Grave Concern for the Welfare of Jose Daniel Ferrer
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Madam Speaker, I am gravely concerned for the welfare of Jose Daniel Ferrer, a courageous Cuban pro-democracy activist and hero of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU).
Ferrer was seized on October 1, 2019, and remains held without access to family, friends, legal counsel, international human rights groups, or other concerned members of his organization.
Human rights groups including Amnesty International have cited alarming but unverified reports of torture and maltreatment at the hands of the regime's thugs, including the withholding of necessary medical care, food and water.
It is a disgrace that the King and Queen of Spain are in Cuba, while Ferrer languishes in prison, and have failed to exercise simple human decency by demanding his release, or meeting with other courageous independent democracy and human rights activists.
The regime in Cuba has the blood of innocents on its hands, those whose only ``crime'' was daring to speak against the evils of the dictatorship including:
Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died in state custody on February 23, 2010; Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, who died on May 8, 2011;
Laura Pollan, the renowned leader of the Ladies in White, who died under suspicious circumstances on October 14, 2011;
Wilman Willar Mendoza, who died on January 19, 2012;
Armando Sosa Fortuny, who died on October 28, 2019;
We also remember Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero of the Christian Liberation Movement, both of whom died on July 22, 2012 in a suspicious car accident that has not been fully and appropriately investigated.
The regime of firing squads, political prisoners, the Tugboat Massacre, the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown, the Black Spring, and the murders of activists continues its evils to this day. It continues to intimidate, detain, encourage acts of repudiation, and inflict brutal violence to suppress the Cuban people.
Jose Daniel Ferrer must be released immediately and without condition, and those who participate in vile human rights abuses must be held accountable. The world is watching. Should any harm come to Ferrer, the murderous Cuban dictatorship headed by Raul Castro and his puppet Miguel Diaz-Canel bear sole responsibility.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source