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Posted on September 10, 2007
Bay City News Wire

Bay Area Mayors Petition For Cuban Inmates' Wives

(BCN) BERKELEY-- Mayors of 13 California cities, including five Bay Area mayors, sent a letter to U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales today requesting that two Cuban women be allowed into the U.S. to visit their incarcerated husbands. Their husbands, Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez, are Cuban nationals who were convicted in Miami, Fla. in 2001 for allegedly engaging in espionage, conspiracy to commit murder and false identification, among other charges.

The two men were convicted along with three other Cuban nationals, known collectively as the "Cuban Five." The group has maintained that they were in the U.S. to monitor Miami-based extremist groups responsible for carrying out violent terrorist attacks against Cuba. They are currently appealing their sentences, according to Richmond Mayor Gayle McLaughlin’s office.

"I'm deeply saddened by the fact that our federal government has not yet allowed these two women to visit their husbands in the U.S. ... It seems to me that our nation, who proclaims family values to the world, can do much better than this and allow these families to visit," McLaughlin said in a statement Monday.

Hernandez is serving two consecutive life sentences at the US Penitentiary - Victorville in Adelanto, Calif. According to McLaughlin’s office, Hernandez has not seen his wife, Adriana Perez O'Conner, in nine years.

Rene Gonzalez is serving a 15-year sentence at the Federal Correction Institution in Marianna, Fla. He has not seen his wife, Olga Salanueva Arango, for seven years, according to McLaughlin's office.

"The two women should be able to visit their husbands on humanitarian grounds. People in California and in the United States, as well as around the world, are aware of their situation. Their case is under appeal and there is no justifiable reason to deny these families the right to visitation," the letter stated.

McLaughlin, Berkeley Mayor Tom Bates, Albany Mayor Robert Lieber, Salinas Mayor Dennis Donohue and Santa Cruz Mayor Emily Reilly signed the petition along with eight other California mayors, according to McLaughlin’s office.