Free the Cuban Political Prisoners and Prisoners of Conscience
FREE THE CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS AND PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE -- (House of Representatives - October 01, 2007)
[Page: H11049]
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The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart) is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, pro-democracy activists inside Cuba report that an undetermined number of dissidents were detained by the dictatorship on the morning of September 27. The dissidents were on their way to participate in peaceful activities to request the release of political prisoners.
Those detained in Cuba on September 27 include Martha Beatriz Roque, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez ``Antunez,'' Blas Augusto Fortun Martinez, Yubi Diosenegui Pernet Perez, Alicia Martinez Guevara, Alejandro Gabriel Martinez Martinez, Guillermo Perez Year, Amado Ruiz Moreno, Carlos Cordero Paez, Idania Yanes Contreras, Yesmi Elena Mena Silvano, Jose Diaz Silva, Georgina Noa Montes, Arturo Montgomery Alonso, Roberto de Jesus Guerra Perez, Yunieski Garcia Lopez, Lester Fernandez Zamora, Felix Reyes Gutierrez, Yoel Espinosa Medrano, Ariel Orama Martin, Angel Raul Perez Gavilan, Javier Delgado Torres, Carlos Michael Morales Rodriguez, and others whose names I do not have. At this time it is unknown how many of the detained dissidents have been released and how many will be kept in confinement. It is up to the whim of the ailing tyrant.
The list of political prisoners languishing in Cuban prisons is long, Madam Speaker. Sixty dissidents who were peacefully expressing their opposition to the dictatorship remain in prison since the regime's brutal crackdown of March 2003, joining hundreds of other political prisoners. Reporters Without Borders reports that there are at least 23 journalists languishing in abysmal conditions in Cuban prisons.
The Miami Herald today published a very important editorial about one such journalist. I think it's an editorial that deserves commendation and attention. It reads as follows:
Normando Hernandez Gonzalez may die for exercising free speech in Cuba. An independent journalist, he has been imprisoned since Cuba's crackdown on dissidents in April 2003. Now he is so critically ill that he was transferred to a Havana military hospital last week.
It is bad enough that Mr. Hernandez Gonzalez, 39, is serving a 25-year sentence for criticizing the government, something people in free countries do every day. Yet things could get worse. Returning him to prison would be a death sentence. This is where he contracted serious ailments, chronic digestive disorders and tuberculosis among them. Even if his condition were to improve in the hospital, he would not last long in the filthy cells and eating the food given to political prisoners.
The hope now is that Cuba will free Mr. Hernandez Gonzalez and allow him to leave the country and soon. International pressure is needed.
To their credit, legislators in Costa Rica granted Mr. Hernandez Gonzalez a humanitarian visa in April. Cuban authorities refused to honor the visa. But a recent move appeared to get Cuba's attention. Jose Manuel Echandi Meza, a Costa Rican lawmaker, filed a formal complaint with the U.N. Human Rights Commission two weeks ago that accuses Cuba of torturing Mr. Hernandez Gonzalez by denying him proper medical treatment. The following day, he was sent to the Havana hospital. He appears to be getting some medical treatment, according to his wife.
That wasn't the case before. Mr. Hernandez Gonzalez has been deteriorating since his first year in prison. He has been beaten, placed in solitary confinement and repeatedly denied access to basic medical care. He blames overcrowded, vermin-filled cells and contaminated food and water for his multiple illnesses. He suffers nausea, diarrhea, fever, fainting spells and weight loss.
Last December, he was rushed from his prison to a hospital in Camaguey. There he was placed in a room with no furniture. His food was thrown under the door. He returned to prison untreated. While Cuba boasts of its health care system, it denies political prisoners basic care.
PEN, a writers advocacy group, awarded Mr. Hernandez Gonzalez its prestigious Freedom to Write Award earlier this year. For more information on his case, go to PEN's Web site at www.pen.org. Let the world know that Mr. Hernandez Gonzalez and hundreds of other political prisoners haven't been forgotten. All of them should be released.''
Now, Madam Speaker, the same week that approximately 30 dissidents were rounded up and thrown in dungeons by the Cuban dictatorship, the Spanish Government of Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero decided to unilaterally break the European Union's ``Common Position'' on Cuba, by entering into a cooperation agreement with the Cuban tyranny.
Mr. Rodriguez Zapatero and his government thus continue to act as the Castro brothers' most zealous advocates in Europe, and they deserve the condemnation of all freedom-loving men and women for their disgraceful actions.
I renew tonight my call for the immediate liberation of all political prisoners and prisoners of conscience in totalitarian Cuba and urge international solidarity for them and for their right to be released immediately and unconditionally, all of them, now.
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