Havana, August 6 (RHC) -– Philadelphia’s Geller Foundation granted its Nelson Mandela Prize to the five Cuban anti-terrorist fighters who were given unfair prison sentences in the United States after they infiltrated U.S.-based violent organizations that planned terrorist actions against the Cuban people.

The prize, granted for the first time by the U.S. institution, was handed over by the director of the New York-based Center for Cuban Studies, Sandra Levinson, during a meeting in Havana of 25 members of that center with relatives of the five Cubans and Fernando and Rene Gonzalez, the only two who have returned home after fully serving their prison sentences.

During the meeting at the Cuban Friendship Institute, on July 30th, the 25 visitors from New York and New Jersey expressed their interest in learning more about the African roots of Cuban culture.

The Geller Foundation in Philadelphia is led by two members of the Center for Cuban Studies and when Mandela passed away, they established the annual prize to be granted to those people that best incarnate the human qualities of the South African leader.