[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 85 (Friday, June 18, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1182]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               FREEDOM FOR CARMELO AGUSTIN DIAZ FERNANDEZ

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                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, June 18, 2004

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Carmelo Agustin Diaz Fernandez, a prisoner of conscience in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Diaz Fernandez is a pro-democracy activist currently imprisoned 
in the tyrant's gulag. He is the president of the Independent Union 
Press Agency, editor of the Cuban Independent Trade Union Press Agency, 
and a member of the Christian Cuban Workers Union. He is also the 
correspondent for the Venezuelan magazine Desafios and his articles 
have appeared on the CubaNet website.
  As a leading independent journalist, Christian activist, and 
prominent member of the independent trade union movement, Mr. Diaz 
Fernandez has been a constant target of the totalitarian regime. 
According to Amnesty International, he has been harassed and threatened 
with imprisonment for his pro-democracy activities. Simply because Mr. 
Diaz Fernandez wants freedom for the people of Cuba, he has been 
persecuted by the dictator's machinery of repression.
  On March 19, 2003, as part of the dictator's brutal March 2003 
crackdown against peaceful Cuban pro-democracy activists, Mr. Diaz 
Fernandez was arrested because of his work to bring freedom to the 
people of Cuba. In a sham trial, he was sentenced to 16 years in the 
wretched, infernal, totalitarian gulag.
  According to Reporters Without Borders, while he has been 
incarcerated in the inhuman gulag simply for his belief in freedom, Mr. 
Diaz Fernandez has developed cardiovascular problems, lymphangitis and 
high blood pressure. The intolerably grotesque conditions of the 
deplorable gulag are threatening his life.
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Diaz Fernandez is languishing in a totalitarian 
gulag because he believes in freedom. He believes in freedom of 
religion, freedom for workers, and human rights for every Cuban citizen 
currently suffering under the nightmare called the Castro regime. My 
Colleagues, it is intolerable that heroes like Mr. Diaz Fernandez are 
locked in gulags because they believe in the most fundamental human 
right, freedom. We must demand the immediate release of Carmelo Agustin 
Diaz Fernandez and every prisoner of conscience in totalitarian Cuba.

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