The Cuban Five Freed: Toronto Welcomes Gerardo Hernández

Toronto — 3 April 2016.

Gerardo Hernández is one of the three of the Cuban Five who had been behind bars since 1998, until U.S. President Obama freed them on December 17, 2014. The release of the three was part of the agreement negotiated between the U.S. and Cuban governments concerning future relations between the two countries. Two of the Cuban Five, René González and Fernando González were released in 2011 and 2013 after serving their full sentences. Cuba maintained its absolute insistence that the remaining three prisoners be freed and as the international protests continued to grow, freedom for Gerardo, Ramón and Antonio became a vital issue in the negotiations.

Introduction by Heide Trampus and MC’ed by Juan Carranza. Presentations by:

• Jorge Garcia, United Steelworkers Canada
• Lisa Makarchuk, Friends of Cuba Against the U.S. Blockade
• Joe Mihevc, Toronto City Councillor, Ward 21
• Pablo Godoy, United Food and Commercial Workers Canada
• Miguel Figueroa, Communist Party of Canada
• Brian Gordon Sinclair, author and dramatic interpreter of Ernest Hemingway
• Javier Dómokos Ruiz, Consul General of the Republic of Cuba in Toronto
• Gerardo Hernández, one of the Cuban Five anti-terrorist fighters unjustly imprisoned in the USA (Sept 1998-Dec 2014)

Sponsored by: United Steelworkers, Canada; Co-sponsored by: Worker to Worker, Canada-Cuba Labour Solidarity Network, Canadian-Cuban Friendship Association, Toronto, and Friends of Cuba Against the U.S. Blockade.