On Tuesday, July 21, Gerardo Hernández, Ramón Labañino, Antonio Guerrero, René González and Fernando González, known popularly as the “Cuban Five,” were welcomed in El Salvador as part of a world tour to thank communities across the globe for their solidarity and support throughout their years of imprisonment in the United States on trumped-up conspiracy charges.

The Cuban Five were arrested in 1998 in Miami, Florida, where they were investigating right-wing, anti-Castro terrorist cells operating within the United States. They were finally freed in 2014 as part of the negotiations to re-establish US-Cuban diplomatic relations after decades of struggle for their release.

El Salvador’s President, Salvador Sánchez Cerén of the leftist Farabundo Martí National Liberation Front (FMLN), welcomed the Cuban Five at the Presidential Palace. “You are the messengers of hope and dignity to the peoples of Latin America,” he said. “We know that your story will continue to inspire our peoples to keep the ideals of justice and liberty alive.”

In a packed public event at the National University of El Salvador and activities with FMLN leadership, the five were welcomed as heroes, reflecting the long-standing relationship between the popular movements of Cuba and El Salvador. “The example of the struggle, sacrifice and resistance of the Salvadoran people has served as inspiration to us,” said Gerardo Hernández, who returned home to Cuba in December 2014 after sixteen years of imprisonment.

Another group of Cubans arrived in El Salvador shortly after the Cuban Five’s visit. A group of eleven opposition activists were detained at the airport after presenting false invitations to an intergovernmental conference being held in San Salvador, the Magisterial Conference of Democracies, of which Cuba is not a participant. Though the group was eventually allowed to proceed through immigration, the situation drew outcry from Cuban-American opposition groups in Miami.  In response, El Salvador’s Communications Secretary stated that, “entry into El Salvador is not conditioned upon the ideological traits of those who seek to enter the country.”