The latest obstacle raised against altering our Cuba policy is the case of Alan Gross, who has been held in Cuba for three years, on a 15 year sentence for his undercover contract work for a U.S. project to bring U.S. style democracy to Cuba, by trying to smuggle in communications technology which is not commercially available and can send messages that cannot be traced. U.S. media report that he lost 100 pounds, ignoring that before his arrest he was obese, weighing 300 pounds. They repeat suggestions that he has untreated cancer, ignoring the contrary findings by a Cuban medical team and verified by U.S. Medical Doctor and rabbi who just visited him.

As a lawyer, I was one of very few people allowed to visit Fernando Gonzalez during his long stay in the Federal Prison in Oxford, WI. As one of the Cuban 5, held in U.S. jails since 1998, he was assigned by Cuba to monitor Orlando Bosch, a career terrorist who operated freely in Miami. Bosch is most notoriously known for co-engineering the 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airplane, killing all 73 on board. But it is Fernando who is now serving his 15^th year of imprisonment in the U.S., and the biggest crime he was charged with was working for Cuba without registering as a foreign agent.

Clearly Mr. Gross’s situation is equivalent in that respect, except that he worked as part of a U.S. program to undermine Cuba’s revolution, while the Cuban Five worked to prevent acts of terrorism plotted in South Florida. This was after Cuba complained that such terrorism has killed over 3,000 Cubans, and that the U.S. was not effectively enforcing our own laws against such violence. None of the Five had any classified U.S. information, so none were ever charged with espionage, although three of them were given life sentences in Miami for supposedly conspiring to do what they never actually did (spy on the U.S.). They are considered heroes in Cuba, and their’s is the only domestic U.S. case in our history which has been criticized as being lacking minimal requirements of fairness by both the U.N. and Amnesty International — in addition to some 10 Nobel Prize laureates, former President Jimmy Carter and a unanimous decision by the original 3 judge US court of appeals panel in their case.

Obama could resolve this issue by negotiating with Cuba, starting with a mutual release of these prisoners. Obama also has the opportunity – if not the responsibility — to work towards normalized relations with Cuba, restoring the right of US citizens to travel there, and for mutually beneficial trade. (After Hurricane Sandy tore through Cuba’s second largest city, causing what a UN observer called “the worst catastrophe in 50 years” there, it is still illegal for any U.S. supplier to sell any Cuban even a hammer or a bag of cement.) See additional info & actions at www.freethefive.org or www.thecuban5.org.

–Art Heitzer, Chair, National Lawyers Guild, Cuba Subcommittee

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US economic blockade against Cuba hits church assembly

from Christian Today, posted: Thursday, December 13, 2012, 18:03 (GMT)

The US blockade against Cuba has forced the Latin American Council of Churches to postpone its forthcoming General Assembly… the CLAI has now had to postpone the assembly after the US branch of the Ecuadorian bank Pichincha froze a deposit of $101,000 made by the CLAI headquarters in Quito, Ecuador. The transfer had been intended to cover the cost of food and lodging for the 400 delegates and other participants who had been due to attend the assembly….
The general secretary of the World Council of Churches, the Reverend Dr Olav Fykse Tveit, said it was “greatly disappointing” that the assembly has had to be postponed. “It is simply not acceptable that the US government through regulations of its banking system has decided to create these obstacles for a significant Christian body that cannot meet, whether it is in Cuba or elsewhere,” Dr Tveit said.
“The United States has an obligation and has repeatedly expressed the commitment to uphold religious freedom. This is a case where the US government could easily have helped to avoid this embarrassing situation but has failed.
“This also shows that the decades old economic blockade of Cuba is out of touch with the realities in the world today, particularly in the faith-based communities, and should be ended for the sake of justice and peace.”
“The United States has an obligation and has repeatedly expressed the commitment to uphold religious freedom. This is a case where the US government could easily have helped to avoid this embarrassing situation but has failed.
[For the full article, click on http://www.christiantoday.com/articledir/print.htm?id=31249]

Past Events:

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Peace Action Wisconsin and the Wisconsin Coalition to Normalize Relations with Cuba are teaming up to bring you: Urban Agriculture in Venezuela and Cuba!

Peace Action Program Director Mike Helbick and WI Cuba Coalition Chair Art Heitzer will present flms and engage the audience in conversations about how class, poverty, and development efforts effect Cuban and Venezuelan urban agriculture strategies.

The event will be held at 7pm at the Urban Ecology Center at Riverside Park, 1500 E. Park Place, Milwaukee.

and don’t forget about our event on Tuesday, July 9 at 7pm. “Havana: The History of our Hemisphere’s Most Unique City.”  Scroll down for more information.

Havana: The History of Our Hemisphere’s Most Unique City