[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 32 (Tuesday, March 2, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H834]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   CUBAN TRIAL CONVENED AGAINST FOUR DISSIDENTS WITH NO CHARGES FILED

  (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 594 days, Cuban dissidents 
Vladimiro Roca, Marta Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne, and Rene Gomez 
Manzano have been behind Fidel Castro's prison bars, with no charges 
filed against them, for disseminating the document entitled, ``The 
Homeland Belongs to All of Us,'' that dares to speak of 
counterrevolutionary beliefs, such as freedom, democracy, and human 
rights.
  Yesterday, the regime began a kangaroo court trial behind closed 
doors against these four brave freedom fighters who face even more jail 
time. The trial of these four dissidents comes only days after the 
regime imposed a new law that severely punishes those who promote anti-
revolutionary information.
  Foreign diplomats and reporters who had expressed an interest in 
being present at this show trial were summarily dismissed. Foreign 
observers are not even allowed less than two blocks from the building 
in which these mock trials are being held.
  On the eve of this mockery of justice, dozens of Cuban independent 
journalists and other dissidents, who risk their lives in an attempt to 
inform the international community about the reality inside Cuba, were 
arbitrarily arrested to prevent them from reporting on the proceedings.
  Mr. Speaker, it is evident that the last tyrant of our hemisphere is 
not about to change his totalitarian nature.

                          ____________________