[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 34 (Wednesday, March 17, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E398]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[[Page E398]]
                    FREEDOM FOR PABLO PACHECO AVILA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Wednesday, March 17, 2004

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Pablo Pacheco Avila, a prisoner of conscience in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Pacheco Avila works as an independent journalist with the agency 
Avilena Cooperative of Independent Journalists, because he believes it 
is his obligation to expose the factual realities of totalitarian Cuba.
  Due to Mr. Pacheco Avila's desire to communicate the truth about the 
nightmarish reality of Castro's repressive regime, he has been 
constantly harassed by the dictator's thugs. According to Amnesty 
International, in November 2002, Mr. Pacheco Avila was detained by 
Castro's agents of repression for six hours after attempting to video 
two totalitarian police officers mistreating two women. In March 2002, 
he was detained for providing news coverage on a peacefeul pro-
democracy meeting.
  Unfortunately, under the tyrannical dictatorship, freedom is banned 
and repression is law. Mr. Pacheco Avila was arrested in Castro's 
brutal March 2003 crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy activists. After 
a summary, sham trial he was sentenced to 20 years in the totalitarian 
gulag.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Pacheco Avila is a great example how the dictator 
torments and commits aggression against those who advocate for truth 
and democracy. Today marks the one year anniversary of Castro's 
infamous March 2003 crackdown on Cuba's prodemocracy activists. Amnesty 
International recognizes 75 prisoners of conscience from this 
condemnable March 2003 crackdown. Currently thousands of freedom-loving 
Cubans languish in Castro's totalitarian gulags because they refuse to 
accept the nightmarish oppression in Cuba. Today, I extend my 
solidarity to Mr. Pacheco Avila and the thousands of Cuban men and 
women who are shackled and suffering because they desire to see freedom 
reign in Cuba.
  Mr. Pacheco Avila suffers today in an inhumane dungeon because he 
believes in writing and reporting the truth. My colleagues, on the one 
year anniversary of the brutal, March 2003 crackdown on pro-democracy 
activists in totalitarian Cuba, we must demand the immediate release of 
Pablo Pacheco Avila and every prisoner of conscience suffering in the 
gulags of totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________