[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 54 (Thursday, April 3, 2003)]
[Senate]
[Page S4817]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            THE CRACKDOWN ON PRO-DEMOCRACY ADVOCATES IN CUBA

  Mr. McCain. Mr. President, tomorrow marks the anniversary of the 
assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Dr. King's life reminds 
Americans of our unyielding commitment to freedom, justice, and 
equality for all. The peaceful civil rights movement that Dr. King 
lives and died for serves as a model for the ideals America promotes 
worldwide.
  Today, just 90 miles off the shores of the United States, a desperate 
dictator is 2 weeks into a Stalinist-style crackdown on his country's 
non-violent democratic movement and its leaders. One political 
prisoner, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, has often been compared to Dr. King 
for his brave struggle to seek a non-violent transition to democracy in 
Cuba. The International Republican Institute (IRI), of which I am 
chairman, recently awarded Dr. Biscet with its Democracy's People Award 
for his courageous commitment to human rights, despite his imprisonment 
and the painful disease from which he suffers, and which remains 
untreated.
  In a severe crackdown that demonstrates the true and brutal character 
of Cuba's dictatorship, the Castro regime has imprisoned over 80 
independent journalists, human rights advocates, independent labor and 
pro-democracy activists, and supporters of the pro-democracy Varela 
project since March 18. Many of these activists are currently on trial. 
Dr. Biscet, who was arrested on December 6, 2002, while organizing a 
human rights discussion for International Human Rights Day, may be 
sentenced to life in prison and has apparently been threatened with the 
death penalty. The founder of the Lawton Foundation for Human Rights, 
which carries out educational campaigns to end the death penalty and 
forced abortions, Dr. Biscet was formerly imprisoned from 1999-2002. 
Dr. Biscet's wife, Elsa Morejon, had her house ransacked and her 
computer, phone, pictures and letters from her husband taken by the 
Cuba government.
  Freedom-loving people everywhere condemn the use of the death penalty 
against peaceful political opponents of Castro's rule. Rather than 
threaten them with death, Fidel Castro should release all political 
prisoners in Cuba, which the State Department estimated to number 
between 230 and 300 before the current, massive crackdown.
  The many brave Cubans who work and sacrifice every day for non-
violent and democratic Cuba ask only that their fundamental human 
rights be respected. Although world attention is focused on Iraq, it is 
important that we not lose sight of the continued, aggressive 
repression of Cuba's democracy and human rights activists. The United 
Nations Human Rights Commission is currently in Geneva preparing what I 
hope will be a strong and clear condemnation of these systematic 
violations of fundamental freedoms. It is imperative that the Cuban 
government be held accountable for this repressive crackdown.
  One day soon, the political prisoners now held in Fidel's gulags will 
be celebrated as the voices of conscience that finally brought freedom 
and justice to Cuba after decades of brutal dictatorship. Castro and 
his regime cannot extinguish the flame of freedom and hope that burns 
in the hearts of Cubans, who will continue to peacefully seek liberty 
and justice--and will one day prevail.

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