[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 12 (Wednesday, February 4, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E118]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               FREEDOM FOR LIBRADO RICARDO LINARES GARCIA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 4, 2004

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Librado Ricardo Linares Garcia, a prisoner of conscience in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Linares is an engineer who was expelled from Castro's 
totalitarian Communist Party in 1992 after he called for economic 
reforms. Following his eviction, Mr. Linares decided the most effective 
way to fight Castro's brutal repression was to join the dissident 
movement. Eventually, Mr. Linares became president of the Cuban 
Reflection Movement.
  Between 1995 and November 1999, Mr. Linares was continually harassed, 
arrested, detained, and fined by Castro's ruthless machinery of 
repression. Despite these constant setbacks, Mr. Linares persevered in 
his quest to obtain basic human rights for every Cuban citizen. 
Unfortunately, on March 18, 2003, the tyrant Castro had Mr. Linares 
arrested and convicted on sham charges.
  According to Amnesty International, in the sham trial verdict, Mr. 
Linares was accused of ``using his human rights work as a front for 
alleged counterrevolutionary activities such as meetings, conferences 
and seminars.''
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Linares is suffering because of the gross human 
rights abuses and outrageous repression that continue every day in 
totalitarian Cuba. Mr. Linares is languishing in the totalitarian gulag 
because he believes in basic human rights for every Cuban. It is that 
simple, Mr. Linares is confined in a dungeon because he believes in 
freedom and the tyrant Castro believes in repression.
  My colleagues, we must stand as one and demand freedom for Librado 
Ricardo Linares Garcia and every prisoner of conscience in totalitarian 
Cuba.

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