[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 94 (Friday, July 9, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1348]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                FREEDOM FOR MIGDALIA HERNANDEZ ENAMORADO

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, July 9, 2004

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Migdalia Hernandez Enamorado, a prisoner of conscience in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mrs. Hernandez Enamorado is a wife, a mother of three and a peaceful 
pro-democracy activist. Because she believes that a free and democratic 
Cuba is the best hope for her young children and every citizen trapped 
in totalitarian Cuba, she has worked to liberate Cuba from the 
tyrannical regime.
  As a result of the tyrant's brutal March 2003 crackdown on peaceful 
pro-democracy activists, Mrs. Hernandez Enamorado, along with her 
husband Rafael Benitez Chui, went to a police unit in Guantanamo, Cuba, 
and protested the arrests of Manuel Ubals and Juan Carlos Herrera 
Acosta. Unfortunately, the tyrant's thugs arrested the married couple 
while they peacefully protested the abhorrent crackdown on their fellow 
advocates for freedom and human rights in totalitarian Cuba.
  On September 18, 2003, after being held in the inhuman gulag for 7 
months, Mrs. Hernandez Enamorado was ``sentenced'' to 2 years in the 
despotic gulag for the supposed crime of ``contempt.'' In the same sham 
trial, her husband was sentenced to 4 years. Let me be very clear, Mrs. 
Hernandez Enamorado's three children are living without their parents 
because these noble pro-democracy activists believe in freedom.
  According to a report from Guantanamo by Ada Kaly Marquez Abascal, 
Mrs. Hernandez Enamorado is being abused by prison guards, suffering 
from high blood pressure, and ailing from a myriad of physical maladies 
caused by the deplorable conditions in the totalitarian gulag. It is 
also reported that she is only allowed to see her children for 5 
minutes a week and some weeks she is not even allowed that brief visit.
  Mr. Speaker, it is unconscionable that Mrs. Hernandez Enamorado is 
languishing in the totalitarian gulag because of her belief in freedom. 
It is categorically unacceptable that her three daughters are growing 
up without their parents, and unable to even visit their mother for 
more than 5 minutes, simply because Mrs. Hernandez Enamorado wants them 
to be raised in liberty instead of repression. My Colleagues, we must 
demand the immediate release of Migdalia Hernandez Enamorado, her 
husband Rafael Benitez Chui, and every prisoner of conscience suffering 
under the terrorist regime in Havana.

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