Cuba Demands Release of Five Cubans Detained by USCuba's National Assembly president Ricardo Alarcon denied Friday that his country is interested in US military secrets and asked the United States to free the five Cubans it has detained.While meeting with members of the 12th US-Cuba Friendship Caravan, Alarcon explained in detail the case of the five young Cubans arrested in Miami in September 1998 on charges of alleged espionage. He said the only thing these Cubans were doing in the United States was investigating anti-Cuban terrorist activities. "Cuba is not a military power, nor a strategic rival to the United States," he said. Alarcon also referred to the continuous violations of Cuba's air space by light aircraft used by the anti-Cuban organization " Brothers to Rescue." The parliamentarian leader said that the Cuban people have launched a campaign for the release of the five arrested Cubans, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando Gonzalez and Gerardo Hernandez. After denouncing "the silence of the U.S. media" on this affair, he said if the American people had known the truth they would also ask for the release of the five Cubans. The participants in the Caravan arrived in Havana on June 4 after gathering 80 tons of food, medicine, medical equipment, computers and school materials donated to the island country in open defiance to the U.S. blockade. |
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