Join the Amnesty International campaign for the Miami 5 wives

Miami 5 campaign

Amnesty International campaign update

April 2009

Amnesty International have just issued a new appeal on behalf of visiting rights for Olga Salanueva and Adriana Perez, two of the wives of the Miami 5.

The TUC urges trade unionists to join the campaign online through the Amnesty International website.

Adriana Pérez and Olga Salanueva, Cuban nationals whose husbands are serving lengthy prison sentences in the USA, have for the ninth time been denied temporary visas allowing them to visit their husbands. Olga Salanueva has been told that she is now permanently ineligible for a visa.

The US authorities have denied successive visa applications from both women over the course of seven years. The reasons cited for the denials are based on claims that both women are threats to national security. Yet neither woman has faced charges in connection with such claims, nor has any credible evidence been produced to substantiate the allegation. Over the years, the grounds cited for denying temporary visas has varied, highlighting an inconsistency in the authorities' reasoning for prohibiting the women's visits to their husbands.

Adriana Pérez's latest application was rejected in January 2009 due to her status as "non-eligible" under the US 'Enhanced Border Security and Visa Entry Reform Act of 2002'. This legislation restricts the 'issuance of visas to non-immigrant's from countries that are state sponsors of international terrorism'.

'I have lived in Cuba since I was born, yet this is the first time that US authorities have used this piece of legislation to deny me a visa. It is a paradox that the families of the other 'Cuban Five', who also live in Cuba, continue to receive visas in spite of this Act'. Adriana Pérez - March 2009

Olga Salanueva's most recent application was refused on the grounds that she was deported from the US in November 2000.

The women's husbands, René González and Gerardo Hernández, are part of a group known as the 'Cuban Five' or 'Miami Five', who have been imprisoned in the USA since 1998. They were found guilty of 'acting as unregistered agents of a foreign government' and related charges. Although some Cuban relatives in the case of all five prisoners have been granted visiting visas, they have experienced considerable delays ranging from a couple of months to two years before learning their applications were successful. Prior to her deportation in 2000, during René González's trial, Olga Salanueva had been living legally in the US. She was subsequently granted a visa to visit her husband in March 2002, which was revoked on 23 April 2002, shortly before her trip. In 2002 Adriana Pérez obtained a visa to visit her husband but was detained upon arrival in the USA and expelled 11 hours later.

Denying prisoners visits from their family in these circumstances is unnecessarily punitive and contrary to standards for humane treatment of prisoners and states' obligations to protect family life. The organization has urged that these restrictions be reviewed, drawing the government's attention to international standards that stress the importance of the family and the right of all prisoners to maintain contact with their families and to receive visits. In the case of prisoners whose families live outside the USA, indefinite or even permanent denial of visits from the prisoner's immediate family is a severe deprivation to the individual.

Full details are at: www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/AMR51/041/2009/en/f9c713db-a083-4da2-ab4d-50420fda35fe/amr510412009en.html and www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/AMR51/041/2009