"Free the Cuban five, now! Justice for the five, now!"
That was the rallying chant for more than two dozen people who gathered to protest in front of the U.S. consulate on West Pender Street yesterday afternoon.
It was the eighteenth time members of the protest group "Free the Cuban Five Committee - Vancouver" had assembled in front of the consulate.
"The U.S. has done everything to block information about the five Cubans in jail," said Noah Fine, the coordinator of the committee.
The "Cuban Five" are Antonio Guerrero, Roman Labanino, Fernando and Rene Gonzales as well as Gerardo Hernandez, who were arrested in Miami in 1998 "because they simply defended their country, Cuba, from terrorist acts by extremist right-wing groups of Cuban exiles in Miami," Fine explained.