Demonstrations across the United States in the past few days have called for the immediate release of the Cuban Five on the occasion of the 12th anniversary of their unjust imprisonment.
The actions have also demanded the granting of visas to Olga Salanueva and Adriana Pérez, the wives of René González and Gerardo Hernández who have been denied permission to visit their husbands for the entire 12 years.
Demonstrators have demanded, too, the extradition of Luis Posada Carriles, wanted in Venezuela for the murder of 73 people aboard a Cubana Airliner.
In San Francisco, dozens of people picketed, leafletted, and collected petition signatures on a busy downtown street corner.
Gloria La Riva, coordinator of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, spoke about the injustice being done to the Five, and announced a new initiative to raise funds for a full-page ad in the Washington Post, directed at President Obama and calling for the immediate release of the Five.
Braving the rain, Cuban Five supporters in New York City came out to commemorate the arrests of the Five and to inform the public at large of the case and why the Obama administration should free them immediately. The event was co-sponsored by A.N.S.W.E.R., the July 26 Coalition and Casa de las Americas.
In Washington, D.C., a protest took place in front of the headquarters of the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG).
The National Committee to Free the Cuban Five, under the Freedom of Information Act, submitted a request to the BBG seeking public disclosure of the BBG's funding of journalists who published materials against the Cuban Five and Cuba during the biassed trial in Miami.
Other actions sponsored by A.N.S.W.E.R. and the National Committee took place in cities across the country, including Albuquerque, New Mexico; Long Beach, California; Austin, Texas; Chicago, Illinois; Miami, Florida; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Seattle, Washington.