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René writes his
brother Roberto
• René González has sent a moving letter to his
brother Roberto who is gravely ill with cancer. The
same day, through his lawyer, he filed a motion
requesting permission to travel to Cuba and visit
his brother in a Havana hospital. The motion notes
that these types of requests for international
travel by individuals on parole have been granted in
the past. The judge has not yet responded to the
motion
 February 24, 2012
My life-long Brother:
I never thought I would have to
write this letter. We share the same indifference to
correspondence, something fully evidenced during our
respective internationalist missions and – more
conclusively – during my unique experience these
last 20 years. In other words, only extraordinary
situations, such as the current one, have obliged me
to write.
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Roberto, Irma Sehwerert, mother of both
men, and René González Sehwerert |
If the situation were ordinary, I
would be saying these things to you in person, and
many of them I wouldn’t even have to say. It should
be enough to be fighting tooth and nail against this
disease which is trying to devour you, but you are
confronting a much more lethal human disease as well:
hatred.
The hate which does not allow me to
repay all of your efforts with the well-deserved
embrace the Five would like to give you.
The hate which does not allow me to
add my laughter to each and every one of the events
which spring from your immense courage.
The hatred which obliges me to guess,
given your forced breathing on the telephone, the
unfortunate developments on the front lines of the
battle you are waging.
The hate which imposes on me the
anguish of not being able to join your loved ones in
caring for you and prevents me from being there to
support Sary and the boys.
The hate which denies me the
opportunity to witness the growth of our nieces and
nephews, who have become men and women over the
years. You can be so proud of them!
The hate which does not allow me to
simply embrace my brother, which obliges me to
follow, in absurd and distant seclusion, this
process of which I should be part, like any other
person who has served a sentence in prison, already
long enough itself, imposed precisely as a result of
this hate, and for that reason insufficient.
What can be done in the face of so
much hate? I suppose what we have always done:
Love life and struggle for life, for
our own and that of others. Confront all obstacles
with a smile on our faces, with a timely joke, with
the optimism we were taught as children. Move
forward, fighting, never giving up, always together
and close, despite efforts to separate me from my
loved ones in order to later punish us all with
this.
Today those beautiful times during
your days as an athlete come to mind. You in the
pool and us in the bleachers, calling your name
while you swam and the sound of our voices which you
heard intermittently every time you came up for a
breath. You told us later how sometimes you heard
your entire name, sometimes the beginning, sometimes
the end. So we trained ourselves to wait until you
raised your head out of the water and at that
precise moment, all of us in unison would shout your
name. You couldn’t see us, but the noise we made
reached you and you knew that we were with you,
although we couldn’t participate directly in the
struggle going on in the pool.
Today the story repeats itself.
While you confront this challenge with all your
strength, I continue to encourage you, along with
the family that you had not yet constructed at that
time. Although you can’t see me, you know I am there,
together with your loved ones, who are mine as well.
You know that this brother, from his strange exile,
in anguish as a result of this enforced separation,
under these absurd conditions of supervised liberty,
given his dignity as a Cuban patriot, like you, and
given the affection created by blood and the lived
experiences which unite us, this brother is, and
will always be, with you. Every time you raise your
head, you will hear my call along with that of my
nephews and nieces.
Breathe, brother, breathe!!
Your brother loves you.
René
•
|
•
U.S. editorial
denounced for
distorting events
WASHINGTON.—
The Cuban Interests Section here in the U.S. capital
denounced an editorial in The Washington Post
which distorts events related to Cuba, including the
prosecution of Alan Gross and the case of the Five
Cuban anti-terrorists incarcerated in the United
States.
•
Coordinating
actions at Five Conference
HOLGUIN.—Participants in the 7th
International Conference for the Freedom of the Five
and against Terrorism are agreed on the urgent need
to coordinate actions so that the U.S. legal
authorities and government allow the return to Cuba
of René González, given that his life is in danger
in Florida.
•
Parliamentary
statement condemns new injustice against René
González and calls for solidarity with the Five
CUBAN anti-terrorist fighter René
González Sehwerert was released from Marianna
Penitentiary in the north of Florida, United States
this past October 7 after serving 13 long years of
unjust incarceration. |
