ZIWAPHI • VOL 4 NO 1 • 15-28 JANUARY 2010

The students of Sitfokotile High School and the youth of Matsulu township were treated to a free political school on Wednesday morning. The teachers? A team of four young Cubans.

The delegation of four members of the Unión De Jóvenes Comunistas (Young Communist League in Cuba) is in the country at the invitation of the African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL). The main purpose of the visit is to mobilise South Africans to support the campaign for the release of five Cubans who are serving long prison terms in United States of America.

The Cuban 5, as they are popularly known were arrested by the FBI in September 1998 and falsely charged with espionage against the U.S. They were held without bail for 33 months between arrest and trial. For 17 months of this time they were held in solitary confinement cells, completely cut off from their families and young children, and not even able to communicate with each other.

They were convicted June 8, 2001 and sentenced December 2001 as follows: Gerardo Hernández, 2 life sentences; Antonio Guerrero, life; Ramón Labañino, life; René González, 15 years; and Fernando González, 19 years.

One of the members of the UDJ delegation, Irma González Salanueva, is the daughter of René González, one of the prisoners.

The extreme length of these sentences is made worse by the cruelty of the treatment of these political prisoners. Even up to now, family visits to the five have been forbidden. In the case of one of the prisoners his wife who was born and bred in the USA has been deported to Cuba.

The message from the young Cuban delegation was that the Cuban people need international solidarity to defend their 50-year revolution, which has been under attack from the respective USA governments.

“We have had a blockade for 50 years and we have been trying to survive the blockade. Even though we have the blockade we are trying to develop our health, our education and own system and we have done so. So we are here to exchange experiences with the young people of South Africa and get them to know about the Cuban Five and for us to know about the history of South Africa.

Irma’s father was part of the Cuban contingent that participated in the Angolan war against the apartheid regime. He is a pilot and flight instructor.

The delegation will be in South Africa for 17 days and Mpumalanga Province was one of the five provinces that they will be visiting.

“We love the people of South Africa, they are our brothers and sisters because we fought together. We know that you also love our history and our people.”

The delegation handed out the picture of former Cuban President Fidel Castro and the Cuban internationalist and revolutionary, Che Guevara.

Guevara who was a minister of Finance in Cuba and in 1965 decided to abandon the perks of being a government minister to pursue the liberation of other countries, staring with Africa and all the way to South America, where he was captured and executed by the CIA in Bolivia.

“We gave the picture to the school as a example of what you can do to make the world a better world for everybody, to inspire them to keep on studying the history of the world and their own decisions on their own behalf on the development of their own society,” says Irma González Salanueva.

When asked what encourages Cubans to be engaged in international struggles, it seemed as though the young Cuban was a reincarnation of Che.

“We fought the revolution, not only for Cuba, but for the entire world. We have never been struggling only for us. We’re trying to make a better world. We know we are a small country, but we just want to give our humble knowledge that we have gained to the people to say that there is a possibility to do something different for everybody, and not just the rich people; to study, to have access to health and to have a better system, because the world belongs to everybody.

“With the little resources we have been trying to help other countries by sending doctors, teachers and giving them hope by fighting alongside them. That’s something we feel we have to do. It’s a duty,” said González..

The spirit of Che lives in Matsulu