[NYTr] Cuban 5 Prisoner Antonio Guerrero Expresses Thanks Int'l Solidarity Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2007 03:22:56 -0500 (CDT) Via NY Transfer News Collective * All the News that Doesn't Fit Agencia Cubana de Noticias (ACN) http://ainch.ain.cu/mailman/listinfo/ingles Antonio Guerrero Thanks International Solidarity Havana, Sept 12 (acn) Antonio Guerrero, one of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters unjustly held in US prisons, has written a letter in which he thanks the support, encouragement and affection received from so many corners of the world over the last nine years. Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez, Gerardo Hernandez, Fernando Gonzalez and Ramon LabaC1ino, known as the Cuban Five worldwide, begin their tenth year in prison on Wednesday, convicted of crimes they didn't commit. Their only "offense" was to protect Cuba and the United States from terrorist acts organized with impunity from US territory. In response to Granma newspaper's request to write on the topic of solidarity, Antonio Guerrero replied from Florence, Colorado, the prison where he is serving a life plus ten-year sentence: "It took me a while to answer the question about the letter of support received from the place most distant from Florence. First I had to remember the places from where I've received messages of support and encouragement, from regions of Europe, Asia, Africa and Australia. "I made a map of the world and began to locate countries and cities from where people had written me. Then came the most difficult part; calculating the distances. The Earth is round... "I got some help from someone to find a map with the longitudes and latitudes. That was a big step. Florence (or Florence, Colorado) is located at around 100 degrees west longitude from Greenwich (this is an approximation). I looked at the longitudes of cities and countries: Moscow (Russia), Tokyo (Japan), Victoria (Australia), Cape Town (South Africa) and New Delhi (India). "According to my calculation India was the country farthest from Florence of the countries from where I've received a letter. If my memory doesn't betray me, the letter came from our embassy in that country. New Delhi is located at approximately 80 degrees east longitude. We can almost say that it is the most distant place from Florence as far as longitude goes, that is, it is exactly 180 degrees of difference. "In miles the estimate is 12,000 miles, which converted into kilometers (multiplying by 1.609) equals 19,308 kilometers. (I hope our geographers don't laugh at these calculations). So my answer is India. "Now that I'm on the subject of the letters we've received and the countries from where people have written, I am going to give some mental statistics on a topic that shows how much our people are loved around the world and how much the Revolution is admired: Excluding Cuba, most of the letters I have received came from Europe. "Of the 38 countries that my calculations say make up the current European continent (that's another discussion: the word continent, because you'd have to include Asia) the most letters of support have come from the United Kingdom. "Now, from how many of the 38 countries have people written? Here I'll mention every country I can remember: Portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Belgium, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Slovenia, Greece, Czech Republic, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Russia, Sweden, Norway and Ireland, which makes a total of 20 countries. "There may be letters from other countries of the region, but that's what I remember. "It would be a long, complex and interesting task to explain each show of solidarity, support encouragement and affection that we've received from around the world. One day we'll do it, nobody should doubt it. But for now, I can say that they have all had an immense importance for the five of us and all have a place in our hearts. "Without a doubt our friends have taught us to learn the geography of our planet better; they have taken us to travel to their lands, and with them we have climbed mountains, crossed rivers, admired forests and grasslands. They have given us the opportunity to get to know their traditions and their history. They have taken us into their homes in which we have spoken in the most beautiful language, that of friendship and peace. "None of the Cuban Five could have imagined that behind the cruel and unjust sentences we received would come all these waves of friendship and love; a great tsunami of solidarity that took its waters to five distant prisons, breaking the walls and clearing the path to a safe return home, which is where these waves of friendship and justice will take us. "There are still a million things to say; for example the case of the Japanese woman who wrote me one day from Tokyo in Spanish saying that she was working on the translation of my book of poetry book From My Vantage Point. Then there's the girl from Turkey who sent me a photo and painting of her mother; the French students who consider me one of their classmates; the friend from Greece who, with her British father, always writes me. There's the letters from our internationalist doctors. Look, the list is never-ending and it's unfair not to mention everyone. It's something incredible and marvelous, something that gives us an invincible strength, like that of our already invincible people. * ================================================================= .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 =================================================================