[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 117 (Tuesday, September 17, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1587]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS INITIATIVE--SENATE OPENING

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 17, 2002

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, today, Americans for a Free 
Cuba gathered on the Senate steps to officially open the Cuban 
Political Prisoners Initiative display in the Senate Russell Office 
Building. They will be storming the halls of the US Senate tomorrow, 
urging Senators not to vote for lifting the travel ban on Cuba.
  The Business and Agricultural communities have used their vast 
resources to make their case for lifting sanctions on Cuba at a summit 
here in Washington, but we know that their case is based on their own 
self-interest. They have failed to acknowledge or fully consider that 
lifting sanctions would empower Castro to cling to power and continue 
his reign of terror over millions of suffering people.
  The members of the Americans for a Free Cuba have heroically made the 
case for those Cubans who cannot speak for themselves because of 
Castro's brutal and restrictive regime through their silent vigil and 
demonstration. This is a regime that prohibits freedom in almost every 
way possible while punishing and imprisoning all opposition. The 
compelling stories of Cuban defectors clearly demonstrate that many 
will do whatever they can to escape the dreadful conditions brought 
about by their totalitarian ruler. Both the people and political 
prisoners in Cuba as well as those who cherish freedom are counting on 
Americans to stand up to Castro and keep the pressure on through the 
embargo.
  Thankfully, President Bush is behind The Americans for a Free Cuba 
100 percent. I commend President Bush for the strong and unwavering 
stance he has taken against the Castro regime. The President has made 
it clear that the United States will work with Cuba only after Castro 
takes concrete measures to improve the abysmal human rights situation 
in his country. I support the President's demand to Castro that he must 
free political prisoners, legalize political activity, permit free 
elections, and cease discriminating against Cuban workers before 
Congress should even begin to consider lifting economic sanctions. 
Administration officials have vowed a Presidential veto to any version 
of the Treasury-Postal Appropriations bill that weakens trade or travel 
sanctions on Cuba.
  The Cuba Political Prisoners Initiative was initially launched in 
April when over a dozen members of Congress, from both political 
parties, adopted a dozen political prisoners. These prisoners each have 
a unique story but all share in a common suffering because of their 
love of freedom.
  While the Cuba Political Prisoners Initiative was launched this 
Spring, it will not end until every single Cuban political prisoner is 
free. I am sending out a letter signed by my colleagues who are part of 
this initiative to Sergio Vielra de Mello, the new UN High Commissioner 
for Human Rights, urging him to follow through on the resolution this 
commission adopted in April that called on the Cuban government to 
improve its record on human, civil, and political rights and allow the 
UN and other representatives to examine human rights conditions in 
Cuba.
  Twenty former political prisoners were amongst those gathered on the 
Senate steps today.
  They are the heroes for freedom that endured the horrors of Castro's 
Cuba and lived to tell about it. Also in attendance was Maritza Lugo 
Fernandez a former Cuban political prisoner joining us today who was 
jailed more than 30 times before she was exiled by the Castro regime. 
Her husband, Rafael Ibarra Roque, is still a political prisoner in Cuba 
and is the prisoner I have adopted.
  Before going to prison, where he has been since 1994, Mr. Roque's 
home was raided by Castro's thugs, who seized virtually everything he 
owned of value including the family car, the stove, a television, and 
even his pets. He was arrested and charged with ``sabotage,'' but no 
credible evidence whatsoever exists that he committed this crime. Those 
close to the case know his real ``crime'' was having the courage and 
audacity to speak out against the regime and demand the same freedoms 
Americans--and other freedom loving people hold to be self-evident and 
a basic foundation for society.
  Mr. Roque has been sentenced to twenty years in the wretched 
Combinado del Este Prison in Havana where political prisoners are 
subjected to especially brutal treatment. The State Department's 2001 
Human Right's report on Cuba speaks of political prisoners suffering 
beatings, intimidation, and sexual abuse. These abuses are carried out 
not only by prison officials but also by state security agents posing 
as prisoners.
  Unfortunately Mr. Roque's case is not an exception but rather the 
norm for human rights activists in Cuba. Hundreds of others whose only 
crime is their love of freedom languish in Castro's prisons and the 
Cuban people on a whole have suffered under the terror of his rule for 
over 40 years.
  The Cuba Political Prisoners Initiative display that we have opened 
in the Senate Rotunda is somber but will serve as an important reminder 
of the hundreds of innocent Cubans languishing in Castro's prisons for 
all Senators, Senate staff, and visitors who pass by it each day. I am 
confident that when the American people and members of Congress hear 
the true facts about the great human rights abuses occurring in Cuba, 
and fully consider the great harm Castro seeks to do our nation through 
working with terrorist states and harboring fugitives of justice, they 
will agree that keeping sanctions on Cuba is our only option.
  The challenge of fighting for human rights in Cuba remains great. 
However, we must never give up and we must never, ever forget those who 
are persecuted for carrying the torch of freedom.

                          ____________________