Note: In the open letter below, actor Danny Glover appeals to the President of the United States, Barack Obama, to issue humanitarian visas to allow two of the wives of the Cuban Five to visit their husbands, who are in prison in the United States. For background on this case, click here .
September 27, 2010
The Honorable Barack Obama
President of the United States
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President:
My name is Danny Glover. I work professionally as an actor. Today I write to you not as Danny Glover the actor, but as an American, a proud American, a voter, a father, and an activist.
I am respectfully requesting that the United States of America issue humanitarian visas to Cuban wives, Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva for the sole purpose of visiting their husbands, Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez, two of the Cuban Five, who in self defense of their nation and their families are now in United States prisons.
I cannot imagine the pain, the suffering, the emotional longing, and the punishment that not seeing a life- partner in over ten years would cause. It has been that long since Cuban citizens Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez saw their wives. Not being able to hear their voices, speak to them, look into their eyes, hold their hands or simply say I love you, for over a decade is devastating and psychological torture. It is tantamount to cruel and unusual punishment. Mr. President imagine being in a foreign country and not allowed to communicate in any way with or see your beloved, your chosen life- partner, the mother of your children, your family member for over a decade.
I ask you as a Nobel peace prize winner, a humanitarian, a former constitutional law professor, as the President of the United States of America, but most importantly as an American, a husband, a father and a family man, please reconsider the United States' merciless position and allow Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez visits from their wives.
As an American, I am aware that our history has been far from perfect. Yet I strongly believe in our values and principles of justice, fairness, humanitarian treatment and strong family ties. As recently as March of this year, before retiring from the highest Court of our land, Supreme Court Justice Stevens acknowledged in Padilla v. Kentucky, the cruelty and the seriousness of tearing families apart through deportation and reversed the rulings of other courts.
The request to allow these husbands to see their wives, Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva is not my request alone. Many recognized and respected International and American civil liberties groups and organizations have asked and demanded the same.
Today I join Amnesty International, the United Nation Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, the Center for Constitutional Rights, the Casa de las Americas (the oldest Cuban organization in the United States) and the Wives Without Rights Campaign. We must not just speak and write of our values of fairness and human rights but also exercise them. In contrast to our country's unsympathetic stance, in the last ten months, Iran has issued humanitarian visas to American mothers allowing them to see their incarcerated children.
In our American system of fundamental rights, we as a country provide and afford prisoners basic human rights and denounce and ostracize countries that strip prisoners of all human rights. The United States through the United Nations and global pronouncements and international treaties has claimed to be one of the pioneers in the movement toward international human rights. While prisoners are deprived of many of their rights and liberties, as a country we believe and uphold the values that prisoners are and remain human beings and as such are still entitled to basic human rights, regardless of political distinction.
Preventing Gerardo Hernandez and Rene Gonzalez from seeing their wives is cruel and dishonorable punishment. Prohibiting the visitation of their wives is an injustice that goes against the moral and legal obligation of our country and a travesty of the high moral leadership we advocate to the world.
Mr. President, I respectfully ask that the State Department of the United States of America act immediately and issue humanitarian visas to Adriana Perez and Olga Salanueva for the sole purpose of visiting their incarcerated loved ones.
Sincerely,
Danny Glover