letter of april to Obama.

Mr President Obama
The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.

Washington DC 20500.

Mr President,

The little village where I live with my family is situated at the foot of the Pyrenees Mountains, in Bearn.

Chiefly at the end of the nineteenth century, a number of people from Bearn, just as their neighbors the Basques, immigrated to Argentina, to Uruguay, to Cuba and to the United States (particularly to Miami).

The ties with our “American cousins”, which have never been broken, explain the acute conscience we have of the United State’s meddling in the affairs of Latin-American countries.

The saga of the five Cubans - Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González, Ramón Labañino, and René González, prisoners in the United States for more than twelve years now, is a flagrant example, a textbook case, of this meddling!

For more than twelve years, in the United States and all over the world, lobbies, foundations and political pressure groups have financed, organized and manipulated information concerning the Cuban Five
This affair is tied in with the terrorism that the United States practices towards Cuba, which is a taboo subject that has not been mentioned for more than fifty years. This terrorism, from the start, had been organized at the highest level, in January of 1960 by Allen Dulles, the head of the CIA, in charge of the “Special Forces” organized to commit subversive actions against Cuba.

Fifteen days after the death of the young Italian tourist Fabio Di Celmo in 1997 after a terrorist bombing attack in Havana, his brother Livio Di Celmo received calls from the media from all over the world. Nevertheless, neither CNN nor ABC nor The Herald nor The London Telegraph, or any other mass media, published a single article explaining the connection between the North American regime and the terrorists in Miami. Neither the Italian reporters from the Corriere nor those from the Repubblica informed their readers of the death of one of their fellow citizens, a victim of terrorism made in the USA, nor did they give any information concerning the Cuban Five. The major press agencies (AP, UPI, Reuters and AFP) well played their role in the domain of disinformation.

That the reporters from Florida had been paid to write hateful articles so as to create a deleterious atmosphere during the Cuban Five court case of course shocks us, but doesn’t surprise us; it was in the nature of the government of the United States at that time. What really disappoints us, Mister President, is to see that you carry out the same policies as your predecessors concerning Cuba. When you were elected, we had sincerely hoped for new relations between your two countries.

Barely three weeks ago, we learned of the new economic blockade against Cuba - $4,207,000 seized, money that was destined for the Worldwide Funds for the Struggle Against Aids and Tuberculosis. Whereas, according to international conventions, a blockade is not supposed to affect the sphere of healthcare

On the other hand, your administration proposed to allocate 20 million dollars in its 2012 budget for programs intended for restoring what you call “democracy” in Cuba. This represents a veritable act of war. The obsession of the successive governments in the U.S. is in point of fact the summary execution of the Cuban revolution. Cuba is a sovereign country; the government that the Cubans choose, Mister President, regards no one but themselves!

Does your accession to the presidency of the United States mean that nothing is going to change? Is it thinkable that the report written by the Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Lester D. Mallory to his Secretary of State Roy R. Rubottom, in a memorandum on April 6th 1960, is still topical? He recommended:

"Most Cubans support Castro. There’s no effective political opposition (...) the only foreseeable means to alienate internal support is by creating disillusionment and discouragement based on lack of satisfaction and economical difficulties (...) We should immediately use any possible measure to (...) cause hunger, desperation and the overthrow of the Government."

In such a context, how far will the relentlessness of your country towards these five Cubans go? What kind of justice can these five patriots, who were imprisoned for having defended their country, expect when the person who had them arrested is the protector of the worst terrorists in Florida? This man, Hector Pesquera, is the one who instigated the destruction of the case file on Posada Carriles, who is presently under trial in El Paso. Is this criminal going to get out scot-free from this court case as a hero, lily-white ?

In the name of the numerous friends of the Cuban Five all over the world, I ask you again, Mister President, one more time, to be deserving of your Nobel Peace Prize, to sign an executive clemency order that would finally give them the liberty they’ve been deprived of for more than twelve years.

Please receive, Mister President, the expression of my most sincere humanitarian sentiments.

(translated by Bill Peterson)

PS : It is with a deep and profound loss that we learn of the death of lawyer Leonard Weinglass. He was a tireless defender of the Five’s cause.

Be assured, Mr. President, we shall continue his fight for Justice.

Jacqueline Roussie

Copies sent to: Mrs. Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Janet Napolitano Mr. Harry Reid, Eric Holder, John F. Kerry, Pete Rouse, Donald Werrilli, and Mr. the Ambassador of the USA in France.