Maduro presents top honor to "Cuban Five" intelligence agents

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro Tuesday presented "the Cuban Five" intelligence agents with his country's highest honor, the Order of the Liberators.

At a solemn ceremony here at the National Mausoleum, where Venezuelan independence hero Simon Bolivar is buried, Maduro pinned each member of the group with the medal and sash, hailing them as "symbols of resistance".

"We believe that your freedom is the victory of resistance and dignity because you came out of the imperial prisons with your heads held high," said Maduro.X The honor signifies that Venezuela acknowledges these men as "heroes of the great Latin American homeland", and part of the long history of U.S. intervention in the region, said Maduro.

On behalf of "the Cuban Five", Fernando Gonzalez thanked Maduro for the distinction and recalled that former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez was always outspoken about the injustice against them.

The plight of the five Cuban intelligence agents, who served lengthy prison terms in the U.S. for alleged espionage, was the one Chavez had championed for many years.

"It is moving to receive this honor here, where Bolivar is, and it marks our commitment to continuing our struggle for socialism in Latin America. We will always wear this sash with the promise that Cuba and Venezuela shall overcome," said Gonzalez.

Maduro has invited the five Cubans, Ramon Labanino, Gerardo Hernandez, Antonio Guerrero, Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez, for a six-day visit starting on Monday.

They were greeted by hundreds of Cubans and Venezuelans at Caracas' Bolivar Square and given the key to the city by Mayor Jorge Rodriguez.

The five agents were arrested by the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation in Miami in 1998 and convicted of spying on U.S. soil without permission with harsh penalties ranging from 15 years to life imprisonment.

However, they only admitted that they worked for the Cuban government to monitor "exiled Cuban groups."

Rene Gonzalez and Fernando Gonzalez were both released after completing their sentences, while the remaining three were released in December, as part of a prisoner exchange between Cuba and the U.S., which marked a thaw of ties. Endi