[NYTr] The Cuban 5 and Their Link to the Defeat of Apartheid Date: Sat, 18 Aug 2007 20:17:58 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit [See the original story at the URL below for some nice photos from Angola. The Cuban 5 are not heroes in Cuba simply because they were anti-terrorist agents in the US, or because they were railroaded in a Kangaroo Court in Miami. The earlier revolutionary work of three of the five is described here. The battle at Cuito Cuanavale is generally recognized to have been the final turning point in the long struggle to end apartheid. Cuba's crucial role in this struggle is one of the island's noblest achievements.-NY Transfer] Workers World - Aug 23, 2007 issue http://www.workers.org/2007/world/cuban5-africa-0823 Cuban Five's link to a historic defeat of apartheid By Cheryl LaBash Twenty years ago, in July 1987, the Angolan army (FAPLA) pushed back the U.S./South African-backed army of Jonas Savimbi in the southeastern part of that country newly liberated from Portuguese colonialism. When the racist South African Defense Forces (SADF) apartheid army moved in, threatening to destroy the strongest Angolan forces at Cuito Cuanavale, Cuba joined with the Angolans to decisively defeat the SADF and to smash the ideology of white supremacy. This joint military effort forced the apartheid army to withdraw on Aug. 30, 1988. The course of history was changed on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, freeing the South African colony of Southwest Africa, now Namibia, dealing a death blow to the apartheid system. Two years later, Nelson Mandela was released after 28 years of imprisonment to become president of South Africa. Mandela said Cuito Cuanavale bwas the turning point for the liberation of our continentband of my peoplebfrom the scourge of apartheid.b Three of the Cuban soldiers who fought shoulder to shoulder with Angolan fighters to defeat South Africa and its racist system are Fernando GonzC!lez, Gerardo HernC!ndez and RenC) GonzC!lez. They are currently unjustly imprisoned by the U.S. government along with Antonio Guerrero and RamC3n LabaC1inobknown internationally as the Cuban Five. These five heroes infiltrated the CIA-backed paramilitaries organizing attacks on Cuba from training bases in Florida. Luis Posada Carriles, who planned the first mid-air bombing killing 73 people on Cubana Airlines Flight 455 in 1976, walks freely in Miami, to continue planning attacks on sovereign socialist Cuba. Oral arguments on appeals for the Cuban Five will be heard by a panel of judges from the 11th Circuit Court in Atlanta on Aug. 20, but their freedom depends on making their story known in every community. [A July 7 article by Piero Gleijeses, bCuito Cuanavale Revisited,b published in the South African The Mail and Guardian newspaper and bCuba, Africa and the Cuban Five,b a chapter by the same author from bSuperpower Principles, U.S. Terrorism Against Cuba,b provided information for this article.] Articles copyright 1995-2007 Workers World. Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved. Workers World, 55 W. 17 St., NY, NY 10011 Email: ww@workers.org Subscribe wwnews-subscribe@workersworld.net * ================================================================= .NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems . Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us . .339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org . List Archives: https://blythe-systems.com/pipermail/nytr/ . Subscribe: https://blythe-systems.com/mailman/listinfo/nytr =================================================================