[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]


        RELEASE CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONER REGIS IGLESIAS RAMIREZ

                                 ______
                                 

                            HON. TOM LANTOS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 17, 2005

  Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, this month marks the two-year anniversary of 
the brutal crackdown on political opposition by the Cuban regime. In 
partial commemoration of this ignoble milestone, my dear friend and 
colleague Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and I have launched an ``adopt a 
political prisoner'' initiative to help focus the spotlight of 
international attention on those suffering in Cuban jails because of 
their inextinguishable faith in the power of democratic liberty.
  I rise today to inform my colleagues that I stand shoulder-to-
shoulder with the Cuban political prisoner Regis Iglesias Ramirez.
  Mr. Speaker, as an outspoken advocate of human rights in Cuba, Mr. 
Iglesias is a member of the Coordinating Board for the Christian 
Liberation Movement. He is also a principal organizer of the Varela 
Project, a grassroots, civic movement that petitions the Cuban 
government to allow its citizens to exercise their fundamental human 
rights. To date, this project has collected and presented over 25,000 
signatures to the proper Cuban authorities. Because of his admirable 
efforts and political activism, Mr. Iglesias was arrested on March 20, 
2003, during a wave of repression which was directed against the 
peaceful Cuban opposition. After weeks of interrogations and 
psychological torture, he was sentenced to 18 years in prison for the 
alleged crime of ``acts against the independence or territorial 
integrity of the state''--a common charge that dictatorial states have 
levied against democracy and human rights advocates for far too long.
  Mr. Iglesias was born in Havana on September 18, 1969. He loves to 
read classical literature and admires leaders of peaceful yet forceful 
advocacy such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King, Jr. He is an 
educated, hard-working man who lives with passion--a passion to live in 
a democracy where basic civil and political liberties are respected. It 
is because of his uncompromising commitment to fight for these 
democratic freedoms that Castro's regime stripped him of his liberty.
  Mr. Speaker, the abuses against Regis Iglesias Ramirez are 
horrendous. He has been repeatedly imprisoned for promoting the very 
ideals that we hold self-evident, and for calling out to his neighbors 
and fellow citizens to join him in a cry for freedom from a cruel, 
totalitarian regime. As Members of Congress, we must take the lead to 
ensure that these atrocities are stopped. I call upon the Cuban 
government to release Mr. Iglesias and to end human rights abuse. Let 
freedom's influence be felt not only in the halls of Capitol Hill, but 
also in the prison cells of Havana.

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