http://themilitant.com/2015/7925/792555.html
The Militant (logo)
Vol. 79/No. 25 July 20, 2015
Cuban 5 in South Africa:
‘We are soldiers of revolution’
BY EMMA JOHNSON
The Cuban Five got a hero’s welcome when they landed in Johannesburg
June 21 for a 13-day visit in South Africa. Jubilant crowds greeted them
as they entered the arrivals hall of the O.R. Tambo International Airport.
The Five — Cuban revolutionaries who spent many years unjustly
imprisoned in the United States — were invited by the governing African
National Congress, which organized their program together with the South
African Communist Party, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the
Society of Friendship with Cuba in South Africa and the National
Association of Democratic Lawyers.
They paid tribute to Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo, historic leaders
of the revolutionary movement that brought down the white supremacist
system of apartheid, and visited Robben Island where Mandela and other
leaders of the freedom struggle spent many years in prison.
“We feel a deep admiration for the freedom fighters in South Africa,”
Gerardo Hernández said, speaking to hundreds at Tambo’s grave site,
where they went directly after their arrival. “We spent many months in
solitary confinement. The example of your warriors inspired us all the
way through. We want to thank you for all your support for the Cuban
Five and the Cuban people. And we want to let you know that the same way
we were able to count on you, the people of South Africa, you can count
on us, the Cuban Five and the Cuban people.”
Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René
González were jailed in Florida in 1998. Framed up on charges, including
conspiracy to commit espionage, their sentences ranged from 15 years to
double life imprisonment.
René and Fernando González served their sentences in full before
returning to Cuba. In December the remaining three were released as part
of the agreement to move toward re-establishing diplomatic relations
between Washington and Havana, and the Five were reunited on Cuban soil.
This victory for the people of Cuba, their government and the
international campaign demanding their freedom was possible because of
the Five’s dignity, courage, discipline and firm refusal to break under
harsh prison conditions.
The visit to South Africa coincided with the 60-year anniversary of the
adoption of the Freedom Charter, the programmatic platform for the
revolutionary struggle that brought down the apartheid regime. Before
taking part in the ceremony in Kliptown June 26 they met with President
Jacob Zuma, the featured speaker at the event.
They visited five of the country’s nine provinces, attending a session
in Parliament, speaking at several universities and meeting with
national and provincial political leaders and diplomats from neighboring
countries.
“What is it with the Cuban people that make them extend solidarity and
volunteer for internationalist missions as doctors, technicians,
soldiers?” asked a participant in a “Cuban Five Answer Questions”
program on national TV.
“We had a real revolution,” René González responded. “When you have a
real revolution and you defend that revolution, you change, you have to
grow. We learned that our fate is linked to everyone else in the world.
An injustice to anyone is an injustice to us.”
Their last stop was in South Africa’s northernmost province Limpopo,
where they met Cuban medical volunteers. Hernández told them that many
people had asked where the Five will work in the future. “We always say
that we are soldiers of the revolution and we are waiting for the next
order to serve wherever we are needed,” he said.
From South Africa the Five continued to Namibia and Angola. Hernández,
Fernando González and René González were among the 375,000 Cuban
volunteers who fought against South African military interventions in
Angola from 1975 to 1991 along with Namibian and Angolan forces. Their
victory helped bring about the independence of Namibia and the
dismantling of apartheid in South Africa.
Related articles:
In victory for revolution, Cuba, US to open embassies
Relations require ‘respect for independence and sovereignty’
Cuba helps push back Washington’s attacks on Venezuela
Build on revolutionary Cuba’s victory
Front page (for this issue) | Home | Text-version home
