HAVANA, Cuba.- Youths from a hundred nations of the world held a gala Monday night at the Havana-based Latina American School of Medicine to voice their demand for the release of the five Cuban antiterrorist fighters held in the US since 1998.

End this injustice! Freedom for the Five now! were slogans voiced by the youngsters during the gala “We are the World,” which marked the five thousand-day incarceration of the five Cuban heroes.

Gerardo Hernandez, who turned 47 years old on Monday, Fernando Gonzalez, Ramon Labanino, Rene Gonzalez and Antonio Guerrero were dedicated songs, poems and statements in what was described as a genuine tribute to their example and fair cause.

The incarceration of the Five is what most resembles fear in the face of truth, said Chilean Hector Felipe Riquelme, who noted that the gala symbolically became a trench of all nations to defend their most sacred rights.

The president of the student board also expressed, on behalf of the over 2 000 students from 94 countries at the Havana school, his strongest rejection of the US economic, financial and commercial blockade of Cuba. The youths also recalled that Gerardo Hernandez turned 47 years old on Monday in the US Victorville Federal Prison, where he is serving two life terms plus 15 years.

Hernandez’s wife Adriana Perez, who attended the ceremony along other relatives of the Five, was given with a birthday present for her husband consisting of a work by cartoonist Adan Iglesias, who heads a humoristic publication for which Gerardo once worked.

For this gala to be perfect, they would only had to be with us, back home, and finally free, said Perez, who has repeatedly been denied an entry visa by US authorities to visit her husband in prison.

Adriana Perez said that this has been the first birthday that Gerardo celebrated along some of his relatives and friends since he was arbitrarily arrested in 1998. His sister and Alicia Jrapko, coordinator of the International Committee for the Freedom of the Five requested permission to visit him in jail.

Other reasons that join Gerardo’s birthday to celebrate and keep on with our struggle are the wedding anniversary of Elizabeth Palmeiro and Ramon Labanino, and the 49 birthday of Labanino himself, next June 9, concluded Perez.