[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 33 (Thursday, March 17, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E510]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                          FREEDOM FOR ANTUNEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 17, 2005

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, today I rise to s about 
Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, often known Antunez, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  My distinguished friend and colleague, Representative Ileana Ros-
Lehtinen, had a great idea for Members of Congress to ``adopt'' a 
political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba. Today, I ``adopt'' an 
extraordinary leader of unlimited courage, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez 
(Antunez).
  Antunez has been locked in the totalitarian gulag since 1990. In a 
sham trial, he was sentenced to 6 years in prison for ``oral enemy 
propaganda.'' In May 1993, he was tried in a second sham trial, and 
sentenced to an additional 15 years to be served from that moment. In 
total, Antunez has been sentenced to 18 years in Castro's grotesque, 
inhuman gulag.
  Despite being enslaved in the tyrant's gulag, Antunez has bravely 
carried out nonviolent activism in Cuban jails, writing reports on 
prison conditions and carrying out numerous protests and hunger strikes 
to demand more humane treatment for prisoners. He has never wavered in 
his commitment to human rights and democracy for the Cuban people. 
Antunez has never given in to the beatings, the punishment cells and 
the instruments of torture inflicted on him by the Castro regime. 
Antunez always rises up and calls out, demanding human rights and 
freedom for the people and the nation of Cuba.
  After 15 years in the gulag, Antunez is still feared and relentlessly 
attacked by the dictatorship. According to the Department of State's 
Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004, ``on July 6, family 
members of political prisoner Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, reported being 
beaten along with Garcia during a prison visit. Authorities handcuffed 
and beat Garcia and later punched his sister and kicked his 
girlfriend's 9 year old son after the visitors protested the harsh 
treatment.''
  No matter how intense the repression, no matter how horrifically 
brutal the consequences to him and his family, Antunez will not waiver 
in his conviction that Cuba should be and will be free. He is a symbol 
of dignity and heroic resistance to tyranny.
  Mr. Speaker, this courageous man has been in Castro's gulag since 
1990, for failing to keep silent about the nightmare that is the Castro 
regime. My Colleagues, Antunez is the face of the real Cuba. We must 
demand the immediate and unconditional release of Jorge Luis Garcia 
Perez and every prisoner of conscience in totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________