[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 138 (Tuesday, October 6, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H9595-H9596]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                                  CUBA

  (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, for 15 months Cuban dissidents 
Vladimiro Roca, Martha Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne and Rene Gomez 
Manzano have been imprisoned by the Castro dictatorship for publishing 
a document critical of Cuba's Communist totalitarian system. Last week 
they were charged with a trumped-up crime of sedition, causing the 
outrage of international human rights organizations.
  This oppression of the voices for freedom in Cuba is routine practice 
by the Castro dictatorship. Any individual who attempts to exercise his 
or her right to free speech to help create a democratic opening on the 
island is harassed, arrested and ultimately imprisoned.
  This is more evidence that Castro will not change his totalitarian 
politics. Yet the Clinton administration insists on appeasing the 
Castro dictatorship by failing to implement the

[[Page H9596]]

Helms-Burton law and waiving important parts of this legislation. It is 
time for the White House to wake up and realize that flirting with 
Castro will not help bring freedom to Cuba's oppressed people.

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