Cuba Celebrates 10 Years Since the Return of the Five Heroes

By Yaimi Ravelo, Victor Villalba and Syara S. Massip on December 17, 2024 from Havana

“Our battle will be difficult and long, these are five strong, heroic men, with very deep convictions, whose minds and ideas could not change, who could not be made to waver for a second, despite the rigors and pressures to which they were subjected since their arrest.”  – Fidel

This was a promise made by Fidel on June 23, 2001, when he called for the return of the Cuban 5, who he described as that “quintet of giants, intelligent and cultured”. With that certainty of a leader, the Commander-in-Chief warned: “I only tell you one thing: They will return”.

Today, together with the Five Heroes and the President of the Republic Miguel Díaz-Canel,  Cuba celebrated the tenth anniversary of the return of their heroes to the homeland.

Fidel’s promise was fulfilled by Army General Raúl Castro in 2014 with the arrival on Cuban soil of the Five agents who had remained strong in the prisons of the U.S. empire.

Ten years after that great victory, the Five Heroes, accompanied by their families, were recognized in an extraordinary event symbolic of one of the most beautiful pages in the history of the Cuban Revolution.

“That bright morning of December 17, 2014 put an end to the injustice that lasted 16 years, 3 months and 5 days, when Antonio, Gerardo and Ramón came down from the stairs of the plane to embrace the beloved Homeland,” recalled Graciela Ramírez Cruz, coordinator of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Five, an organization that continues today as the International Committee for Peace, Justice and Dignity to the Peoples.

It was fair to remember on this historic date the causes that led Gerardo, René, Antonio, Fernando and Ramón to their unjust imprisonment.

Ramirez reminded the audience that The Five were arrested on September 12, 1998 “for monitoring the terrorist organizations of the anti-Cuban mafia, which historically enjoy the impunity granted to them by the various U.S. administrations,”

“Their criminal attacks left a sad toll of 3,478 murdered, more than 2,000 wounded and heavy losses to the Cuban economy. It violates the conscience of the men and women of the world that the US, the main violator of Human Rights, the one that continues to murder with its weapons the children and women of Gaza together with its Zionist partner Israel, the one that is behind every coup d’état in the region and the world, the one that imposes on Cuba the genocidal blockade for more than 60 years, the one that issued more than 900 sanctions against Venezuela. It is outrageous that the U.S., the country that promotes terrorism, accuses the victim, includes and ratifies Cuba in an illegal and perverse list where it should never have been. Cuba holds the sad record of having one victim of terrorism for every 1976 inhabitants. Who is the terrorist? Someday it will be us, those from below, the humble, who will make the list of the horrors committed by the U.S. against our peoples.

That is why we will march together with President Diaz-Canel and the Cuban people in Marcha Combatiente this December 20 and we call for mobilization all over the world.”

Graciela highlighted the role of family members, mothers, wives and children who traveled the world and were a bulwark of their defense.

She recalled the moments of sadness when Carmen Nordelo, Gerardo’s mother, passed away, without being able to see her son again, and without  his wife Adriana being given a visa to bring him some relief. The occasions when they were taken to the hole in total isolation, the denial of visas to their relatives and the delay of up to a year for Elizabeth’s daughters to visit Ramon. The violation of preventing Cuban officials from accompanying their relatives in a vast country whose geography and language they did not know. But their love was stronger. She also called to redouble the international mobilization against the criminal blockade and the inclusion in the list where Cuba should never have been.

Graciela Ramírez together with the public honored with the cry ¡Presente! the comrades who are not physically present, but who gave their lives to the struggle for the cause of the Five

That included Alicia Jrapko, Lucius Walker, Saul Landau, Leonard Weinglas, Ramsey Clark, Carmen Nordelo, Magali Llort, Cándido González, Roberto González, Rosa Aurora Freijanes, Marie Dominique Bertuccioli, Bernie Dwyer, Jean Guy Alard, Tony Llansó, Giustino Di Celmo, Pablo Kilberg, Graciela Rosemblum, Beinuzs Zmukler, Marta Speroini, Javier Salado, Mariví Triana, Lucrecia Valenzuela, Babis Borreas and Fidel Castro. Presente!”

After the cry of Fidel PRESENTE, Gloria La Riva, coordinator of the National Committee for the Freedom of the Five in the US expressed, “The United States thought that the punishment of Gerardo, Ramón, Fernando, Antonio and René would be exemplary, so that other people would not do the same. But on the contrary, there are many young people who say, I also want to defend my homeland in a similar way”.

La Riva called for the struggle for social justice in the world, stressing that the same strength and unity with which the solidarity movements demanded the return of the child Elián Gonzalez and the Five should be used to demand the end of the U.S. blockade against Cuba.

On behalf of the Five Heroes, Gerardo Hernandez Nordelo,who is currently national coordinator of the Committee’s in Defense of the Revolution (CDR) expressed special thanks for the unconditional support of the families, the resistance and struggle of all those who made possible the culmination of the imprisonment. He thanked the Cuban people for every march, every letter sent to the prisons. He thanked Fidel and Raul for fulfilling the promise of their return with constant certainty.Hernandez concluded his talk by affirming that Cuba had, has and will always have men and women who from silence and anonymity will defend their homeland in the bowels of the enemy.

The celebration was attended by the Minister of the Interior of Cuba Lázaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Salvador Valdés Mesa, Vice President of Cuba, Alpidio Alonso-Grau, Minister of Culture, senior political leaders of the Cuban government, lawyers defending the Five, officials and leaders of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, cultural personalities and Cuban intellectuals, and members of the solidarity movement with Cuba who traveled to the island to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the return of the Five to the Cuban nation.

“Our people took on the campaign for the freedom of the Five in an extraordinary way,” said Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla,.

“The people took to all corners of the country the deepest family feeling, it is not often that in a commemoration like this, of a remarkable historical fact, where all those gathered have been participants in some way of such an event, it was the decisive thing in this long and wide battle, the loyalty of our five comrades, their resistance, heroism, fighting spirit, absolute denial of surrender and defeat and their steadfast conviction in the triumph.” Rodriguez Parrilla acknowledged.

“Our deepest recognition to the solidarity movements, the committees for the liberation of the Five, the trade unions, religious organizations and diverse types and personalities that made this cause their own, mobilizing and making it known in all the continents, it became a true campaign of the peoples. Many are with us today, others to whom we pay deep tribute and eternal gratitude of our people are no longer among us.

“I also express our gratitude to the governments, parliaments, political forces and institutions that contributed to the common effort to put an end to such an injustice.

“Among those who supported the articulation of this international mobilization effort, it is worth mentioning the Cuban Foreign Service, its embassies and consulates that took on this struggle with the highest priority of revolutionary diplomacy.

“Here you are this afternoon, you, the Five, as confirmation that no matter how difficult the circumstances, as the Commander in Chief taught us, faith in victory and solidarity are the essential reasons for triumph.

“A decade has passed and upon remembering this date we feel the same emotion of that unforgettable day that meant so much to our people and to many people on the planet.

“International solidarity will have to continue confronting and denouncing until one day the arbitrary and unjustified designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism is eliminated and the inhumane and illegal blockade against our country is lifted for the definitive triumph of justice over abuse and oppression.

The Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs ratified that the Five, together with the Cuban people, continue to contribute today with their example in another essential trench, to the development of the country and the defense of the Revolution.

A magical moment of celebration to life was the conclusion with  La Colmenita, Cuba’s National Childrens Theater group, together with their director Tin Cremata, who read Gerardo’s letter written from prison “To my children who are yet to be born” sealing the meaning of love that leads Cubans to victory.

Source: Cuba en Resumen