Sydney, July 29 (RHC) -– Ailí Labañino-Cardoso, daughter of Ramon Labañino, one of the Cuban Five political prisoners held by the United States since 1998, will be in Sydney speaking at a public event on Saturday, August 16th. This as part of a tour organized by the Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union (CFMEU), the Maritime Union of Australia (MUA) and supported by the Australia-Cuba Friendship Society (ACFS).

Ailí Labañino-Cardoso has been politically active in the UJC, the Young Communist League, since she was a teenager and is a youth leader in Cuba. As a fighter for the freedom of the Cuban Five, she has spoken at many meetings and conferences in Cuba and internationally.

Ramón Labañino and his compatriots, Gerardo Hernández, Antonio Guerrero, Fernando González and René González are Cuban revolutionaries who, during the 1990s, were sent by the Cuban government to gather information on the plans of violent Cuban-American paramilitary groups with a long history of terror attacks against Cuba.

In September 1998, they were arrested by the FBI. The Five were framed and convicted of a variety of charges. Without a shred of evidence, three were convicted of conspiracy to commit espionage against the United States.

René González was released and returned to Cuba in May 2013. Fernando González returned on February 28th this year. The other three remain behind bars in a travesty of justice for defending Cuba against U.S.-based anti-Cuban terrorists.