| CAFE FUERTE Relatives of the pilots ask Obama to not release Cuban spy Last updated Monday, 2 August 2010 11:18 Published Monday, 2 August 2010 10:46 By Wilfredo Cancio Isla Google translation. Edited by Walter Lippmann. - Relatives of the Brothers to the Rescue pilots shot down in 1996 asked President Barack Obama to dismiss a possible prisoner exchange with Cuba in favor of the agent Gerardo Hernandez, convicted of espionage in the United States. Armando Alejandre, Mario de la Peña, Carlos Costa and Pablo Morales, Brothers to the Rescue pilots shot down by Cuban fighter on February 24, 1996 "To the families of the victims we are concerned that in future changes in relations between Cuba and the United States justice for our loved ones might be shelved," said a letter sent to the White House for the families of Carlos Costa, Armando Alejandre Jr., Mario de la Peña and Pablo Morales. The details of the request come to light at a time when the Cuban government has launched an intense international campaign for the release of Hernandez, 45, allegedly subjected to abuse and serious health conditions. The letter was sent to Obama on 24 February, coinciding with the fourteenth anniversary of the shootdown. "We'd like to meet with you to discuss our opposition to a prisoner exchange with Cuba that includes Gerardo Hernandez," the letter said. Hernandez, leader of the Wasp Network, was the only one of five Cuban agents who was blamed for the downing of the planes. He has received two life sentences plus 15 years in prison in Victorville, California. The text recalled the validity of an indictment against the Cuban officers who committed murder and should be brought in U.S. courts. The White House responded by email June 15, informing family members that the president could not join them because of his busy schedule. Kuhly Maggie Alejandre, sister of Armando Alejandre, said she was disappointed by the lack of responsiveness to the request of Washington family. "It is troubling that the White House to give us back at a time when Cuba has stepped up its campaign to make America a scapegoat for their ills and make early plans for Gerardo Hernández," said Kuhly to CaféFuerte. This Sunday's National Assembly devoted the first part of its regular session in the case of Hernandez and blamed the U.S. for health and physical integrity of the prisoner. The choice of an exchange of prisoners returned to gravitate as a possible solution of the case. Exchange no "gestures." "The gesture is there, Cuba has freed these prisoners, some of whom have already traveled to Spain. Cuba for many years really has been showing signs of gestures, but we have never received a sign, "he told reporters Sunday Hernández's wife, Adriana Perez, who was invited to the session of Parliament. "We expect a gesture, albeit with the visas to Olga [Salanueva, wife of convicted spy René González] and me. That has not even been produced in nearly a year and half Obama administration, "complained Perez, who has not received a visa in 12 years. The United States has repeatedly denied visas to the two women on the grounds that were part of the spy network. Salanueva was deported to Cuba in 1998. Perez and echoed the rhetoric of "gestures", recently used by Fidel Castro himself, who complained that America had not had the "gesture" of releasing so-called Cuban Five. "You would imagine that these five companions, who are there, in separate jails ... they have not made the slightest gesture to release them," Castro said during a speech to artists and intellectuals in the Jose Marti Memorial Plaza of the Revolution on 26 July. The Cuban-American lawyer Jose Pertierra, a strong advocate for the release of the five, insisted that President Obama has absolute power to grant executive clemency, derived from the United States Constitution. In the hands of Obama "The Justice Department has an office dedicated to evaluating possible recommendations for presidential pardon or executive clemency, and may, in its discretion, ask the alleged victim of a crime their opinion," said Pertierra. "But the final decision is the President's, and he has no restrictive parameters." The Cuban regime launched a media campaign for the release of Hernandez few days after 13 July when the first batch release of Cuban political prisoners of the Black Spring of 2003 following a tripartite agreement with the Catholic Church and the government of Spain . Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon, said Hernandez was confined to a punishment cell, suffers from hypertension and was infected with a bacteria that circulate among the prison population. On July 28 he arrived in Miami the former prisoner Ariel Sigler Amaya, a paraplegic and visible deterioration of health, to receive emergency treatment. His statements on harassment and lack of medical care in Cuba have grabbed international headlines. The next day, Alarcon called for using "New information technologies" in reporting the case of Gerardo Hernandez. In December, Alarcon himself had acknowledged that there were few legal ways to obtain the release of the five men. "We can only fight in the political arena, mobilizing and doing so with revolutionary passion", admitted to deputies of the International Relations Committee of parliament. "Only a united movement increasingly large and persistent, you reach the highest levels of Washington, may obtain the release of our five comrades." During a visit to Brazil in December 2008, Raul Castro suggested the United States make "a gesture of both parties." Trade, not "gestures". "The gesture is there," said the Cuban leader. "Cuba has freed those prisoners [jailed dissidents], will you drop?, To be told, they were sent there with family and everything. Let us return to our five heroes. It is a gesture of both parties. " |
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