Oslo lessons: right-wing terror and the Cuban 5

The unspeakable tragedy in Norway reminds the whole world of the need for renewed vigilance against right wing terrorism.

Oslo and Otoya Island in Norway, Havana in Cuba, and Oklahoma City in the U.S. are thousands of miles apart. Still, people in all three countries have been victims of mass slaughter by right-wing fanatics.

In each of these countries, young people were the special targets of the diabolical killers. The Norway murderer targeted youth at a summer camp. The Oklahoma City bomber’s victims included 19 children at the Federal Building day care center. The bombers of a Cubana air flight killed all 78 on board, including the teenage members of the Cuba’s Olympic Fencing team.

The Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh has been executed and Anders Breivik is awaiting trial in Norway. But the perpetrators of the Cubana Airline bombing are still at large in Miami. Meanwhile, in a gross travesty of justice, five Cuban men who risked their lives trying to expose and stop the right-wing terrorists are serving long sentences in U.S. maximum-security prisons.

Today, on July 26, as peace-loving Americans send greetings to the Cuban people in honor of Cuba’s national holiday, let us also direct an urgent message to Washington DC. In the name of anti-terrorism we demand freedom for the Cuban 5!

Photo: At the Colon cemetery in Havana, Cuba during a ceremony in memory of the Cubana Airlines victims. The 1976 bombing killed 73 people. (Javier Galeano/AP)