New York, May 27 (EFE) .- A group of organizations in New York today called Barack Obama the president to authorize humanitarian visas to two Cuban to visit their husbands, imprisoned in this country for conspiring against U.S. national security.
The organizations, led by House of the Americas and the Center for Constitutional Rights, also seek to educate Americans about this issue because they believe that many do not know what happens to the efforts of Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez and thus, have their support.
They claimed at a conference that for twelve years, the U.S. has prevented Salanueva and Perez to visit their husbands Rene Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez, respectively, to deny permission to travel to this country.
They said that while Iran allowed Americans detained in that country for about a year and accused of espionage could be visited by their mothers, the U.S. violates the right of Cubans to have visits from their wives.
According to the activists, the authorities have denied the visa on the grounds that both "are a threat to U.S." and therefore asked them not to return to apply for permission.
The rest of the wives of the Cuban prisoners have been able to travel to the USA and other families of Gonzalez and Hernandez.
"They are twelve years they have repeatedly asked for the visas to see their husbands, a right they have, but the State Department has told them not even think to order them because they are not going to give," Nancy told Efe Cabrero, president of Casa de las Americas.
According to the civil rights attorney Don Kuby, the U.S. Constitution guarantees prisoners the right to see their family. ". "If they were in the U.S., could see" them as with other prisoners in the same prison to serve out their sentences.
The so-called "five in Cuba", Gerardo Hernández, René González, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Ramon Labanino were arrested in 1998 in Florida and a Miami federal court found them guilty of conspiring against U.S. national security through the network call espionage "Wasp" in 2001.
Hernández has two life sentences, one for espionage and other by plotting the downing of two planes of the Miami anti-Castro group Brothers to the Rescue "in 1996 shot down by Cuban fighters in an incident that killed four drivers, while Gonzalez was sentenced to 17 years.
"We have faith in the hearts of Americans, that they know of the injustices being committed against these women, their voices will join the campaign," he said referring to the collection of signatures to ask the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, who finally let Salanueva and Perez join their husbands.
. The committee Campaign Wives Without Rights "carries out a national campaign and on June 4th will be collecting signatures in support of Salanueva and Perez against the Carnegie Hall concert during the Cuban singer Silvio Rodriguez.
Today's call is also extended to the first lady, Michelle Obama, to intervene in favor of the two Cuban.
"We believe that through what we've seen of her as a wife, as a person of family can be a voice to convince her husband that this is something that needs immediate attention," also noted the activists, who recalled that figures as actors Danny Glover and Susan Sarandon have joined your claim.
For its part, the Reverend Lydia Lebron, of the Methodist Church The Resurrection in the South Bronx, said: "This is a matter of social justice, respect for the dignity of every human being, which we believe are being violated to hear the request for family reunion.
"We are committed to all it has to do with dignity, harmony between people and human reconciliation. Families are entitled to visit even if they are in prison," she concluded.
