[NYTr] Letter from 13 Calif Mayors Suports Visas for Cuban 5 Wives

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

The CubanNation - Sep 10, 2007
http://www.cubannation.com

Mayors of 13 Calif Cities Support Visas for Wives of the Cuban 5

By Alicia Jrakpo
Richmond, CA

In a letter sent today to US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, Mayor
Gayle McLaughlin, of Richmond California, and the mayors of twelve
other California cities requested, on humanitarian grounds, that
Adriana Perez O?Connor and Olga Salanueva Arango be allowed to visit
their husbands who are incarcerated in the U.S., and who they have not
seen for nine years and seven years respectively.

Gerardo Hernandez, one of the two Cuban nationals, is currently
imprisoned at the USP Victorville in California, and Rene Gonzalez, the
other Cuban national is currently in FCI Marianna, Florida.

The California mayors believe that the there is no justifiable reason
to deny these families the right to visitation

The two Cuban nationals are part of ?the Cuban Five?, a group of five
Cuban nationals who received long prison terms for monitoring
Miami-based Cuban American extremist groups involved in violent
terrorist acts against Cuba.  They are currently appealing their
sentences.

"?I'm deeply saddened by the fact that our federal government has not
yet allowed these two women to visit their husbands in the U.S. They
have the means to come and they will return to their country after the
visit. It seems to me that our nation, who proclaims family values to
the world, can do much better than this and allow these families to
visit," said Gayle McLaughlin, the elected mayor of Richmond, CA, a
city with over 100,000 residents in Northern California.    

The other California mayors who co-signed the humanitarian request are
Robert Lieber of Albany, Sam Pierce of Sebastopol, Emily Reilly of
Santa Cruz, Dennis Donohue of Salinas, Mary Craton of Canyon Lake,
Maricela Morales of Port Hueneme, Elba Guerrero of Huntington Park,
Felipe Aguirre of Maywood, Tom Bates of Berkeley, Larry Bragman of
Fairfax, Bill Bogaard of Pasadena, and Woody Fridae of Winters.

"We all hope that this matter will be reviewed favorably and that these
two women will be granted entry visas into the United States to visit
their husbands," said Mayor McLaughlin.

Copies of the Mayors' letter to the Attorney General Alberto Gonzales,
was sent to Paul D. Clement, U.S. Solicitor General, to U.S. Secretary
of State Condoleezza Rice, to California Senators Dianne Feinstein and
Barbara Boxer, as well as to the Speaker of the House, California
representative Nancy Pelosi.