[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 40 (Friday, March 26, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E457]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               FREEDOM FOR VICTOR ROLANDO ARROYO CARMONA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 25, 2004

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about 
Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, a prisoner of conscience in totalitarian 
Cuba.
  Mr. Arroyo is vice-president of the group Forum for Reform as well as 
a member of the Union of Independent Cuban Journalists and Writers. Mr. 
Arroyo is a leading pro-democracy activist and has been a constant 
target of the totalitarian regime. Because of his peaceful activism for 
freedom and democracy, Mr. Arroyo has been harassed, beaten, and 
imprisoned in Castro's abhorrent gulag.
  According to Human Rights Watch, in January 1995, Mr. Arroyo was 
beaten and thrown in prison for nine days after organizing a ceremony 
to commemorate the birth of Jose Marti. In 1996, he was sentenced to 
eighteen months in the totalitarian gulag and held in a ``tapiada'' 
cell--a narrow, dark and extremely humid cell--for ``disrespecting'' 
the government. In January 2000, Mr. Arroyo was charged with 
``hoarding'' and sentenced to eighteen months in the gulag for 
organizing a toy drive and distributing toys to needy Cuban children. 
In October 2000, he was beaten by the dictatorship's goons on three 
separate occasions. In October 2001, rocks and bottles containing 
flammable chemicals were thrown at the home where Mr. Arroyo lives with 
his wife and children.
  Despite these horrifically repressive intimidation tactics, despite 
being locked in the totalitarian gulag for distributing toys to needy 
children, Mr. Arroyo has never stopped demanding freedom and democracy 
for the Cuban people. Even with first hand knowledge of the brutal, 
inhumane, consequences of depicting the true reality of the 
totalitarian regime, Mr. Arroyo has bravely continued to write the 
truth about Castro's nightmarish oppression.
  In 2002, Human Rights Watch awarded Mr. Arroyo a Hellman-Hammet grant 
in recognition of his courage in the face of political persecution. 
This prestigious grant is awarded annually to writers around the world 
who have been targets of political persecution.
  On March 18, 2003, as part of the tyrant's brutal March 2003 
crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy activists, Mr. Arroyo was arrested 
by Castro's agents of repression. After a sham trial, Mr. Arroyo was 
sentenced to 26 years in the totalitarian gulag.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Arroyo supports basic human rights for all Cubans. 
Despite being beaten, harassed, and now, once again, languishing in the 
grotesque, totalitarian, squalor of Castro's gulag, he is fervently 
committed to the cause of freedom. My Colleagues, we must demand the 
immediate release of Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona and every prisoner 
of conscience suffering in the totalitarian gulags of the nightmare 
called the Castro regime.

                          ____________________