[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 24 (Tuesday, March 10, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H930-H931]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        URGENT APPEAL FROM CUBA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, March 8 is commemorated as the 
International Day of Women's Rights. With that motive and also because 
of what has been going on in Cuba since the Pope's visit in January, an 
urgent appeal went out from Cuba yesterday, March 9, signed by a very 
distinguished group of women dissidents and independent journalists. 
And their urgent petition to the international organizations for human 
rights and all women, which went out yesterday, I would like to read at 
this point.
  It reads as follows:
  ``The so-called `pardons' that the government of Fidel Castro has 
instrumented in the last few months as an attempt to obtain the good 
graces of international heads of State have not been acts of clemency 
or goodwill.
  ``It is an outrage that within two years of the next millennium Cuba 
maintains in its prisons more than 100,000 prisoners and another 
significant number of detainees at adjacent interrogation facilities. 
In proportion to population, the penal population on the island is 
perhaps the largest in Latin America, and even more criminal still is 
the cruel and brutal treatment that is suffered by political prisoners, 
especially women.
  ``Very few women have been released, a significant number of women 
still remain incarcerated, among them Rosa Maria Pujol Llanes, Rosalina 
Gonzalez

[[Page H931]]

Laffita, who is currently at Villa Marista, a state security facility 
and still remains detained even though her name appears on the list of 
prisoners scheduled to be deported from Cuba to Canada, Marta Beatriz 
Roque Cabello, Migdelis Pozo Casanova, Esperanza Micaela Atencio de la 
Rosa, Daula Carpio Matas, Avianes Jordan Contreras, Mayda Barbara 
Jordan Contreras, Ana Maria Agramonte, Anaismiel Sanchez, Reina Isabel 
Rojas Sanchez, and many others.
  ``Currently on a hunger strike since February 24 and after being 
released from the hospital at Santa Clara are Lilian Meneses Martinez 
and Ileana Penalver Duque, both charged with illicit association and 
sentenced to 18 months in prison due to their participation with the 
opposition group that recently carried out the 120-day hunger strike in 
that city.
  ``In light of so much injustice and ignominy, we join our voices of 
opposition so that the world may learn of the spitefulness and 
indignity with which Cuban women political prisoners are treated.
  ``We call on all free citizens of the world to join in support of 
these women that suffer.''
  It is signed Soiris Aguiar Callejas of the Popular Democratic 
Alliance, Geronima Rosa Soto of the Association in Favor of 
Constitutional Democracy, Vicky Ruiz Labrit of the Committee of 
Peaceful Opposition Members and Coordinator of the National Centers for 
Studies on the Family, Celia Jorge of the Liberal Current, Maria 
Antonia Escobedo Yaser of the Democratic Front Oriental, Neri Gorostiza 
Campoalegre of the Movement Pro-Human Rights, Adis Alcolea of the 
Organization of Social Christians, Ana Luisa Lopez Baeza of Cuba Press, 
Isabel del Pino, Humanitarian Association Followers of Christ Jesus, 
Beatriz Garcia of the Association of the National Front Against 
Injustice, Dr. Iraida Leon of the Independent Medical Association, 
Daisy Carcases Batle of the Feminist Forum, Gladys Linares Blanco of 
the Humanitarian Feminist Front of Cuba, Nancy Sotolongo Leon of the 
Democratic Action Movement, Marta Parga of the Movement in Favor of 
Solidarity and Peace, Cecilia Zamora Cabrera of the Independent 
Feminist Organization of Cuba, Odilia Collazo Valdez of the Pro-Human 
Rights Party of Cuba.
  Just another reality check, Mr. Speaker, with regard to the horror of 
Cuba today and what has been going on despite the hope that much of the 
world had that things could change pursuant to the Pope's visit. And 
things will change in Cuba.
  A seed has no doubt been planted for the future of spirituality. But 
the reality of today is totalitarianism and continued repression. I 
think it is important for the international community to know the 
plight of Cuban human rights violations and of prisoners of conscience, 
especially women prisoners of conscience that languish at this very 
moment in Castro's dungeons.
  Mr. Speaker, March 8th is commemorated each year as international 
women's rights day. At this moment a great number of dignified Cuban 
women patriots are in dungeons of the dictatorship for the sole crime 
of seeking freedom for their country. Silence before their suffering is 
unacceptable and constitutes a form of complicity with the jailers of 
Cuban women prisoners of conscience. I will not cease denouncing the 
existence of political imprisonment in Cuba until it is but a tragic 
chapter of past history.

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