[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 208 Introduced in House (IH)]






108th CONGRESS
  1st Session
H. RES. 208

  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the 
  systematic human rights violations in Cuba committed by the Castro 
 regime and calling for the immediate removal of Cuba from the United 
                  Nations Commission on Human Rights.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 30, 2003

 Mr. Foley (for himself, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart of 
 Florida, Mr. DeLay, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Ms. 
  Pryce of Ohio, Mr. Crenshaw, Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida, Mr. 
Feeney, Mr. Keller, Mr. Miller of Florida, Mr. Putnam, Mr. Deutsch, Mr. 
 Mica, Mr. Shimkus, Mr. Paul, Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, Mr. Moran of 
  Kansas, Mr. Nethercutt, Mr. Isakson, Mr. Reynolds, and Ms. Harris) 
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee 
                       on International Relations

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
  Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the 
  systematic human rights violations in Cuba committed by the Castro 
 regime and calling for the immediate removal of Cuba from the United 
                  Nations Commission on Human Rights.

Whereas the Cuban Government remains one of the last bastions of hard-line 
        Communism in the world;
Whereas Fidel Castro and his government have engaged in deliberate and 
        systematic acts of torture and human rights violations since coming to 
        power in 1959;
Whereas since 1959 there have been countless human rights violations committed 
        by the Castro government;
Whereas on January 3, 2002, police arrested Milagros Zeneida Morales of the 
        Independent Workers Labor Union on charges of recruiting members for a 
        counterrevolutionary organization;
Whereas on January 30, 2002, the Havana Provincial Court sentenced activist 
        Carlos Oquendo Rodriguez to 2 years imprisonment for ``contempt for 
        authority'' and ``public disorder''; the provincial court confirmed the 
        sentence levied against Oquendo Rodriguez by a municipal court in 2001 
        and appealed by him to the provincial court; and prior to sentencing, 
        police officials offered to suspend Oquendo Rodriguez' sentence if he 
        recanted his political beliefs, but Oquendo Rodriguez refused;
Whereas on February 21, 2002, political prisoner Ariel Fleitas Gonzalez advised 
        relatives that prison authorities had placed a dangerous common criminal 
        in his cell in Canaleta prison to monitor his activities, and that 
        prisoner threatened Fleitas Gonzalez when the latter called upon 
        officials to respect prisoners' rights;
Whereas in late February 2002, police arrested at least 300 persons near the 
        Mexican Embassy after 21 asylum seekers used a bus to break through the 
        gates of the embassy; many of those arrested were reportedly bystanders 
        not involved in the embassy intrusion; rapid response brigades (RRBs) 
        summoned by the Government to the Mexican Embassy beat some bystanders; 
        most bystanders were interrogated and released, but on March 6th, Fidel 
        Castro indicated that 130 of them would be tried on charges related to 
        the embassy break-in; and, according to relatives, approximately 60 
        remained jailed at year's end and none had been tried;
Whereas on March 4, 2002, state security agents, police, and civilian members of 
        an RRB beat blind activist Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leyva, independent 
        journalist Carlos Brizuela Yera, and 8 other activists, who were at a 
        public hospital in Ciego de Avila protesting the earlier beating of 
        independent journalist Jesus Alvarez Castillo; police forcibly removed 
        the protesters from the hospital and arrested them; on August 21st, a 
        municipal court charged them with ``contempt for authority, public 
        disorder, disobedience, and resistance''; prosecutors requested a 6-year 
        sentence for Gonzalez Leyva; and Gonzalez Leyva protested his 
        imprisonment through a liquids-only fast, and at year's end weighed less 
        than 100 pounds;
Whereas on March 13, 2002, police arrested 7 human rights activists in Nueva 
        Gerona, Isle of Youth, as they conducted a public demonstration calling 
        for democratic reforms and the release of political prisoners;
Whereas on March 18, 2002, state security officials arrested 4 leaders of the 
        Brotherhood of Blind Cubans to prevent a demonstration against police 
        mistreatment of handicapped street vendors and calling for the release 
        of blind dissident Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leyva; police released the 4 
        after citing them with ``official warnings'';
Whereas on April 17, 2002, police arrested Barbaro Vela Coego and Armando 
        Dominguez Gonzalez, president and vice president, respectively, of the 
        January 6 Civic Movement, to prevent their attendance at a fast in honor 
        of political prisoners; they were held for 2 hours and released;
Whereas on April 21, 2002, members of an RRB beat Grisel Almaguer Rodriguez of 
        the Political Prisoners Association as she departed the home of human 
        rights activist Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz;
Whereas on April 22, 2002, police arrested Milka Pena Martinez of the Cuban Pro 
        Human Rights Party for protesting a police search of her home; police 
        also arrested Luis Ferrer Garcia of the Christian Liberation Movement, 
        who was present at the time, and Ramon Collazo Almaguer, who led a group 
        of dissidents to Pena Martinez' home to protest her arrest; Pena 
        Martinez was fined and all 3 were released;
Whereas on May 17, 2002, police went to the home of Pedro Veliz, president of 
        the Independent Medical School of Cuba, and instructed him to leave 
        Havana for the day to prevent his attendance at ceremonies marking the 
        founding of a pre-revolutionary political party; Veliz, along with his 
        wife and children, were forced to leave their home and were followed by 
        state security officials until they left the city;
Whereas on May 19, 2002, police arrested Nereida Cala Escalona and Evelio 
        Manteira Barban as they departed a meeting in Santiago de Cuba organized 
        by the Christian Liberation Movement; they were interrogated, threatened 
        with imprisonment, and released on May 20th;
Whereas on May 25, 2002, police beat and arrested 4 members of the Cuban Pro 
        Human Rights Party affiliated with the Andrei Sakharov Foundation who 
        were on their way to a mass in honor of a dissident figure; the 4 were 
        searched, threatened with imprisonment, fined, and released;
Whereas in early June 2002, common prisoner Hector Labrada Ruedas died of 
        internal bleeding after prison authorities refused his requests for 
        medical attention;
Whereas on June 1, 2002, police arrested 9 activists as they departed a human 
        rights course at the illegal NGO Culture and Democracy Institute in 
        Santiago de Cuba; they were interrogated and released on June 2nd;
Whereas on June 1, 2002, police in Havana province entered the neighborhood of 
        Buena Esperanza to remove persons from the eastern provinces living in 
        the area without authorization; an unknown number of men were removed in 
        trucks on that date, while women and children were given 72 hours to 
        depart;
Whereas on June 7, 2002, police arrested 3 members of the 30th of November Party 
        in Santiago de Cuba; they were interrogated and released on June 10th;
Whereas on June 7, 2002, police forcefully removed 17 persons from the home of 
        activist Migdalia Rosado Hernandez, where the group was commemorating 
        the second anniversary of the Tamarindo 34 hunger strike; the police 
        took 14 persons far from their homes and abandoned them by the roadside; 
        3 others were fined and released;
Whereas on June 14, 2002, state security officials beat and arrested independent 
        journalist Carlos Serpa Maceira while he was covering a march by human 
        rights activists in the Isle of Youth; he was briefly detained, fined 
        1,200 pesos, and then released;
Whereas on June 20, 2002, a guard at Las Ladrilleras prison in Holguin province 
        instructed a common prisoner to beat political prisoner Daniel Mesa; 
        Mesa reportedly suffered brain damage as a result of the attack;
Whereas on June 24, 2002, police blocked access to the home of activist 
        Francisco Moure Saladriga to prevent a meeting of members of the Cuban 
        Human Rights Party scheduled for that day;
Whereas in July 2002, prison officials in Ceramica Roja prison denied religious 
        visits to political prisoner Enrique Garcia Morejon of the Christian 
        Liberation Movement; Garcia Morejon twice requested visits by a Catholic 
        priest while the priest was visiting other prisoners;
Whereas in July 2002, state security officials arrested independent journalist 
        Yoel Blanco Garcia and took him to a local firehouse where he was 
        interrogated; the state security officials warned Blanco Garcia not to 
        visit the home of Martha Beatriz Roque, director of the Cuban Institute 
        of Independent Economists;
Whereas on July 24, 2002, police arrested human rights activist Adolfo Lazaro 
        Bosq at a vigil for political prisoners on charges of ``resistance and 
        contempt for the revolutionary process''; on August 2nd, a municipal 
        court sentenced him to 1 year and 9 months imprisonment;
Whereas on July 29, 2002, state security officials arrested Rogelio Menendez 
        Diaz, president of the Cuban Municipalities for Human Rights; he was 
        held for 35 days in Villa Marista prison, where guards transferred him 
        between chilled and heated cells; during interrogations, Menendez Diaz 
        was accused of organizing clandestine cells on behalf of exile groups 
        along with activists Angel Pablo Polanco and Marcel Valenzuela Salt, who 
        had also been detained; Menendez Diaz was charged with ``contempt 
        against the Commander in Chief'' and warned to cease opposition 
        activities; he was released on September 2nd, but rearrested on December 
        10th, apparently to prevent his participation in events commemorating 
        International Human Rights Day; at year's end, he had not been tried and 
        remained jailed;
Whereas on July 30, 2002, state security officials arrested independent 
        journalist Angel Pablo Polanco and held him for 4 days in an 
        unregistered house of detention; Polanco was 60 years old and moved with 
        the aid of a walker; during a search of his home, state security agents 
        removed a fax machine and a telephone, which Polanco had purchased from 
        a state company, $1,200 in cash, a tape recorder, books on Cuban 
        history, and files related to his work as a journalist; the officials 
        did not provide a receipt for the money or the items; Polanco was 
        charged with inciting others to commit ``contempt of authority'' and 
        ``insulting the symbols of the State'', apparently in connection with 
        plans by opposition groups to mark the August 5th anniversary of riots 
        in Havana that occurred in 1994; he was accused of organizing 
        clandestine cells along with activists Manuel Menendez Diaz and Marcel 
        Valenzuela Salt, who had been arrested on July 29th; Polanco was granted 
        conditional release on August 3rd; at year's end, Polanco had not been 
        tried;
Whereas in August 2002, 6 guards at Guamajal prison, Villa Clara province, beat 
        common prisoner Pedro Rafael Perez Fuentes until he was unconscious; 
        Perez Fuentes told his mother that the guards had beaten him because he 
        had asked them why he had been denied exercise privileges; the prison 
        warden verbally abused Perez Fuentes' mother when she informed him of 
        her plans to report the assault;
Whereas on August 6, 2002, prison officials, including the chief of political 
        reeducation, beat political prisoner Yosvani Aguilar Camejo; Aguilar 
        Camejo is the national coordinator for the Fraternal Brothers for 
        Dignity Movement; he was arrested at the time of the Mexican Embassy 
        break-in by asylum seekers in late February;
Whereas on August 16, 2002, Juan Sanchez Picoto died in a psychiatric hospital 
        in San Luis de Jagua, allegedly by suicide; according to family members, 
        Sanchez Picoto had tried to emigrate 9 times since 1998, and after the 
        last attempt the authorities forcibly removed him from his home and 
        placed him in a psychiatric unit for alcoholics at a Guantanamo 
        psychiatric hospital; he was held in a ward for violent and mentally ill 
        offenders, despite a doctor's diagnosis that he did not meet criteria 
        for involuntary commitment; he was allegedly given shock therapy and 
        assaulted by another detainee, resulting in a head injury; on August 
        15th, he was transferred from the Guantanamo hospital to the San Luis de 
        Jagua unit and died the next day; family members were not allowed to see 
        the body;
Whereas on September 11, 2002, police arrested Luis Milan of the Christian 
        Liberation Movement for writing a letter to municipal officials in 
        Santiago de Cuba calling for improved prison conditions;
Whereas on September 17, 2002, plainclothes police beat 59-year-old Rafael 
        Madlum Payas of the Christian Liberation Movement as he approached a 
        police station to inquire about the cases of 7 activists being held at 
        the station;
Whereas on September 21, 2002, persons directed by state security officials 
        threw stones and mud at the home of Jose Daniel Ferrer of the Christian 
        Liberation Movement and beat Victor Rodriguez Vazquez and Yordanis 
        Almenares Crespo, who were visiting Ferrer at the time of the attack;
Whereas on September 24, 2002, police in Santiago province directed persons to 
        beat 6 members of the Christian Liberation Movement during an act of 
        rapid repudiation;
Whereas on December 6, 2002, police arrested Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, a political 
        prisoner who had been released on October 31st after serving 3 years for 
        alleged disrespect, allegedly creating a public disturbance, and 
        allegedly encouraging others to violate the law; the dictatorship 
        arrested Biscet and 16 others to prevent them from holding a seminar on 
        nonviolent civil disobedience; the dictatorship later released 12 of the 
        detainees, but charged Biscet, his associate Raul Arencibia Fajardo, and 
        2 others with public disorder;
Whereas on December 7, 2002, Leonardo Bruzon, President of the unofficial 
        Movimiento Pro Derechos Humanos 24 de Feberero (24 February Human Rights 
        Movement), began a hunger strike; 4 days later, he was transferred to 
        the Combinado del Este prison as punishment for this, despite his ill 
        state of health; his family reports that he is currently being held in 
        an isolation cell, 3 meters by 3 meters; they claim his cell is 
        continually wet due to leakage from a drainage pipe overhead; he has 
        also been threatened with having his right to fresh air and family 
        visits suspended;
Whereas in recent weeks, the dictatorship has carried out its most brutal 
        repression in decades; and
Whereas on April 11, 2003, 3 hijackers (Lorenzo Enrique Copello, Barbaro Leodan 
        Sevilla, and Jorge Luis Martinez) were executed after being convicted of 
        terrorism; another 4 hijackers received life sentences, while 4 others 
        received shorter prison terms: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) condemns the brutal crackdown of the Cuban Government 
        on its own men, women, and children;
            (2) calls on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights 
        to recognize the resolution recently passed by the House of 
        Representatives condemning Cuba for its human rights 
        atrocities; and
            (3) condemns the member states of the United Nations 
        Economic and Social Council for renewing Cuba's membership on 
        the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
                                 <all>