PRESIDENT Fidel Castro presided over the launch of a book of cartoons by Gerardo Hernández, one of the five Cubans imprisoned in the United States on alleged charges of threatening that country’s national security.

On December 29, Fidel, now recovered from a slight injury to his left leg and wearing his traditional khaki fatigues, opened an exhibition of the cartoons comprising the book El amor y humor todo lo pueden (Love and Humor Can Do Anything) and graphics from the book, on display at the José Martí National Library.

During the cultural event, Ricardo Alarcón, president of the National Assembly of People’s Power, recounted details of the trial of Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, René González and Fernando González, and the contradictions that clearly reveal “the cynical and abject nature of that veritable judicial farce.”

“These five young Cubans,” he added, “were imprisoned for their ideals, while fighting against the dirtiest murderers (of the Miami anti-Cuban extreme right), using nothing than intelligence.”

Alarcón described the third charge against Gerardo - of conspiring to commit murder in the case of the light aircraft brought down in February 1996 - as “a veritable circus in which the terrorists wanted to revenge themselves on Cuba, the Revolution and Fidel.”

In his opinion, Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, René and Fernando constitute living examples of the fact that nothing can imprison ideas.

After referring to them as “heroes and paradigms of culture and youth,” Alarcón noted that they are notable intellectuals whose work is more known of in the world through the many solidarity movements calling for their release, because “they are genuine combatants of terrorism.”

For the legislator, the five Cubans were “imprisoned in a farce of a political nature to legally consecrate terrorism against Cuba.”

Alarcón concluded: “Today we are waging a new battle to annul that farce, by holding a retrial in any other place outside that den of corruption (Miami).

On November 11, Antonio’s lawyer Leonard Weinglass presented a motion for a new trial based on the shameful conduct of the DA and Judge Joan Lenard in the manipulation of the defense’s original application asking for the trial to be held outside of Miami, dating back to 2000.

The motion presented lays out the intentional manipulation by the DA, the bad faith, the delay and manipulation in the services of an specialist, all of which expose the violation of the legal rights of the accused to a just, impartial and due trial.

Adriana Pérez read out a letter from her husband Gerardo written on December 21, from his “cell bed, resting on a an empty cardboard box under a light bulb that says it’s 60, but I don’t know if that means watts or years.” in it he assures that the title of Heroes of the Republic of Cuba conferred on the Five a year ago “constitutes the greatest honor of our lives.”

On December 29, 2001 in an extraordinary session, Cuban deputies gave Gerardo, Ramón, Antonio, Fernando and René the highest distinction granted by the Council of State for “having fulfilled with exemplary dedication, dignity and firmness the sacred mission of defending the homeland and protecting it from terrorism.”

El amor y humor todo lo pueden is a selection of cartoons drawn by Gerardo at different stages of his life. In the dedication, the author writes: “I have various photos in my cell - cuttings from newspapers and magazines - of different marches and open tribunals by our people. Few things in life have so much impressed me and filled me with pride as those seas of Cuban flags, and I never tire of looking at them and showing them. I want to dedicate this book to all those anonymous faces: the child, the old lady, the physically disabled, the student movement, to our heroic and hardened people who have always been able to grow in the face of difficulties without losing their good humor.”