[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 26 (Tuesday, March 8, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E385-E386]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




             YEAR TWO OF CASTRO'S BRUTAL CRACKDOWN IN CUBA

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 8, 2005

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of democratic 
reformers in Cuba, on the second anniversary of Castro's brutal 
crackdown of pro-democracy advocates.
  Two years ago, with the world's attention riveted on Iraq, Fidel 
Castro ordered his feared State Security apparatus to round up at least 
75 of Cuba's bravest and brightest, prominent and lesser-known 
dissidents. Among these are 28 independent journalists and 40 Varela 
project workers. With sickening speed, these men and women were paraded 
before kangaroo courts and given prison sentences ranging from 6 to 28 
years. 61 remain in jail.
  When the Committee on International Relations met April 16, 2003 to 
decry this vile abrogation of justice, I stated at that time: ``Even 
some of the most outspoken leftists, who once saw in Fidel Castro 
something to admire, now admit that Castro's unbridled cruelty, thirst 
for blood and extreme paranoia are indefensible.''
  I regret to report that Castro has given me no cause to reassess that 
statement.
  What were the so-called crimes of these brave men and women? 
Advocating democracy . . . writing as independent journalists . . . 
being men and women of faith . . .
  Their real offense was to dare to question the authority of a single 
man, Mr. Castro. The Cuban Revolution is really about Castro's vanity 
and pursuit of personal power. From the beginning, Castro has shot and 
jailed anyone--even his close friends--who has dared get in the way of 
his personal ambition.
  Dictatorships, reflecting the whims of a despot, always subject their 
people to deprivations and absurdities. The Castro regime recently let 
a handful of its political prisoners out

[[Page E386]]

on ``parole,'' citing health reasons. The regime's callousness towards 
ailing political prisoners is well documented.
  Now, independent Cuban journalists are reporting that Cuba's prisons 
have been virtually emptied of medical personnel. Why? Mr. Castro 
decided to send them to Venezuela and other places to advance his 
personal expansionist agenda.
  Writing in the Spanish newspaper, El Pais, Nobel prize winner Jose 
Sarampo, a Portuguese communist and close friend of Castro commented, 
``Cuba has won no heroic victory by executing these three men, but it 
has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes and robbed me of illusions.''
  Without anything that resembles due process, three alleged ferry 
hijackers were killed by firing squad in Cuba, while others got long 
jail terms.
  Illusions, as Castro lover Jose Sarampo has only now begun to 
acknowledge, often persist despite overwhelming evidence to the 
contrary.
  Nowhere has this been more evident than in the case of Castro's Cuba.
  Despite decades of credible reports of widespread egregious 
violations of human rights, including the pervasive use of torture and 
vicious beatings of political prisoners by the Cuban government, some 
have clung to indefensibly foolish illusions of Castro's revolution.
  Despite the fact that the Cuban government systematically denies its 
people the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and association, and 
severely restricts workers' rights, including the right to form 
independent trade unions, some have, nevertheless, clung to illusion.
  Despite the fact that Castro maintains an unimaginably vast network 
of surveillance by the thugs in his secret police and Committees for 
the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs)--neighbors spying on neighbors--
some continue to embrace bogus perceptions--illusions about Cuba.
  In his book, ``Against All Hope, a Memoir of Life in Castro's 
Gulags'' Armando Valladares, a courageous and amazing man who spent 22 
years in Cuban prisons wrote:

       ``The government of Cuba and defenders of the Cuban 
     Revolution denied that incidents that I recount (in the book) 
     ever happened. Castro sympathizers, who were more subtle, 
     said the incidents I described were exaggerations. And there 
     were others, well meaning, who simply could not bring 
     themselves to believe that such horrors, crimes and torture 
     existed in the political prisons of Cuba.''
       ``My response to those who still try to justify Castro's 
     tyranny with the excuse that he has built schools and 
     hospitals is this: Stalin, Hitler and Pinochet also built 
     schools and hospitals, and like Castro, they also tortured 
     and assassinated opponents. They built concentration and 
     extermination camps and eradicated all liberties, 
     committing the worst crimes against humanity.''
       ``Unbelievably, while many non-governmental organizations 
     like Amnesty International and America's Watch have denounced 
     the human rights situation in Cuba, there has been a 
     continuing love affair on the part of the media and many 
     intellectuals with Fidel Castro.''
       That love affair--that illusion--seemed to crash and burn 
     with the onset of the current crackdown on dissidents. The EU 
     took action in June 2003 by limiting high-level EU 
     governmental visits and inviting Cuban dissidents to national 
     day celebrations. But their memories are short. In January of 
     this year, at the initiative of the Spanish government, the 
     EU temporarily suspended these measures for a six-month 
     period.
       Let me mention a few of the ones who were summarily 
     sentenced and remain in prison. Omar Rodriguez Saludes, an 
     independent journalist known to ride his bicycle to news 
     conferences: 27 years. Hector Palacios, one of the key 
     figures promoting the Varela Project: 25 years. Oscar 
     Espinosa Chepe, who wrote critical articles about the Cuban 
     economy for the Internet: 25 years. The President of the 
     Independent United Confederation of Cuban Workers (CUTC), 
     Pedro Pablo Alvarez, 25 years. Journalist Raul Rivero and 
     Ricardo Gonzalez Afonso, an editor at ``De Cuba'' magazine, 
     each got 20 years. The list goes on and on.
       It was a true honor to hear from Economist Morta Beatriz 
     Rogue today, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison and 
     released for health reasons in 2004. We salute her courage to 
     continue the fight on behalf of those who are still in prison 
     today.
       For its part, the Bush Administration has made its deep and 
     abiding concern for the political prisoners and the 
     protection of elemental human rights in Cuba abundantly 
     clear. At the time of the crackdown, former Secretary of 
     State Colin Powell declared:

       ``In recent days the Cuban government has undertaken the 
     most significant act of political repression in decades. We 
     call on Castro to end this despicable repression and free 
     these prisoners of conscience. The United States and the 
     international community will be unrelenting in our insistence 
     that Cubans who seek peaceful change be permitted to do so.''

  In like manner, the Congress has consistently demanded the immediate 
release of all the prisoners and support of the right of the Cuban 
people to exercise fundamental political and civil liberties. H. Res. 
179, a resolution offered by Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen in April 2003, 
passed by a vote of 414-0, 11 present. In April of 2001, I sponsored a 
resolution, H. Res. 91, calling on the UN Human Rights Commission in 
Geneva to condemn Cuba's human rights abuse and appoint a Special 
Rapporteur for Cuba. While it passed, there were a disturbing number of 
negative votes. That vote was 347-44 with 22 voting present. We have 
another opportunity today to move forward a resolution offered by my 
Colleague, Mr. Menendez, to show that these prisoners are not 
forgotten.
       Fidel Castro, his brother Raul, and numerous leaders of 
     Cuba's dictatorship, are directly responsible for crimes 
     against humanity past--and present. Someday these oppressors 
     will be held to account and the people of Cuba will live in 
     freedom.

       Note on the Varela Project: Named after a 19th century 
     anti-slavery, pro-independence priest, Felix Varela, the 
     Varela Project was a petition to the National Assembly 
     seeking a nationwide referendum calling for basic human 
     rights, an amnesty for political prisoners, private 
     enterprise and election law reform to facilitate free and 
     fair elections. On May 10th of 2002, more than 11,000 
     signatures were initially submitted--easily exceeding the 
     constitutionally prescribed 10,000. Castro, however, 
     responded by orchestrating his own petition drive that said 
     Cuba's socialist system could not be changed, leading the 
     rubber stamp National Assembly to declare Cuba's socialist 
     system ``irrevocable''.

                          ____________________