letter of january to Obama: the last!

Mr. President Obama

The White House

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.

Washington DC 20500 (USA)

Mr. President,

Just as the millions of people who are attached to liberty, I experienced an intense emotion when I learned of your decision to render the liberty to the three remaining Cubans of the Cuban Five, who were so unjustly imprisoned in the USA. This first step, as well as the reestablishment announced, of diplomatic relations between your country and Cuba, should open a new era of mutual respect between your two countries.

I have no doubt that this decision added a touch of joy within the heart of your family, during these New Year’s celebrations.

With this letter, which is the seventy-fourth one that I’ve written you, I would like to speak with you of another tragic case left unsaid, a case that is tied to relations between Cuba and the United States – that of Anna Belen Montes.

This case could very well have something to do with the “mysterious Cuban spy” that the Cuban authorities freed along with Alan Gross. You have not yet mentioned his name, but according to the weekly magazine “Newsweek”, this man is in all likelihood Rolando Sarraff Trujillo who, while he was working for Cuban Intelligence, was in the service of the CIA.

This Rolando Sarraff Trujillo is probably behind the arrest of the Cuban Five, and also that of Anna Belen Montes.

Ms. Montes, aged 44 years, was arrested on September 20th 2001, for espionage activities benefiting Cuba. She was sentenced in October 2002 to 25 years in prison. She narrowly escaped from a death sentence. Since then she has been kept in solitary confinement at the Federal Medical Center prison, situated within the naval airbase at Fort Worth, Texas. She is not allowed any mail and the only visits allowed are those of her close family. She cannot have any relations with other prisoners, nor can she telephone anyone. She cannot receive any newspapers and is not even allowed to watch television. No one can inquire after her health. Her unique identity is that of prisoner n° FMC 25037-016.

Before having been arrested, she was a senior executive at the DIA (Defense Intelligence Service), therefore she knew all about the hostile policies of her country towards Cuba.

She declared, after having been made aware of her sentence:
« …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 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 … »

As a matter of fact, Anna Belen Montes, obeying her conscience, was the precursor of the beginnings of the new relations between Cuba and the United States that are being established at this moment.

This woman, who merits our total respect, if she had been liberated in her turn, would have put an end to these tragic arrests tied to the decades of your country’s scandalous policies towards Cuba.

Ana Belen Montes granted a presidential pardon, we would have the beautiful image of your Government ready 
to abandon its hostility towards Cuba and to work with Havana in a spirit of tolerance, mutual respect, and understanding.

Please receive, Mister President, the expression of my most sincere humanitarian sentiments.

Ps: I am joining to this letter the paroles of the song “Anna Belen Montes”, written by the singer David Rovics.

Jacqueline Roussie

64360 Monein (France)

Translated by William Peterson

Copies sent to: Mrs. Michelle Obama, Nancy Pelosi, Kathryn Ruemmler and to Mr. Joe Biden, John F. Kerry, Rand Beers, Harry Reid, Eric Holder, Denis MacDonough, Neil Eggleston, Rick Scott, and Charles Rivkin, United States ambassador in France.

Song for Anna Belen Montés

Twenty-five years was what the judge said

Then he banged his gavel and shook his head

You’ve done wrong, you broke our trust

Now we caught you and this is a bust

Now you’ll spend these decades behind bars of steel

You thought you could play with us, but this is for real

He said you gave away secrets to the enemy

Now you’ll live in prison in the land of the free

(Chorus)

But here beneath this Cuban sun

I’d just like to thank you for all you’ve done

My heart today is torn apart

Ana Belen Montes, you are a spy after my own heart

"I obeyed my conscience rather than the law," so you said at your secret trial

You took no money for your work, so says your declassified file

You warned the Cubans of the plans of the assassins from the US

Just what other good deeds you did, they may never tell us

(Chorus)

High up in the ranks of the DoD you served the common good

Working alone, night and day, you did just what you should

Of all the great people I have known, there are few that I’d call greater

Than one woman who obeyed a higher law, who the judge called traitor

David Rovics