[News] Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada: For Lenny

[Anti-Imperialist News]

For Lenny
By Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada

On the afternoon of March 23rd, the same day he 
would have turned 78 years of age, Leonard Wineglass’s heart ceased to beat.

He had been a victim of a cruel illness and since 
January of this year he had entered into a 
critical and especially painful stage of health, 
despite this, he did not distance himself for an 
instant from his work. During the last months of 
life, heroically combating both the illness and 
physical pain he dedicated himself with body and 
soul to the preparation and presentation of the 
habeas Corpus in favor of Gerardo Hernandez and 
Antonio Guerrero, without neglecting the work on behalf of other comrades.

Shortly before entering the hospital where he was 
to undergo surgery, he took the final steps in 
the appeals process of Gerardo and Antonio and 
delegated to other colleagues what they should do 
while he was undergoing treatment. Only then did 
he accept the ordeal of taking care of himself.

He was always like that. In his youth he began 
working in the law offices of Victor Rabinowitz 
and Leonard Boudin, where he fought countless 
legal battles in favor of workers unions, civil 
liberties and justice in the United States. With 
his brilliant defense in 1968 of the Chicago 8, 
Lenny began an endless and admirable career as a 
defense attorney representing Jane Fonda, Daniel 
Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, Angela Davis, 
Mumia Abu Jamal, Amy Carter, Kathy Boudin and 
many more to include the Cuban Five and more 
recently collaborating with the defense team of 
Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks. The 
history of the struggles of the American people 
can not be written without mentioning on every 
page, the name Leonard Weinglass.

Now and always we shall owe him our homage and gratitude.

Losing Lenny is a great blow to Gerardo, Ramon, 
Antonio, Fernando and René. He had been their 
best and most relentless defender, he dedicated 
all of his energies and his talent to their 
cause, and for them he fought to the end in the 
midsts of pain and agony, to his last breath.

The struggle for the freedom of the Cuban Five 
must continue, now under even harder 
circumstances, without Lenny. We must all 
multiply our commitment until our brothers are 
free. We must do so without intermission or rest. 
It is the least we can promise this resolute, 
self sacrificial and lucid man, who will for ever 
be our beloved comrade Leonard Weinglass.



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