Ricardo Alarcon: The U.S. Government Has the Responsibility to Protect Rene Gonzalez

The president of the Cuban National Assembly (Parliament), Ricardo Alarcon, said on Monday that the Government of the United States has contracted the responsibility to protect the physical integrity of Rene Gonzalez, one of the five Cuban antiterrorists who remain unjustly imprisoned in the U.S. since 1998 and who will be released on October 7.

Alarcon called an “additional punishment” the decision by the U.S. Government to force Gonzalez to stay in U.S. territory under supervised release for three years after October 7.

The Cuban top legislator was attending the inauguration at Havana’s National Museum of Natural History of an exhibition of paintings by Antonio Guerrero —another of the five Cuban antiterrorists.

“This exhibition is a message of hope and it shows that, even in the most difficult circumstances, it is possible to fight,” Alarcon added.

‘Cubania en mariposas’ (Cuban Identity in Butterflies) is the name of the exhibition that includes 25 watercolors portraying Cuban butterflies.

Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero, Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labañino, and Fernando Gonzalez —internationally known as the Cuban Five—, were arrested
and given harsh and unjust sentences for monitoring anti-Cuba extreme right-wing groups in South Florida that were planning and carrying out terrorist actions against the Caribbean nation.