[Congressional Record Volume 145, Number 109 (Thursday, July 29, 1999)]
[House]
[Page H6586]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        POLITICAL PRISONERS AND PRISONERS OF CONSCIENCE IN 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, while many may turn a blind eye to the 
reality that plagues the Cuban people, Amnesty International does not. 
It monitors and advocates on behalf of political prisoners and 
prisoners of conscience in the island of Cuba.
  A recent case is that of political activist and human rights 
dissidenter Nestor Rodriguez Lobaina, who was arbitrarily arrested 
again on July 11 of this year solely for exercising his right to 
freedom of expression.
  His whereabouts now? Unknown.
  The prisoner of conscience Marta Beatriz Roque, who was sentenced by 
Castro's kangaroo courts earlier this year after languishing for close 
to 2 years in a squalid jail cell for exercising her human rights and 
civil liberties, was severely punished by the regime on July 16 for 
refusing to eat and staying mute in a silent protest for the unjust 
incarceration that she is subjected to.
  These examples of the Cuban dictatorship's cruelties are grave and 
numerous. Other countries may wish to ignore them. However, the U.S. 
Congress cannot and indeed we must not.

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