On Monday December 12, 2005 the Free the Cuban 5 Committee-Vancouver organized a picket action to protest the US government's imprisonment of 5 Cuban political prisoners in the United States. This protest was to be only the first of many as the Vancouver committee announced that they will be organizing pickets at the US consulate in the future to protest this injustice.

This first picket, held at the US Consulate downtown Vancouver, was an important and successful protest of the US government's attacks on the 5 Cuban heroes and to show solidarity with the 5 political prisoners in US jails.

The Cuban 5 are five Cuban men who were investigating anti-Cuban terrorist groups in Miami in an attempt to prevent them from carrying out further terrorist attacks on Cuban people. These same groups like "Brothers to the Rescue" and "Alpha 66" were responsible for the 1976 bombing of an Air Cubana tourist flight that killed all 73 people on board as well as countless acts of water and livestock poisoning and bomb attacks in Cuba over the last 45 years. After presenting their findings to the US government, instead of arresting the terrorists, the US government arrested the 5 cuban men and convicted them of trumped up charges ranging from conspiracy to commit espionage to conspiracy to commit murder and they were sentenced from 15 years to double life sentences.

The picket in Vancouver began at noon when many people downtown were out on their lunchbreaks and stopped by to find out more information on the case. Protesters carried signs and waved Cuban flags in the chilly wind chanting "Free, Free, Free! Free the Cuban 5!", "US Hands Off Cuba!" and "US Imperialist: #1 Terrorist!" as they picketed in a circle in front of the US consulate.

The protesters, made up mostly of young people and students from local colleges and universities, joined together in this action and caught the attention of media outlets such as the Metro Vancouver and 24hr Vancouver newspapers.

The first round of picketing was introduced by the group's coordinator, Noah Fine, reading a statement of solidarity with the 5 and condemning the US government's unjust imprisonment of the 5 fighters for humanity. "What were these men imprisoned for?" he asked. "For defending their own country against terrorist attacks!" His statement exposed the US hypocritical "war on terror" as really a war on Arab and Muslim people and immigrants in the US and a war on third world countries abroad while admitted anti-Cuban terrorists like Orlando Bosch sit comfortably in Miami with nothing to fear.

"It is important to bring this case to people in Vancouver especially as it is a positive case." said the co-ordinator of Vancouver Communities in Solidarity with Cuba (VCSC) Tamara Hansen as she spoke to the crowd. "It is an example of Cuban people taking action to defend themselves against these terrorist attacks which have killed more then 3300 people since the Cuban revolution. More than that, it is an example of defending the incredible gains that the Cuban people have made in their country where their education, housing and social services are far ahead of those of any other Latin American countries. And it is a crime that the Cuban 5 defenders of humanity are being punished and imprisoned for their heroic acts!"

The December 12 picket has significance not only for the Cuba solidarity movement in Vancouver but all over the world. In a time when Cuba and other third world countries are coming increasingly under the brunt of the attack by imperialists such as the US it is urgently important to defend and support these sovereign nations.

for more information on the Free the Cuban 5 Committee - Vancouver go to: vancubasolidarity.com/freethefivevan or www.freethefive.org