Voices of Support

SUMMARY OF ACTIONS AT THE PARLIAMENTARY LEVEL IN SOLIDARITY WITH THE CUBAN FIVE

EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

• December 2006 – Deputies from the European Parliament’s main parties advanced a draft written declaration asking the United States to allow relatives of the Five to visit them in prison. The signatories are Spain’s Ignasi Guardans (CiU, Liberal Party) Portugal’s Ana Maria Gomes (Socialist Party), Cypres’ Panayiotis Demetriou (European Popular Party), France’s Gerard Onesta (Green Party) and Germany’s Sylvia-Yvonne Kaufmann (European Unitary Left).
• October 2006 – EU deputy Pedro Guerreiro asked the session: what is the chair of the Council going to do to ensure the most basic rights of the Five are respected, including the right to be visited by their relatives, that their sentences are revoked and that they undergo a fair trial?
• September 2005 – Spanish EU deputies Willy Meyer, from Izquierda Unida (United Left Party), Miguel Angel Martínez, from Partido Socialista Obero Español (Spanish Socialist Worker’s Party) and Bart Staes, from Belgium’s Green Party, signed a letter addressed to the Attorney General of the United States, demanding the release of the Five.
• October 2003 – Deputies from the European Unitary Left sent a letter to the Committee on Foreign Affairs and the Regional Delegation for relations with Central America and Mexico, asking the European Union to take action before the pertinent US authorities and calling for the holding of a new trial. They also pronounced themselves with respect to the violation of the human rights of the Five and their relatives.
• October 2003 – The Vice-chairperson of the ACP - EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly and the President of the Group of Friendship with Cuba Miguel Angel Martínez sent to the head of the European Parliament’s Delegation for relations with Central America and Mexico, Raimon Obiols, a letter describing the violations endured by the Five and announcing his intention of advancing a parliamentary question in this connection at the Council and/or Commission.
• October 2003– At this day’s European Parliament session, EU deputies Pedro Marset Campos, Konstantinos Alyssandrakis, Ioannis Patakis, Ilda Figueiredo and María Luisa Bergaz Conesa advanced parliamentary questions related to the United States’ violation of the human rights of the Five.

PARLIAMENTARY UNION

• October 2005 – More than 50 members of parliament from around the world, who participated in the 113th General Assembly of the World Parliamentary Union, signed an Appeal calling for the release of the five anti-terrorist Cuban activists, who are still unjustly detained in US prisons, in spite of the ruling handed down by the Atlanta Court of Appeals, which overturned the trial in which they were convicted.

LATIN AMERICAN PARLIAMENT (PARLATINO)

• December 2006 – The 22nd Ordinary Assembly of the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO) approved a resolution urging “competent US authorities to immediately release the five Cuban citizens…”

ACP – EU JOINT PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

• 12 October 2003 – The Parliamentary Women’s Forum held on the occasion of the 6th ACP (Africa – Caribbean – Pacific) – EU (European Union) Joint Parliamentary Assembly, issued a declaration which condemned how US authorities had denied Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez the right to visit their husbands, who are imprisoned in the United States.

PARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE OF THE AMERICAS

• December 2003 – the Parliamentary Women Network of the Parliamentary Conference of the Americas approved a resolution denouncing how Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez were denied visas to enter the United States and visit their husbands in prison.

CENTRAL AMERICAN PARLIAMENT

• September 2006 – Chairman of PARLACEN Julio Palacios presented a motion in favor of the release of the Five at the 2nd Ibero-American Parliamentary Forum. The motion was presented at work panel 1, on the topic of migrants and human rights.

GREAT BRITAIN

• February 2006 – Nobel Prize winner Harold Pinter, 110 members of the British parliament, London mayor Ken Livingstone and 15 general secretaries of British unions are some of the personalities among the 10,000 English citizens who signed an open letter sent by the Solidarity with Cuba Campaign to the Attorney General of the United States, asking for the immediate release of the Five.
• 21 November 2002 – Labour Member of Parliament Michael Connarty introduced an emergency motion at the House of Commons about the five Cubans imprisoned in the United States which was backed by 112 members of the British Parliament.

IRELAND

• February 2006 – 49 members of the Irish Parliament, including 8 senators, requested the release of the Five in a letter addressed to the Attorney General of the United States Alberto Gonzales.
• 20 November 2003 – At the Irish Parliament’s Lower House of Commons, 26 members of Ireland’s Labour Party signed a petition calling for the release of the Five and a new trial.

RUSSIA

• February 21, 2007 - Russia’s State Duma passed an Appeal addressed to the US Congress relating to the imprisonment of five Cuban citizens. The appeal was unanimously by all the fractions of the legislative chamber.
• October 2005 – 18 federal deputies of Russia’s State Duma signed an open letter addressed to US Attorney General Alberto González, calling for the release of the Five. Among the signatories were Guennadi Ziuganov, leader of the Communist Party of the Russian Federation, V.A. Kupsov, Vice-Chairman of the Duma and V.I. Sebastyanov, Chairman of the Russia – Cuba Friendship Parliamentary Group.
• 7 March 2003 – The Duma (Russia’s lower House) approved, with 287 votes in favor and none against, an Appeal issued by the State Duma of the Assembly of the Russian Federation, addressed to the US Congress, in connection with the judicial sanctions imposed upon the Cuban citizens.

MEXICO

• 28 September 2006 – Senate approved a point of agreement calling for the validation of the opinion of the Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions of the UN Commission on Human Rights.
• 10 July 2003 – 300 Mexican legislators signed a document expressing their deep concern over the arbitrary detention and summary trial, plagued with irregularities, to which five Cuban citizens were subjected in Miami, Florida, USA.

ARGENTINA

• September 2005 – 26 deputies from the Argentinean Congress sent a letter to the Attorney General of the United States, asking for the immediate release of the Cuban Five, held illegally in US prisons since 1998.

BELGIUM

• February 2006 – 32 members of Parliament in the House of Representatives of the Belgian Senate and the European Parliament signed a declaration on the violation of the human rights of the Five in the United States.

SWEDEN

• 23 March 2005 – Question posed the Swedish Minister of Foreign Affairs by deputy from the Left Party Sermin Osurkut, substitute member of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the Swedish Parliament, about the case of the Five imprisoned in the United States and Sweden’s position with respect to US support for terrorist actions against Cuba.

MALI

• 2 June 2006 – A plenary session of the National Assembly of Mali approved a motion in solemn support of the Five, vigorously condemning the treatment they are subjected to and demanding their immediate release. In addition to this, it “solemnly calls on all colleagues around the world to organize a powerful solidarity and support movement to obtain the release of the Five and have them return to their country”.

CANADA

• 20 April 2006 – Canadian parliamentary member and spokeswoman for the Quebecois Party for Foreign Affairs Francine Lalonde addressed a letter to Canada’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Peter MacKay, asking him to “apply pressure on the United States to obtain the immediate release of the Five”.

GERMANY

• September 2006 – the Bundestag Left Faction addressed a letter to its colleagues in the US Congress, asking for their support in the struggle for the release of the Five, imprisoned in the United States for fighting against terrorism.
• July 2006 – Twelve members of the German parliament sent a letter to the US Congress, demanding respect for human rights and the immediate release of the five Cuba anti-terrorist activists. The signatories included the Chairwoman of Parliamentary Commission on Human Rights and Humanitarian Aid, Professor Herta Daubler-Gmelin and ex Secretary General of the German Social Democratic Party (SPD) Klaus Uwe Benneter.

BRAZIL

• August 2006 – The Commission of Human Rights of the Brazilian House of Representatives passed a “motion of condemnation against the illegal and arbitrary prison of Five Cubans in the United States”. This motion was send to the President of the US House of Representatives.
• June 2006 – A solemn session of the Municipal Legislative Assembly was held in Recife in honour of the Five.
• On 24 May, the Commission on Human Rights of the Legislative Assembly of the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais held a public hearing on the situation of the five young Cubans who are unjustly imprisoned in the United States for fighting against terrorism.
• March 2006 – A motion in solidarity with the Five and their families was signed by more than 32 ministers in Porto Alegre and sent to the US Department of State, the Bush administration’s Attorney General and UN Secretary General Kofi Annan.

VENEZUELA

• July 2006 – At a plenary session of the Latin American Parliament, the Venezuelan Parliamentary Group approved a resolution urging US authorities to immediately release the Five and calling on the General Assembly of the Latin American Parliament to back this document. A copy shall be sent to the US President, the Attorney General the Secretary of State of the United States, the UN Commission on Human Rights and the Chairs of the Latin American Parliament.

BOLIVIA

• October 2007 -  The House of Representatives passed a Declaration in support of the solidarity movement with the Cuban Five.
• September 2006 - The House of Representatives passed a declaration demanding the immediately liberation of the Cuban Five.
• 30 August 2006 – The Bolivian Senate unanimously approved a declaration calling for the immediate release of the Five.

SPAIN

• 3 October 2006 - The Green Left Parliamentary Group poses the government the following questions with respect to the case of the Five and the protection afforded notorious terrorist Luis Posada Carriles by the US government: What opinion does the Spanish president have of these facts? And is the government planning any diplomatic initiative before the Bush administration in order to call its attention to these evident irregularities, such that justice is done in the case of the Five?
• 22 December 2005 – The Green Left Parliamentary Group poses the government the following question: has the government plans to take steps before the US administration to demand respect for human rights in the case of the Five?

PANAMA

• October, 2007 – A Group of 13 legislators signed a Special Declaration in solidarity with the Cuban Five. The Declaration was signed, among others, by the President and Vice-President of the National Assembly and by the presidents of the commissions of Foreign Relations, Treasury and Planning and Health.
• October 3, 2006 – The Commission of Foreign Relations of the National Assembly of Panama passed a resolution expressing its adhesion to the “growing world clamour asking for a fair trial, a fair jury, a due process and the right to have family visits for the Cuban Five.”

ITALIA

• November 2006 – More than 35 Italian senators sent a letter to the US Senate expressing their worry for the political use of the Cuban Five case and remembering the importance of the international cooperation in the war against terrorism.

SWITZERLAND

• October 2007 – 53 members of the Swiss Parliament and from the all Parties signed a letter addressed to the US Ambassador, requesting that the United States Government  share information about the Cuban Five, that a fair trial takes place and that the US and international laws be applied in this case