“The worst thing that can happen to anyone in the American system of justice is to be alone. Solidarity is necessary, not to intimidate the Court. But to indicate that the world is watching and the law should be followed.”
Leonard Weinglass, US civil rights lawyer

The NOBEL LAUREATES Wole Soyinka, Nadine Gordimer, Desmond Tutu, Rigoberta Menchú, Adolfo Pérez Esquivel, José Saramago, Harold Pinter, Zhores  Alfiorov, and Günter Grass , and more than 6000 intellectuals and artists of all the world, among them: Noam Chomsky,  Oscar Niemeyer,  Mario Benedetti,  Harry Belafonte, Pablo González Casanova, Ernesto Cardenal, Thiago de Mello, Danny Glover, Walter Salles,  Eduardo Galeano, Alice Walker, Manu Chao, Atilio Borón,  Francois Houtart,  Ignacio Ramonet, Luis Sepúlveda, Tariq Ali,  Ramsey Clark,  Gianni Miná,  Frei Betto,  Miguel Bonasso,  Howard Zinn, Jorge Sanjinés,  Rusell Banks and Alfonso Sastre, demanded in an open letter to the US General Attorney the inmediate liberation of the Cuban Five.

Noam Chomsky

“The thing with the Cuban Five is such a scandal, its hard to talk about it.”

“The five Cubans who have been imprisoned in the United States is something that is a secret from the people of the United States. So we have a very important job to do in the United States for people in the progressive movement.  And that is to make the situation known to people because I believe the American people have a basic sense of decency.  When they learn that something inhuman has happened, they react against it…” Howard Zinn

 “A general boicot is being applied by European media: this story is not mentioned neither in newspapers, TV or radio. We are dealing with a completely censored issue.”

Also expressed their solidarity with the Cuban Five:

·          More than 900 parliamentarians of all the world

·          British, Irish, Russian, Mexican and Mali Parliaments

·          the 113rd Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union  

·          Women Forum held in occasion of the Sixth Session of the Joint Parliamentary Assembly of the ACP-EU countries

·          Network of Parliamentarian Women of the Parliamentary Conference of the Americas.

 “The deprivation of Iiberty of Messrs. Antonio Guerrero Rodriguez, Mr. Fernando González Llort, Mr Gerardo Hernández Nordelo, Mr. Ramón Labañino Salazar and Mr. René González Sehweret is arbitrary, being in contravention of article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights”, Working Group on Arbitrary Detention of the UN Human Rights Commission, May 27, 2005

“We urge the US government in the meantime to take every step to ensure that the five are treated fairly and are not subjected to any undue deprivations while they continue to be incarcerated, including denial of family visits.” Amnesty International, January 11, 2006

The National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL), the National Association of Federal Defenders (NAFD), and the Florida Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (FACDL) submitted Amici Curiae in support of the Cuban Five before the 11^th Circuit Court of Appeals.

 “The Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers (IADL) ratifies the IADL’s denunciation of the manifest violations committed along this process by agreeing to circulate all relevant information about this process among our members with a view to further disseminating this case in jurist and other social organizations, make it known in every international forum we attend and develop parallel judicial and any other possible action at international level so that proper, necessary justice be achieved regarding the case of the Cuban Five.” April 12, 2006