida that were planning and carrying out terrorist actions against the Caribbean nation.
