This speech was given on February 23rd 2007 by Jesus Moreno, a Venezuelan social justice activist, at a picket action held outside the US consulate in Vancouver to demand that the 5 anti-terrorist Cuban Heroes be freed.

On October 6th 1976, two time bombs planted on the Cubana Flight 455 of Cubana de Aviación exploded, killing all 73 people on board. All 48 passengers and 25 crew aboard the plane died: 57 Cubans, 11 Guyanese, and five North Koreans. Among the dead were all 24 members of the 1975 national Cuban Fencing team that had just won all the gold medals in the Central American and Caribbean Championship - many were teenagers. Two men were charged for the planning of the terrorist act: Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada Carriles. Both belonged to an anti-Cuban terrorist organization known as Coordination of United Revolutionary Organizations - CORU.

During the trial for their crime, Bosch was acquitted because of technical defects in the prosecution evidence. He now lives in Miami, Florida after being pardoned of all American charges by President George H.W. Bush on July 18th 1990; Posada Carriles, on the other hand, escaped from prison and eventually fled to the United States, where he is currently being held on charges of entering the country illegally, as of August 2006. Posada did not stop his terrorist career after his Venezuelan imprisonment. It is known that Posada Carriles helped to coordinate drops of military supplies to the Contras, a paramilitary collective opposed to the leftist Sandinistas in Nicaragua. This started a civil war, leaving more than 30,000 dead in this Central American nation. Posada also admitted being part of a plot to bomb Havana hotels, which led to the death of an Italian tourist. In addition, he was jailed for an assassination attempt on President Castro in Panama in 2000.

In April of 2005, a new warrant for Posada's arrest in connection with the bombing was issued by Venezuela. In September of the same year, a US immigration judge ruled that Posada should not be deported to either Cuba or Venezuela because he could be subject to torture.

The government of the United States refused to send a terrorist threat to trial because he could be subject to torture. If the United States is so concerned with torture, then perhaps they should close down Guantanamo Bay, where hundreds of detainees are subject to sensory depravation, sleep depravation, the use of so-called truth drugs, beatings, locking in confined and cold cells, and being forced to stand in stress positions for long periods of time. But of course, this is not torture according to the US government; rather this is called counter-resistance techniques to break down detainees. Well, then what about Abu Ghraib, with its thousands of shameful photos recording the bizarre abuses committed on the Iraqi people?

Or perhaps it would be better to go back in time, to talk about Nicaragua and its 30,000 deaths, killings which were carried out thanks to the economical and political support of the Reagan administration. Or perhaps even earlier, with Pinochet’s Caravan of Death, or the Argentinean military dictatorship’s dirty war. The whole of Operation Condor, in which 50,000 persons were murdered and other 30,000 "disappeared". The list could go almost forever. Just name a country, and there would be a case of terrorism which has not only been promoted but also carried out by the government of the United States of America.

To try these men would amount to set a trial against the innumerable atrocities committed by a handful of people who disguise their desire for profit under the stars and stripes of a flag. This is what the United States cannot accept. To them, the idea of allowing the justice of the masses to prevail over the justice of profit seems not only ridiculous but also dangerous in a time when Latin America has chosen to take its destiny in its own hands, at a time when Cuba more than ever is an example to follow for a fundamental change. But obviously, if committing terrorism is a virtue to the government of the United States, then preventing it must be a crime.

Those five Cuban men who are now being held in prison are 5 brave Latin American heroes. Those five men left everything behind in order to fight the real terrorist threat in the world, namely, US state-sponsored terrorism. Gerardo, Antonio, Ramón, Fernando, and René: five names which enclose 522 million souls demanding justice. These five names will be always present in our hearts, and the light of their example will cover the whole of our land starting from Rio Grande, all across the Caribbean, jumping from peak to peak in the Andes, from tree to tree in the Amazon, going all the way down to our Tierra del Fuego. We are here today not only to demand the immediate extradition of Luis Posada Carriles to Venezuela, but also the immediate release of these five brave Cubans, for their struggle has been done in the name of Latin America, and now Latin America struggles back in their name. Gerardo, Antonio, Ramón, Fernando, and René, the struggle will continue until the last of you has reached the pure soil of your beloved Cuba.



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