Vigil for the
Five at the Flag Memorial
Deisy Francis Mexidor

• A patriotic and revolutionary vigil is taking
place tonight on the eve of September 12, the date
when the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters complete
their eleventh year of incarceration in the United
States.
The Flag Memorial has been selected as the venue
because precisely at midnight, a group of famous
artists will begin a collective art project in that
emblematic place, expressing the unanimous demand of
the Cuban people and thousands of friends in the
world for an end to that colossal injustice.
A patriotic and revolutionary vigil, which will
be broadcast live on Cuban television, begins at
8:30 am on Saturday, with other activities of a deep
patriotic content on the same capital esplanade. The
Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples is
organizing a solidarity vigil, while an interactive
forum and the award ceremony of the International
Competition of Drawings Defending the Peace are
scheduled at the University of Computer Science.
The demand of "Freedom for the Five now" will
extend throughout the country and will move beyond
coastal borders. A large number of activities have
been planned in work, study, community, and
neighborhood centers, while reports are coming in of
actions in Venezuela, Bolivia, Sweden, the Ukraine,
Equatorial Guinea, the United States, Belgium, Peru,
Italy, Lebanon, Argentina, and Spain.
Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Ramón
Labañino, Fernando González and René González were
arrested in Miami in the early hours of September
12, 1998.
Translated by Granma International