[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 18 (Thursday, February 12, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E181-E182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   FREEDOM FOR ANGEL JUAN MOYA ACOSTA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 11, 2004

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Angel Juan Moya Acosta, a prisoner of conscience in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Moya is a tireless advocate for the freedom of Cuba. He is the 
founder and president of the Alternative Action Movement, a member of 
the Independent National Labor Federation and a signatory of the ``All 
United'' manifesto that asked for changes in Cuban society and demanded 
the release of all political prisoners.
  Mr. Moya has dedicated much of his work to the cause of freedom for 
the Cuban people. However, under Castro's totalitarian regime,

[[Page E182]]

Mr. Moya has been constantly harassed and arrested for his pro-
democracy activities. In December, 1999, Mr. Moya was detained after 
participating in a peaceful demonstration to celebrate the 51st 
anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. One year 
later, in December, 2000, Mr. Moya was sentenced to one year in the 
Cuban gulag and 10 years confinement to his home province, Matanzas. 
According to Amnesty International,

       The sentence was reportedly imposed because, in the course 
     of a mass celebrated at his home in November 2000, prayers 
     were said for political prisoners and prisoners of 
     conscience, including calls for them to be amnestied.

  Following his release from the totalitarian gulag, Mr. Moya resumed 
his peaceful quest to guarantee fundamental human rights for every 
citizen of Cuba. On August 15, 2002, Mr. Moya received the second 
annual Pedro Luis Boitel Freedom Award for his courage in carrying out 
nonviolent civic resistance in totalitarian Cuba.
  As part of the Cuban tyrant's brutal March, 2003 crackdown against 
pro-democracy activists, Mr. Moya was once again arrested. In a sham 
trial, Mr. Moya was sentenced to 20 years in the totalitarian gulag.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Moya is languishing in the wretched filth of 
Castro's totalitarian gulag, simply because he is an advocate for 
freedom. My Colleagues, we must demand the immediate release of Angel 
Juan Moya Acosta and every prisoner of conscience in totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________