[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 99 (Tuesday, July 26, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: July 26, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                FUNERAL RALLY AT FIDEL CASTRO'S MISSION

  (Mr. MENENDEZ asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, today the Cuban American community of the 
Nation will hold a funeral rally at Fidel Castro's mission in 
Washington. The event will take place in memory of more than 40 Cuban 
men, women, and nearly 20 children who were murdered by the Cuban 
regime last July 13 when their attempt to escape the island was 
thwarted by government forces.
  The Cuban Catholic bishops in a message to all Catholics and all 
Cubans have called for an investigation, and His Holiness, Pope John 
Paul II, sent a message to the families of the victims expressing his 
condolences.
  The Cuban Government has tried to prevent memorial services for the 
victims, fearing a public demonstration in Havana. They have refused to 
recover the bodies of those who remain inside the sunken tugboat. The 
Cuban Government's response to the bishops' statement and to 
international outrage over the incident has been to increase the 
repression against the dissidents who protested this massacre and the 
friends and relatives of the victims.
  Mr. Speaker, what more will it take for the international community 
to speak up? Today we join with those Cuban-Americans and all freedom-
loving people at that mission and we call on the Organization of 
American States, the United Nations, and the world press, including our 
own, to call Castro to account for his crime.

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