Dominican Senate
calls on Obama to free the Five
SANTO DOMINGO, September 9.— The Senate of the
Dominican Republic has passed a resolution calling
on U.S. President Barack Obama to release the five
Cuban anti-terrorist fighters unjustly imprisoned in
that country after being handed down lengthy
sentences.
At the proposal of Senator Euclides R. Sánchez,
the Parliament agreed to press for the five Cuban
heroes "to be returned to their homeland to be
reunited with their families and return to a life of
freedom, taking into consideration that the
information they collected, including information
presented to the U.S. government, was only obtained
in order to save lives and protect other human
beings from acts of terrorism."
The document explains that the mission of Ramón,
Gerardo, Antonio, René and Fernando, "was not to
obtain U.S. military secrets," as stated in the
charges, "but to monitor the terrorist activities"
of mercenaries in Miami "and report on threats to
attack Cuba."
The Resolution recalls that five years previously,
the UN Working Group on Arbitrary Detention stated
that the arrest of the Five "violates Article 14 of
the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights."
The resolution also states how, over several
decades, more than 3,000 Cubans have died as a
result of acts of terrorism, including the mid-flight
sabotage of a Cuban airliner on October 6, 1976,
which caused the deaths of 73 people, "an event for
which Orlando Bosch Avila and Luis Faustino Posada
Carriles have been judged as principally responsible,"
while they remain in the United States without
having been charged or receiving any sanction
whatsoever.
The Dominican Senate agreed to send the
Resolution to President Obama and his Secretary of
State, Hillary Clinton. (SE)
