[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 3 (Thursday, January 20, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E48]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             FREEDOM FOR ALFREDO RODOLFO DOMINGUEZ BATISTA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, January 20, 2005

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Alfredo Rodolfo Dominguez Batista, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Dominguez Batista is a member of the Christian Liberation 
Movement and a peaceful pro-democracy activist attempting to liberate 
the people of Cuba. Because of his actions to bring freedom and 
democracy to Cuba, Mr. Dominguez Batista was targeted by the tyrant's 
machinery of repression. In March 2003, as part of the despicable 
crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy activists, he was arrested. In a 
sham trial, Mr. Dominguez Batista was sentenced to 14 years in the 
totalitarian gulag.
  Despite the depraved conditions and the threat of confinement in 
punishment cells, described by the U.S. Department of State as ``semi-
dark all the time, had no water available in the cell, and had a hole 
for a toilet,'' Mr. Dominguez Batista has continued to fight for basic 
human rights. According to Amnesty International, he has bravely 
participated in multiple hunger strikes to protest the abhorrent 
conditions in the gulag and the depraved treatment of fellow political 
prisoners.
  Today, January 20, 2005, marks another milestone in the peaceful 
continuation of representative democracy in the United States of 
America. President George W. Bush was elected in free and fair 
elections that were conducted with transparency and guided by the rule 
of law. On a day that celebrates the freedoms enshrined in our national 
documents and imbedded in the national character of the United States, 
we should never forget those brave men and women, like Mr. Dominguez 
Batista, who languish in hellish gulags because they believe in the 
same freedoms that we celebrate today.
  Mr. Speaker, on this day of commemoration, let us not forget those 
who yearn to celebrate political and human rights in their own 
countries. My Colleagues, we must demand the immediate release of 
Alfredo Rodolfo Dominguez Batista and every prisoner of conscience 
languishing in the dungeons of tyrants.




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