[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 2 (Thursday, January 6, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E31-E32]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 FREEDOM FOR DIOSDADO GONZALEZ MARRERO

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 6, 2005

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Diosdado Gonzalez Marrero, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Gonzalez Marrero is a pro-democracy activist who is striving to 
create a Cuban society that recognizes human rights, freedom, and 
democracy. He has been a peaceful supporter in the cause of bringing 
liberty to an island shackled by a tyrant's brutal machinery of 
repression. Unfortunately, the dictator forcefully represses those who 
bravely support freedom instead of the despotic regime.
  In 1999, Mr. Gonzalez Marrero was locked in the totalitarian gulag 
for six months during

[[Page E32]]

the Ibero-American Summit held in Havana in November 1999. Despite 
being confined in the horrors of the gulag, Mr. Gonzalez bravely 
continued his peaceful activities to bring liberty and freedom to Cuba.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Gonzalez Marrero was arrested again in March 2003, 
as part of the repulsive island wide crackdown against peaceful pro-
democracy activists. In a sham trial, he was sentenced to 20 years in 
the totalitarian gulag.
  The family of Mr. Gonzalez Marrero has reported that he was being 
held in solitary confinement in a punishment cell where he is deprived 
of any sunlight, adequate ventilation or drinking water, and subjected 
to temperatures of 30 to 32 degrees centigrade. According to Amnesty 
International, Mr. Gonzalez Marrero is suffering from high blood 
pressure and inadequate medical attention to his failing health.
  Let me be very clear, Mr. Gonzalez Marrero is languishing in the 
depraved dungeons of the tyrant's gulag because he desires freedom for 
the people of Cuba. His demand for the rights of man to be given back 
to the citizens of Cuba is the only reason that he is locked in the 
abhorrent filth of Castro's prisons.
  Mr. Speaker, as we gather to celebrate the results of our democracy 
and to commence the first session of the 109th Congress, it remains 
repulsive that, only 90 miles from our shore, brave souls like Mr. 
Gonzalez Marrero are locked in dungeons because they too believe in the 
freedoms we hold sacred to our way of life. My Colleagues, let us 
remember those who suffer under the nightmare that is the Castro 
regime. Let us demand the immediate release of Diosdado Gonzalez 
Marrero and every prisoner of conscience languishing in the dungeons of 
totalitarian despots.

                          ____________________