Statement of the President of the WPC on the release and return of the three Cuban patriots
The World Peace Council receives the news, with triumphal joy, from the revolutionary island of Cuba, that the five Cuban heroes and anti-terrorists returned home. After 16 years away from their homes and their homeland, arbitrarily and illegally incarcerated in the USA, the release of the remaining three patriots Tony, Ramón and Gerardo coincides with the moment in which the relations between the US and Cuba are being re-evaluated.
The commercial, political and economic blockade imposed by the US’ imperialism against Cuba is an anachronism and a retrograde policy. It puts in evidence the US violation of the peoples’ right to self-determination, to choose their political and economic system.
We are aware that the criminal embargo imposed by the US and the illegal imprisonment of the five Cuban anti-terrorists had purely political reasoning, of direct imperialist interference in the national affairs of the Cuban people. The liberation of the three remaining patriots detained in the US is a great victory for the social movements in the whole world, engaged in the solidarity with the heroic Cuban people in this great and just cause.
We transmit to the Cuban State and the Cuban people our great joy with the news about the Five patriots’ return home. We reiterate our unrestricted solidarity with the Cuban people in their exercise of their self-determination, for peace and freedom, against the aggressive and retrograde policies conducted by the US imperialism. We hope that these news and the commitment expressed today by US President Barack Obama, in conversation with Cuban President Raúl Castro, are important steps towards the actual normalization of relations based on the respect for the Cuban sovereignty, for the end of the blockade and of the US’ interferences.
To Gerardo, René, Tony, Fernando and Ramón, our fraternal hug and our cheers!
Long live the heroic Cuban people!
Socorro Gomes,
President of the World Peace Council
17 December 2014.