Cuban Reality: Did You Know that 10,000 Quebecois and Quebecoises
Traveled to Cuba in the last 21 Years?
No, not to Varadero or other beach resorts, but rather to work and live alongside Cubans.
The leader of this amazing initiative is Colette Lavergne. She is also a spokesperson for the Quebec-Cuba solidarity organization and was an active member of the Comité Fabio Di Celmo for the Freedom of the Cuban Five. She of course used the occasion of these trips to educate the people, mainly youth, about the case of the Cuban Five as soon as it was publicly know that they were in prison.
In addition, Colette organized the Quebec contingent to the annual Latin American Brigade in Cuba for the last six years. Yes, you read it right. Why integrating the Latin American Brigade? I know that she feels that Quebecois are originally Latino (the “Latinos of the North”) and their place is with Latin Americans. Organized in collaboration with ICAP, this has proven to be an excellent opportunity to learn and spread the word of the Cuban Five as well as Cuba reality.
Leader of this amazing
initiative: Colette Lavergne
There are different ways to deal with Cuban reality combined with information on the Cuban Five. In my case, I strive to contribute by presenting my book and research dealing with the Cuban political reality especially in universities, but also in neighbourhoods.
In April 2008 the International Committee organized a week-long tour in northern and southern California. Seven events were held in five days, mainly in universities and even a high school, confronting mainstream media disinformation about Cuba’s political system. During the course of these conferences, we also called for the freedom of the Cuban 5, with hundreds of people participating. Three radio interviews were aired reaching thousands of people not only in California, but in other parts of the US.
Right after the publication of my book in 2013, in 2013 and 2014 many lectures and conferences were given mainly in universities in the US, Canada and the UK. In the US, for obvious reasons, special attention was given to spreading the word about Los Cinco.
As a member of the Comité Fabio Di Celmo for the Freedom of the Cuban Five, I wrote many articles about the Cuban Five that were published widely in English and Spanish.
I guess one of my favorites is this one written in October 28, 2009 and published in Global Research:
“The Cruelty of Confinement of the Cuban Five: A Tiny Yellow Pencil
28 October, 2009
While waiting for his resentencing in a Miami jail, Antonio Guerrero, one of the Cuban Five, wrote a poem describing what he sees, hears and feels during the week he spent in the “hole.” Antonio writes in describing his routine: “once again a tiny yellow pencil.” With this tiny yellow pencil, “accorded” by the prison authorities from time to time, Tony’s voice, and that of the other Cuban Five, goes out to millions of people around the world: heads of state, international personalities and organizations and people from all walks of life that are increasingly discovering the truth about this case.
His writing and his paintings show that this is a man of profound convictions, honest, transparent, peaceful and sensitive to the problems of the people, even putting that concern before his own intolerable conditions under which he has been suffering for over eleven years.
In addition to all the water-tight proof and arguments presented by his brilliant and persistent lawyer Leonard Weinglass, all other legal and political personalities from Cuba and all over the world, the products of the tiny yellow pencil are a majestic condemnation of the lies and disinformation used by the US legal and political system against Tony. The US authorities put the Cuban Five through a kangaroo court over eleven years ago and through the same subterfuges have kept them in penitentiaries for all this time, mostly in the “hole” or lock-down; in two cases without the right of visits from their respective wives. The result of putting the tiny yellow pencil to paper, in the form of this simple but profound poem and other writings, shows that they are innocent. Here we have before us men of culture, persisting in defending personal and political convictions focused on opposing terrorist activities against their own people and organized from the south of Florida such as from Miami. They are not spies. They did not in any way put US security in danger.
Tony describes with the tiny yellow pencil the confinement of his cell. He also, with the most profound insights, paints a poetic portrait of the outside world (Miami) that he observes from the window in the “hole” where he was kept. The streets of Miami surrounding the jail! This is the Miami in which a real terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, responsible for the bombing of a Cubana Airlines flight off the Barbados coast killing 73 innocent people, walks the streets. The Miami streets are the host to this Washington-protected terrorist who is also responsible for the death in a Havana hotel of Fabio Di Celmo, an Italian-Canadian, as part of the US policy to disrupt the Cuban tourist industry.
Tony’s poem, revealing both his humanism and the cruelty of his confinement as is the case of the four others, amounts to a powerful appeal to President Obama to use his constitutional right to pardon in order to free the Cuban Five immediately. There are many events and incidents in the history of a country such as the US and of an individual such as President Obama. However, the fate of the Cuban Five is a litmus test of whether the claim for change is, or is not, sincere. No one can seriously and with a straight face look at the peoples of the world and talk about change, while five innocent men, whose only crime is opposing terrorism, linger in jail. No one can talk about opposing terrorism while refusing to concede to the Venezuelan demand for Carriles’ extradition in order to stand trial. Tony has the little yellow pencil. President Obama has access to a pen. He can use it, and with the stroke of this pen, free the Cuban Five now. As long as Obama does not do so, the little yellow pencil will continue to reverberate from the cell to the whole world, Tony’s words spreading to all corners of the planet, including the USA, with the help of the supporters of the Cuban Five.
Arnold August lives in Montreal and is a Member of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five and the Comité Fabio Di Celmo pour les 5 of the Table de Concertation de Solidarité Québec-Cuba.”
Source / Global Research:
http://www.globalresearch.ca/the-cruelty-of-confinement-of-the-cuban-five-a-tiny-yellow-pencil/15798
This was just one of a long series of articles on the Cuban Five and Cuban Reality written from 2009 to 2014. The Cuban Five in prison and their families back home in Havana all got copies of these articles, once again contributing in a modest fashion to their spirit and resolve. On March 6, 2013, the Association of Cuban Journalists (UPEC - Unión de Periodistas de Cuba) awarded me the Distinción Félix Elmuza for my outstanding journalistic work in solidarity with Cuba and the cause of the Cuban Five. This was extremely rewarding. In fact, I could not believe it when I got the news. The establishment media in Canada, with some exceptions, has little room for my type of journalism which sticks to principle and does not bend in order curry favour with them. Cuba on the other hand fully appreciates it. Two different worlds.
The latest book had been very difficult to write. The example of the Cuban Five inspired me and kept me on the track to produce it. This is why I dedicated my book to the Cuban Five and in honour of their heroic resistance.
They all got the book in prison. I hope that this helped them, even if in a small measure, to lift their spirits in their struggle to persist and keep their spirits high. The most important point is that one year ago today, all five were free.
