Cuban Fighter against Terrorism, Gerardo Hernandez, met today with the Christian Workers Movement in Belgium, which supported for years the five Cubans who were held in U.S. prisons.
Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez were detained in 1998.
The Cuban Five, as they are internationally known, complied with unjustly imprisonment in the northern country, where they were convicted for monitoring extremist actions boosted from U.S. territory against Cuba.
The Movement held for years several actions in order to demand the release of those men, so they considered the exchange with the also Hero of the Republic of Cuba, a unique opportunity to first-hand hear some details of a cause for which they fought.
They also expressed their willingness to support the island in other battles, such as the lifting of the blockade imposed by Washington for more than 50 years and the return of the territory illegally occupied by the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo.
Steven Vanackere, leader of that movement and former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium, told Prensa Latina that he supported the cause because what happened to those men was an injustice.
If a global solidarity movement around the issue would have not been generated, their release would have not been attained, he said.
Hernandez thanked on behalf of his brothers in arm and their relatives, all the support they received. It was a complicated case because many people who were asked refused for fear of seeing their names involved in the matter.
Questioned about the new scenario in the relations between Cuba and the United States, he stressed that there are a lot of things to do because the blockade remains intact and we have to recover the territory of Guantanamo. The government of that country will not abandon its goal of destroying the Revolution, and the Caribbean island will not give up its principles, he said.
Hernandez also met with students at the Free University of Brussels. Together with Leonardo Tamayo, a member of the Che Guevara guerrilla in Bolivia, answered some questions made by those students.