On Friday December 5th, more than 150 people from across Mexico and the United States gathered at the Hotel Palacio Azteca in Tijuana Mexico to hear Magali Llort, the mother of Fernando Gonzalez, one of the Cuban Five, who is serving 19 years in a US prison.
Many representatives of unions from Latin America and the United States attended the event that was scheduled to coincide with the Fifth North American Labor Conference taking place December 6-7.
The evening event was organized by the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five, the Cuba/Venezuela/North America Labor Conference-V and the US/Cuba Labor Exchange.
Ernesto Freire, head of the International Relations of the Confederation of Cuban Workers (CTC) presided over the evening event. Alicia Jrapko of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Cuban Five welcomed the participants, thanked those who worked hard to build the event, and introduced the panelists.
Andres Morejon, a representative of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) talked about the growing worldwide solidarity with Cuba and the Cuban Five.
Silvia Garcia, from the Cuban National Assembly apologized in the name of the Attorney Leonard Weinglass, who could not be present. Weinglass had to cancel his trip to Tijuana due to a critical meeting of the legal team as they prepare to present the case of the Cuban Five to the US Supreme Court. Garcia explained the legal status of the case and stressed the importance of international support for the five Cuban heroes.
Magali Llort received a standing ovation from the audience to which she responded “I know this standing ovation was not just for me, but for what I represent as a mother of one of the five men who were defending their country against terrorism”
Also present at the event from Cuba were Carmen Godines, Director of the Americas, Department of Foreign Relations of the CTC, and Ramon Cardona, General Secretary of the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) of the American Region.
A short video “The Miami Five Ten Years on” was shown. Two solidarity messages were read at the end of the event, one from Cuauhtémoc Amezcua Dromundo, First Secretary of the Mexican Socialist Popular Party and the other from Gayle McLauglin, the Mayor of Richmond California.
Inspired by the evening's program, a delegation of people from Mexicali, who are part of the Mexican Resistance Movement, announced that they were forming a new committee to free the Cuban Five in that border city.
Magali Llort was interviewed by Radio Baja California, a commercial station that was heard all the way to Mexicali. Also, Llort was interviewed by phone that was later broadcasted in a program of the Pacifica Radio Station “Enfoque Latino” from Southern California.
During the weekend labor conference, speakers mentioned the case of the Cuban Five as an important struggle to fight for. Unions from the US such as ILWU, UNITE HERE and the USW made a commitment to bring the case to their memberships.
