[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 9 (Wednesday, February 2, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E143-E144]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              FREEDOM FOR ARTURO PEREZ DE ALEJO RODRIGUEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 2, 2005

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Arturo Perez de Alejo Rodriguez, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Perez de Alejo is the president of the Escambray Human Rights 
Front. Before he became a pro-freedom advocate in a country oppressed 
by a totalitarian tyrant, he work as a farmer. However, after he 
realized the true nature of Castro's despotic regime, he joined the 
pro-democracy movement and began to advocate for a free and democratic 
Cuba.

[[Page E144]]

  According to Amnesty International, Mr. Perez de Alejo was detained 
in 2003 for handing out copies of the U.N. Declaration of Human Rights. 
Despite being detained, and knowing full well the brutal consequences 
that await those brave men and women that speak the truth under the 
nightmare that is the Castro regime, he continued to advocate for human 
rights for the people of Cuba.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Perez de Alejo was arrested on March 18, 2003, as 
part of Castro's heinous island wide crackdown on peaceful, pro-
democracy activists. In a sham trial, he was sentenced to 20 years in 
the totalitarian gulag.
  While confined in the inhuman squalor of the gulag, Amnesty 
International reports that Mr. Perez de Alejo has not been able either 
to receive or to send correspondence in the same way as other 
prisoners. It has also been reported that he is suffering from several 
debilitating diseases in the totalitarian gulag. Let us be very clear, 
he is languishing in a hellish dungeon, unable to communicate with the 
outside world, because he peacefully advocates for liberty.
  Mr. Speaker, it is unconscionable that, in the 21st century, brave 
men and women are chained to filth because of their belief in the 
inalienable nature of freedom, and the sanctity of human rights for 
every person. My colleagues, tonight the democratically elected leader 
of the United States of America will deliver the State of the Union 
address to a joint session of our freely elected Congress. As we listen 
to President Bush address our free Nation, let us also remember those 
who are suffering to secure their own liberties, in their own 
countries. We must demand the immediate release of Arturo Perez de 
Alejo Rodriguez and every political prisoner locked in the dungeons of 
tyrants.

                          ____________________