Thank you sisters and brothers from all over the world, I would like you to know that when we say thank you it is not a formal action; in the bottom of our hearts we know that if we are here, we really owe the effort of all the comrades worldwide who did not rest until we were set free and saw us here together with you. This way Gerardo Hernandez started his speech thanking all those involved on behalf the Cuban Five in the International Solidarity Meeting where they were awarded with the Stamp 75 Anniversary of the Cuban Workers’ Federation (CTC).
You represent a greater group of brothers who could not be in this event and I ask you to tell them our gratitude. They were all important. Their union was what made possible we could be here today together with you, our relatives and our people, he said.
May Day parade was a historical day for us. It was a dream we longed too much for that came true and it was greater because we could have you there together with us. We know each other today and we are a great family which is going to get closer every day to become one, because there are still other battles we should have like the one for Oscar Lopez and many others who also have the right to be free like us, he noted.
Gerardo also said that they are at present ready to join any just cause, and that they are willing to collaborate with them and he asked the delegates what they should do, they should tell them.
The blockade continues and if the US government lift it, we will be ready to fight, so no one again will impose it again. Revolutionary people can never rest, just no, “we do not want to be a colony of the Americans, and we do want to be a Latin American nation”, as I heard from a choir at the Revolution Square in Havana.
On behalf the Cuban Five, our relatives that many of you receive with love, we infinitely thank you. You have asked me for Gema. We could not bring her today for medical recommendations due to the weather, but she is here, because she is the fruit of such solidarity, he noted.
We were not freed by negotiation but the joined effort of all of you, and if not necessary enough, those 16 years turned into days, hours of resistance which we needed force to have them pass by, the inspiration was thinking about you, in your solidarity and support.
We are congratulated today for the resistance of the Cuban Five that is nothing but resistance of the Cuban people for more than 50 years where imperialism have not been able to break its iron will. They haven’t been able to isolate us. They have been the isolated ones, because there is still a socialist Cuba, a people who is more devoted than ever before to fight for its system. That is why we still trust in the support, the fighting spirit and solidarity of you all brothers and sisters worldwide, said Gerardo.
