UN High Commissioner Backs Cuban Five Claim

HAVANA TIMES — The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navanethem Pillay, expressed her support for actions in favor of the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters held in the United States, reports the Venceremos website.

For the third time in the past three years in Geneva, Pillay met with Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez, who are the spouses of prisoners Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez.

Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez, along Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Ramon Labanino — known as the “Cuban Five” — were given extremely long sentences by a Miami court in 2001 for having monitored Florida-based violent organizations that planned terrorist actions against Cuba.

Rene Gonzalez is currently on probation in the US after having served a 13-year prison term.

The women also asked the UN official to help them get visas so that they can visit their husbands in the United States. The UN High Commissioner admitted that the visa denials by US authorities constitute a violation of their human rights and is a form of additional punishment.

According to a communiqué released by the Cuban permanent mission in Geneva, Pillay expressed her support of the case and her intentions to do her best towards a solution.