U.S. government once again denies visas to wives of Gerardo Hernández and René González
The following is the text of a strongly worded statement by the Cuban Foreign Ministry in response to the denial of visas to two of the wives of the Five for the third time. The new anti-terrorist legislation, introduced after the September 11 attack, has been used to classify these women as threat to ‘the national security of the United States’ highlighting the human rights violations inherent in the legislation.
ON Saturday June 20, 2003, via the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Olga Salanueva Arango and Adriana Pérez Oconor, the wives of heroes of the Republic of Cuba René González Sehewert and Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, respectively, lodged applications with the U.S. authorities for visas to travel to the United States in order to visit their husbands, unjustly imprisoned in U.S. jails, Gerardo Hernández and René González.
More than four months after they applied for the visas and despite many requests for a response made by the Foreign Ministry, the authorities at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana have officially announced that the visas for both women have once again been denied.
With this new reprisal, the U.S. government is attempting to break the revolutionary spirits of our imprisoned comrades and their wives by imposing an additional punishment that has no justification whatsoever.
Once again, they have been denied their right to travel to the United States to visit their husbands. Every time they have asked for authorization to enter U.S. territory the government of that country has denied it, thus violating not only international law but also U.S. legislation itself. In order to justify that decision, the U.S. authorities had recourse to the ridiculous argument that the two women constitute a threat to U.S. national security.
That decision by the U.S. authorities is in violation of their international obligations enshrined in the declaration protecting all persons from torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment; principles for the protection of all persons subjected to deprivation of freedom; principles for the protection of all persons subjected to any form of detention or imprisonment; and minimum regulations for the treatment of prisoners.
In addition to being a clear transgression of internationally recognized international standards, the conduct of the U.S. government also constitutes a systematic and flagrant violation of the human rights of our imprisoned comrades and their families.
It is evident that this decision reflects the U.S. authorities’ efforts to castigate the example of heroism and patriotism represented by our five heroic prisoners of the U.S. empire, and thus please their buddies in the south of Florida.
For more than 40 years various U.S. administrations have organized, encouraged or allowed numerous acts of terrorism against Cuba, in which citizens of other countries and their own have also lost their lives. These actions have not stopped and those responsible are acting with total impunity. Some of them are strolling the streets of Miami and using media space to incite such acts of terrorism.
It is the very U.S. government, which proclaims itself the leader of the battle against international terrorism, that has incarcerated five compatriots precisely for having penetrated terrorist groups that, with the protection of the authorities, are freely operating against Cuba from U.S. territory, as is explicitly confirmed in official documents declassified by Washington and is moreover reiterated in the legal charges brought against the Cuban patriots; in the district attorney’s arguments against considering the terrorist issue in their trial; in the statements of witnesses who acknowledged their participation in actions of that type; and in the court sentencing, where the protection enjoyed by terrorists encouraged and supported by the U.S. government is confirmed in writing.
It is likewise that government which, despite all the information offered on these groups, has failed to take any measures to halt and eliminate such acts.
It is that same government that has rejected Cuban proposals to sign cooperation agreements in the context of combating terrorism, drug trafficking and illegal emigration.
The Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs demands that the U.S. authorities reconsider this arbitrary refusal and, in fulfillment of their international obligations and U.S. legislation, allow Olga Salanueva Arango, her young daughter Ivette, and Adriana Pérez Oconor, to exercise their inalienable right to visit their husbands and father unjustly imprisoned in U.S. jails.
Havana, November 17, 2003