• DURING a recent visit to the island, members of the Por los caminos del Che international solidarity brigade detailed actions in their countries directed at breaking the media silence around the case of the five Cuban anti-terrorists serving unjust sentences in the United States.

In a meeting with Olga Salanueva and Elizabeth Palmeiro, the wives of René González and Ramón Labañino, at the Julio Antonio Mella International Camp, the 100 brigadistas from 20 countries recounted their experiences in the struggle for the return to the Five to their country. The other three are Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and Gerardo Hernández.

Arvanitis Stamatis, a member of the Greek-Cuban Association, spoke to Granma International about the unprecedented economic situation in his country and thus the many protest mobilizations. However, they are keeping up solidarity actions in support of Cuba, the Revolution and freedom for the Five, including collecting signatures and sending letters and postcards to the White House asking President Barack Obama to order their unconditional release.

The Greek organization’s agenda includes a protest outside the U.S. embassy on the fifth of every month, demanding the liberation of the Five and making statements about the case.

In Medellín, Colombia, members of solidarity with Cuba organizations also meet every fifth of the month in Fernando Botero Plaza, a place of relaxation for nationals and foreign visitors, where they give out leaflets detailing the rigged trial which led to the Five’s long prison sentences, said Ramón Jaramillo Correa. At 5:00pm they call on passersby to send postcards, letters or electronic messages to the White House demanding their immediate freedom.

As it is known, the five Cubans infiltrated anti-Cuba organizations in the United States in order to foil acts of terrorism which, over 50 years, have caused the death of 3,000 Cubans and the maiming of a further 2,000.

Keith Headland from Australia said that the issue is silenced by the press in his country, and as a way of breaking this media siege they sponsored a tour of various Australian cities by one of the family members of the Five.

Young Ecuadoran Fabián Paredes Venegas told Granma International that a Solidarity with Cuba secretariat exists at the national level in Ecuador and a Free the Five Committee has been created within it in order to give the case a higher profile in the media. They also have an internationalist brigade, embers of which have climbed some of the country’s highest peaks, where they planted a Cuban flag and images of the Five. They have already climbed to the Cayambe and Chimborazo peaks, more than 6,000 meters above sea level, which secured media interest. A new ascent to the Cotopaxis volcano, 6,300-plus meters above sea level, is currently being prepared.

According to René Francisco Ortiz, they want to form Free the Five committees in El Salvador’s 12 departments, for which they have parliamentary support. The idea is to promote the use of social networks on the Internet to involve more people in the international demand.

Olga Salanueva, the wife of René González, who has served his prison term but is forced to remain in the United States on parole for a further three years, spoke of the importance of international pressure born from solidarity to secure their release. She also noted that there was no re-sentencing in the case of Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, who is still condemned to two life terms plus 15 years and who, since his imprisonment, has been deprived of visits from his wife Adriana Pérez, consistently refused entry visas by the U.S. government.

Elizabeth Palmeiro, the wife of Ramón Labañino, also talked at the meeting about the absence of reports in the media about one of the longest legal proceedings in U.S. history and added, "The greatest enemy of our families is this wall of silence surrounding the case."