[NYTr] International Commission to Claim US Visas for 2 Cubsan 5 Wives

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN)
http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles


International Commission to Claim U.S Visas for Cuban Women

Havana, Dec 11 (acn) An international commission in defense of the 
rights of Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez to visit their husbands in 
jail, Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez, will be joining the world 
campaign for the release of the Cuban Five.

In a press conference in Havana, Argentinean Graciela Ramirez, 
coordinator of the International Committee for the Release of the Five, 
announced the participation of the Commission in the world campaign.

The American government has denied the two Cuban women entry permits to 
the United States to visit their husbands who have been imprisoned for 
more than 9 years in that country. They are part of the five political 
prisoners known as the Cuban Five.

Ramirez told the media that some of the relatives of the men have been 
expecting to travel to the U.S for 18 months, and they still do not 
know when they will be able to do so. The White House's refusal to 
allow the visits is a violation of its own national legal regulations.

Gerardo and Rene, along with Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino and 
Antonio Guerrero, were sentenced in a politically biased trial in Miami 
to four life sentences in all and 77 years in prison. They were 
arrested in 1998 while trying to collect information about terrorist 
activities planned against Cuba by groups based in Southern Florida.

The International Commission is made up of 100 world scholars involved 
in human rights organizations and in the cultural sector. These include 
Argentinean Adolfo Parez Esquivel and Guatemalan Rigoberta Menchu, both 
of them are Nobel Prize Laureates; also France's former First Lady 
Danielle Mitterrand is on the list.

The commission's claim for the granting of visas to Olga and Adriana is 
expected to reach out to national and international human rights 
organizations, women's and social movements, religious sectors, workers 
unions, political and governmental organizations.

The group will address in particular Secretary Condolezza Rice, the 
Attorney General and the Congress of the United States; and also the 
UN's Human Rights Council, Amnesty International and the Ibero American 
Federation of Ombudsman.