Activists Announce 2014 Cuban Five International Solidarity Mobilization

Rene González and Olga Salanueva at the Cuban Five conference in Holguín, Cuba. We look forward to the day when all of the Five can be happily reunited with their families in Cuba. Free the Cuban Five — NOW!,

The third international mobilization to support the Cuban Five will be held June. 4-11, 2014, in Washington DC, organizers confirmed.

A June 7 rally outside the White House and lobbying activities in Congress are highlights of the event, said Alicia Jrapko, coordinator of the U.S. National Committee to Free The Five, in an interview.

"In the coming months we will focus on trying to get more legislators from other countries, mainly from Canada and Europe, to accompany us in this third event," she said.

Solidarity activists have been discussing how to reach the media and social networks better to publicize this gathering, considered one of the most important to be held next year.

"We plan for it to be even better than this year's, which had very positive results in terms of turnout and coordination of actions," Jrapko said.

Speak up for the Five

Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Rene Gonzalez, known internationally as the Cuban Five, were detained in 1998 and given harsh prison sentences for monitoring Miami-based terrorist groups operating against Cuba.

Rene served his sentence and is now in Cuba after giving up his US citizenship. He attended the 9th International Colloquium to Free the Cuban Five and against Terrorism, held recently in Holguin province in eastern Cuba.

Jrapko said that "his (Rene's) presence in the colloquium made us feel as though we were with all of the Cuban Five, and this gave us more strength to continue fighting to bring all back home."