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The
ProLibertad Freedom Campaign
It is with great sadness that we in the ProLibertad Freedom Campaign announce that our sister and friend Puerto Rican Prisoner of Conscience/Political Prisoner Ana Belen Montes has been diagnosed with Breast Cancer. Details about her condition are slowly trickling in, but according to her cousin Miriam Montes, a member of La Mesa de Trabajo de Ana Belen Montes in Puerto Rico, she will need a mastectomy and radiation therapy. The movement for her liberation is calling on all allies to support her freedom campaign at this pivotal juncture. We all know that prison medical care is abysmal at best and especially horrific for Political prisoners and Prisoners of Conscience! We need to rally around Ana now more than ever. Please click the link below and send President Obama this letter demanding her release! We can't allow Ana to suffer with this horrible disease in her already inhumane prison conditions! Send Obama a letter today and motivate all your friends and family to do likewise.
Send this letter out for Ana as soon as possible! WHO IS ANA BELEN MONTES? Does anybody know who Ana Belen Montes is? It’s a question frequently asked by friends of the valiant woman imprisoned by the USA because she acted on her belief that US policies and actions toward Cuba were profoundly unjust. The daughter of Puerto Rican parents was born in Eastern Germany, where her military-officer father was based, on February 28th, 1957. Her American citizenship enabled her to become a high level employee of the Pentagon’s (Defense Department’s) Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), which was her position when she was prosecuted and condemned as a spy for informing the Cuban government about aggression plans to be directed against the Cuban people, something which didn’t affect her country’s national security nor put any innocent lives in danger. In 1979, when she was 22 years old, the University of Virginia granted her a bachelor’s Degree in International Relations. Later on, she acquired a Master’s Degree in this specialty. In 1985 she was hired by the DIA. Due to her capabilities, she was sent to the Air Force Base in Bolling, Washington, where she worked as a specialist in intelligence investigation. In 1992 was promoted to the Pentagon as an analyst. Using a fake position, she was located for a while in the diplomatic representation in La Habana in order to 'study‘ the cuban military. In 1998 she was sent again by the DIA to the island to observe the development of Pope John Paul II visit to the island. Ana was known to be polite, modest and always smiling. While living alone in a simple apartment on the north side of the american capital, she climbed up until she became a top level analyst at the Pentagon, Senior Analyst. She rapidly was granted access to almost everything known to the intelligence community related to the Island. Due to her position, she belonged to a super secret ‘inter-agency working group on Cuba’, gathering all most important analysts in federal agencies, such as the CIA, the White House itself and the State Department. She was arrested by agents of the FBI on November 20th, 2001, while in her office at the DIA headquarters in the Bolling Air Base in Washington DC. Some days later she was accused of conspiracy to commit espionage in favor of Cuba. She was brought to court where she pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 25 years in prison with no parole – and no visits, correspondence, phone calls or any contact with anyone outside her immediate family: all of whom were military or FBI agents. Eventually she was transferred to Carswell Prison, inside a fortress in northern Texas, a federal prison for criminals with mental or physical illness, although she was not ill in any way. At her sentencing for espionage on Oct. 16, 2002 Ana told the court: 'An Italian proverb perhaps best describes the fundamental truth I believe in: `All the world is one country.' In such a 'world-country,' the principle of loving one's neighbor as much as oneself seems, to me, to be the essential guide to harmonious relations between all of our ''nation-neighborhoods.'' This principle urges tolerance and understanding for the different ways of others. It asks that we treat other nations the way we wish to be treated -- with respect and compassion. It is a principle that, tragically, I believe we have never applied to Cuba. Your honor, I engaged in the activity that brought me before you because I obeyed my conscience rather than the law. I believe our government's policy towards Cuba is cruel and unfair, profoundly unneighborly, and I felt morally obligated to help the island defend itself from our efforts to impose our values and our political system on it. We have displayed intolerance and contempt towards Cuba for most of the last four decades. We have never respected Cuba's right to make its own journey towards its own ideals of equality and justice. I do not understand why we must continue to dictate how the Cubans should select their leaders, who their leaders cannot be, and what laws are appropriate in their land. Why can't we let Cuba pursue its own internal journey, as the United States has been doing for over two centuries? My way of responding to our Cuba policy may have been morally wrong. Perhaps Cuba's right to exist free of political and economic coercion did not justify giving the island classified information to help it defend itself. I can only say that I did what I thought right to counter a grave injustice. My greatest desire is to see amicable relations emerge between the United States and Cuba. I hope my case in some way will encourage our government to abandon its hostility towards Cuba and to work with Havana in a spirit of tolerance, mutual respect, and understanding. Today we see more clearly than ever that intolerance and hatred -- by individuals or governments -- spread only pain and suffering. I hope for a U.S. policy that is based instead on neighborly love, a policy that recognizes that Cuba, like any nation, wants to be treated with dignity and not with contempt. Such a policy would bring our government back in harmony with the compassion and generosity of the American people. It would allow Cubans and Americans to learn from and share with each other. It would enable Cuba to drop its defensive measures and experiment more easily with changes. And it would permit the two neighbors to work together and with other nations to promote tolerance and cooperation in our one `world-country,' in our only 'world-homeland.''' This statement moved many of us to believe this woman should be free, and treated as the hero she is, not as a common criminal. She is currently imprisoned in the Federal Medical Center, Carswell, within the military Base of the USA Navy, Fort Worth, Texas. She is confined in the psychiatric area, although she is free from any illness of this kind. She is kept under extreme isolation: - She’s not allowed to receive any visits other than her immediate family. - She's not allowed to use a telephone. - She’s not allowed to receive any mail. - Nobody is able to learn about her health or the reason why she’s being kept in a psychiatric institution although she is not mentally ill. - Letters directed to her are returned by certified mail. - The Federal Bureau of Prisons says she is allowed to have contact only with close family members, because she is accused of espionage. Ana Montes never did anything to deserve such harsh, inhumane treatment. She didn’t kill anyone, didn’t harm anyone, and was motivated only by the purest of reasons. She never received any money from the Cubans, she was not recruited through any sordid blackmail tactic. She did not act out of vengeance or desire to obtain power in any way. Knowing the risks she was taking, she faced them because of her profound love of justice and sincere solidarity towards Cuba. Therefore, she deserves the greatest respect from all who love Martí’s homeland. HELP SPREAD THIS MESSAGE ABOUT ANA BELEN MONTES Also be aware that throughout the world many committees are being formed to support the call for more humane treatment, as well as liberation of this valiant woman, who defies the vengeance of the empire in such a dignified manner, without giving up her love for Cuba and humanity in general.
NYC Jericho Movement, P.O. Box 670927, Bronx, NY 10467 |
