[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 86 (Thursday, June 12, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H5270]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        FREE MARTA BEATRIZ ROQUE

  (Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, today we speak of a 
heroine, an extraordinary woman and leader who languishes in Castro's 
gulag, Marta Beatriz Roque, sentenced to 25 years for speaking her mind 
on behalf of freedom and democracy.
  To those who wish to send billions of dollars to the dictatorship in 
Cuba by sending U.S. tourists to savor tropical drinks in the tourism 
apartheid resorts and take advantage of the regime-encouraged child 
prostitution, I think it is worthwhile to listen to Marta Beatriz, one 
of the last statements before she was picked up and sent to a gulag for 
25 years.
  We exhort all the governments of the civilized world not to prolong 
the agony of the Cuban people, not to finance the tyranny, not to 
support the tyranny; that they condemn the tourism apartheid, that they 
condemn the exploitation of laborers, the prostitution of our youth, 
the traffic of stolen property, the plunder of the Cuban nation. 
Solidarity is required today with those who advocated freedom in Cuba 
and those who also advocated freedom in exile.
  Marta Beatriz Roque and all of the Cuban political prisoners, we do 
not forget you for one day. We will continue to fight until you are 
free and until all Cubans are free.

                          ____________________