Six Cuban heroes, including the five anti-terrorist fighters who faced long sentences in US prisons will visit Ecuador next week, at the invitation of President Rafael Correa, a diplomatic source confirmed.
 
In statements to Prensa Latina, the ambassador of the Caribbean island, Jorge Rodriguez, said Colonel Orlando Cardoso, who spent almost 11 years imprisoned in Somalia after participating in the war in Ethiopia as an internationalist, and Gerardo Hernandez, Rene Gonzalez, Ramon Labañino, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez will arrive in the capital on September 25.
 
For us it is a great honor to welcome our heroes here, said the diplomat, who said that visitors will have a tight agenda that includes their participation in the inauguration of the Latin American Progressive Meeting (ELAP 2015), on September 28, in Quito.
 
They will also visit the province of Sucumbios, where they will see the environmental pollution caused by Chevron Oil Company in the Amazonian territory, and will meet with members of organizations of solidarity with Cuba, and local authorities.
 
The Five were detained in September 1998 in Miami, where they were dedicated to monitoring anti-Cuban terrorist groups operating in southern Florida.
 
Sentenced to long prison sentences in a trial described as biased for the defense, René and Fernando were released in 2013 and 2014, respectively, after serving their full sentences.
 
Gerardo, Ramón and Antonio were released on December17, as part of negotiations between Cuba and the United States that paved the way to the normalization of bilateral relations.
 
The Cuban heroes will coincide in Ecuador with the head of International Relations Department of the Communist Party of Cuba, Jose Ramon Balaguer, who will head the delegation of the Caribbean island to ELAP 2015, which will bring together left organizations and movements from the continent.
 
It will be a good opportunity to socialize in Ecuador with two generations of Cuban revolutionaries, the historic time represented by Balaguer, and the new generation, said Ambassador Rodriguez.