[Congressional Record Volume 150, Number 103 (Thursday, July 22, 2004)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1469]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    FREEDOM FOR LUIS MILAN FERNANDEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 22, 2004

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Luis Milan Fernandez, a political prisoner in totalitarian 
Cuba.
  Mr. Milan Fernandez is a medical doctor by profession. Because of his 
training in protecting and nurturing human life, he could not tolerate 
the tyrant's incessant abuse of Cuban people. He understood the human 
condition and he knew that freedom is infinitely superior to the ills 
of tyranny and repression. Because of his belief in liberty, he joined 
the Cuban Medical Association and other groups dedicated to peacefully 
advocating for freedom for every citizen of Cuba.
  In June 2001, Mr. Milan Fernandez signed a document called 
``Manifesto 2001'', a document that called for recognition of 
fundamental freedoms in Cuba. According to Amnesty International, he, 
along with other medical professionals, staged a 1-day hunger strike to 
call attention to the medical situation of detainees.
  On March 18, 2003, as part of the dictator's condemnable crackdown on 
peaceful prodemocracy activists, Mr. Milan Fernandez was arrested 
because of his belief in liberty over repression. In a sham trial, he 
was ``sentenced'' to 13 years in the inhuman, totalitarian gulag.
  Mr. Milan Fernandez is languishing in the infernal gulag because he 
believes in human rights and liberty. He is suffering in abhorrent 
conditions because he refuses to accept the reality inflicted on the 
Cuban people by the tyrant. Let us be very clear, the politics of 
repression and tyranny practiced by the regime in Havana are 
incompatible with the democratic values of the western hemisphere.
  Mr. Speaker, it is a crime against humanity that prodemocracy 
activists such as Mr. Milan Fernandez are locked in totalitarian 
dungeons because they advocate for freedom and human rights. My 
colleagues, we must demand the immediate release of Luis Milan 
Fernandez and every prisoner of conscience imprisoned by the nightmare 
called the Castro regime.

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