[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 52 (Tuesday, April 26, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H2503-H2506]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EXPRESSING THE SENSE OF CONGRESS REGARDING THE TWO-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF
THE HUMAN RIGHTS CRACKDOWN IN CUBA
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
agree to the concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 81) expressing the
sense of Congress regarding the two-year anniversary of the human
rights crackdown in Cuba.
The Clerk read as follows:
H. Con. Res. 81
Whereas in March 2003, Cuban dictator Fidel Castro arrested
more than 75 journalists, labor union organizers, civic
leaders, librarians, and human rights activists as political
prisoners;
Whereas the Cuban regime, after summary trials which were
denounced by the international community, sentenced these
innocent men and women to a total of more than 1,000 years in
prison for trying to exercise their civil and political
rights, many of whom are anticipated to die in prison before
their sentence is completed;
Whereas the Charter of the United Nations reaffirms a
commitment to fundamental human rights and to the dignity and
worth of all people;
Whereas the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which
establishes global human rights standards, asserts that all
human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights,
and that no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or
detention;
Whereas these arrests and convictions were an atrocious
attempt by the Cuban regime to crush the citizens' movements
for a free and democratic Cuba;
Whereas Fidel Castro has tentatively released a limited
number of prisoners from jail but these political activists
are subject to arrest and imprisonment at any time pursuant
to ``extra penal licenses'';
Whereas in 2004, the Cuban regime continued its suppression
of democracy and repression of human rights activists,
imprisoning a significant number of political dissidents
during the year on such charges as disrespect for authority,
public disorder, disobedience, and resisting arrest;
Whereas in April 2004, the United Nations Commission on
Human Rights adopted a resolution deploring the sentencing of
``political dissidents and journalists'' in 2003 and calling
for a visit to Cuba by a Personal Representative of the High
Commissioner for Human Rights which was later denied by the
Cuban regime;
Whereas Fidel Castro continues to hold hundreds of
political prisoners in his jail cells;
Whereas Amnesty International has recognized all
journalists and activists who were arrested in the crackdown
in March 2003 as prisoners of conscience;
Whereas the Cuban regime engages in torture and other
cruel, inhumane, and degrading treatment and punishment
against political prisoners to force them into submission,
including intense beatings, extended periods of solitary
confinement, and denial of nutritional and medical attention,
according to the Department of State's Country Report on
Human Rights 2004;
Whereas religious freedom in Cuba is severely
circumscribed, and clergy and lay people suffer sustained
persecution by the Cuban State Security apparatus;
Whereas the Cuban regime denies the people of Cuba equal
protection under the law, disallows them recourse for
remedying violations of human rights and civil liberties, and
instead enforces a judicial system which infringes upon
fundamental rights; and
Whereas the United States Congress has stood, consistently,
on the side of the Cuban people and supported their right to
be free: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate
concurring), That Congress--
(1) condemns in the strongest possible terms the arrest of
more than 75 journalists, labor union organizers, civic
leaders, librarians, and human rights activists as political
prisoners in March 2003 and the Cuban regime's continuing
repressive crackdown against the brave internal opposition
and the independent press;
(2) expresses its profound admiration and firm solidarity
with the internal opposition and independent press of Cuba;
(3) demands that the Cuban regime immediately release all
political prisoners, legalize all political parties, labor
unions, and the press, and hold free and fair elections;
(4) declares the acts of the Cuban regime, including its
widespread and systematic violation of human rights, to be in
violation of the Charter of the United Nations and the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
(5) declares that the rule of law should replace the rule
of force so that the fundamental and inalienable rights of
every individual in Cuba are protected;
(6) calls for the European Union, as well as other
countries and international organizations, to continue to
pressure the Cuban regime to improve its human rights record;
and
(7) calls for United Nations member countries to vote
against the Cuban regime's membership in the United Nations
Commission on Human Rights and the passage of a resolution at
the 61st session of the United Nations Commission on Human
Rights that holds the Cuban regime accountable for its gross
violations of human rights and civil liberties.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Smith) and the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith).
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I
may consume.
Mr. Speaker, 2 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 best and bravest and brightest, prominent and even
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 prison.
When the Committee on International Relations met on April 16, 2003
to decry this vile abrogation of justice, I stated at that time that
``Even some of the most outspoken leftists who once saw in Fidel Castro
something to admire now admit that Castro's unbridled cruelty, his
thirst for blood, and extreme paranoia are indefensible.'' I regret to
report that Castro has not given me and, frankly, he has given no one
else as well, any reason to reassess that statement or those
sentiments.
What were the so-called crimes that these brave men and women
committed? They were advocating democracy, writing as independent
journalists, and being men and women of faith.
Their real offense was to dare to question the authority of a single
man: Fidel 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 close friends, who have dared to get in the way of
his personal ambitions.
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 on parole, citing health
reasons. The regime's callousness toward 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.
Mr. Speaker, writing in the Spanish newspaper, El Pais, Nobel Prize
winner Jose Saramago, a Portuguese Communist and close friend of
Castro, commented after 3 alleged Havana ferry hijackers were killed by
a firing squad in Cuba in May of 2003, ``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.''
{time} 1615
Illusions, as Castro-lover Jose Saramago 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 freedom of speech, press freedom, assembly and association, and
severely restricts workers' rights, including the right to form
independent trade unions, some have nevertheless clung to illusion.
[[Page H2504]]
Despite the fact that Cuba and Castro maintain an unimaginably vast
network of surveillance by the thugs in his secret police and the
committees for the defense of the revolution, or CDRs, neighbors spying
on neighbors, some continue to embrace bogus perceptions, illusions
about Castro and about Cuba.
In his book ``Against All Hope,'' the book that I have actually read
twice now, 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 its defenders of the Cuban revolution
denied that the incidents that I recount in the book ever happened.''
He says, ``Castro sympathizers who were more subtle said the incidents
that he 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,'' Armando Valladares goes on to say, ``to those who
still try to justify Castro's tyranny with the excuse that he built
schools and hospitals, is this: Stalin and Hitler and Pinochet all
built schools and hospitals, and like Castro, they all tortured and
assassinated opponents. They built concentration and extermination
camps and eradicated all liberties, committing the worst crimes against
humanity.''
Armando Valladares goes on to say: ``Unbelievably while many NGOs
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.''
Mr. Speaker, that love affair, that illusion seemed to crash and burn
with the onset of the current crackdown on dissidents. The EU for its
part took action in June of 2003 by limiting high-level EU governmental
visits and inviting Cuban dissidents to National Day celebrations. But,
sadly, their memories are short. In January of this year, at the
initiative of the Spanish Government, the EU temporarily suspended
these measures for a 6-month period.
Mr. Speaker, at the 61st session of the U.N. Commission on Human
Rights in Geneva, which was held this past month, the United States, I
am very proud to say the United States offered a resolution on the
human rights situation in Cuba. The resolution recalled the resolutions
of the previous 15 years; and I would just say, parenthetically, I was
there 15 years ago when Armando Valladares led the U.S. delegation,
having been sent out of the government or out of Cuba by Castro, and
got that body, which is dysfunctional in many ways, to finally focus on
these ongoing and persistent violations of human rights in Cuba, and
that was the first time.
I am glad to say that we just, at U.S. insistence, were able to get
another statement by the U.N. Commission on Human Rights focused on the
ongoing abuses by Cuba. The resolution passed by a vote of 21 to 17
with 15 abstentions, but only after a full court press by the U.S.
delegation led by Rudy Boschwitz, which included personal pleas from
President Bush to the presidents of Ukraine and Mexico.
I am sad to point out that China, Congo, Cuba, Egypt, Eritrea,
Ethiopia, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Qatar,
Russia, South Africa, Sudan and Zimbabwe all voted against the
resolution, in effect putting their stamp of approval on Castro's
actions.
Let me just say finally, Mr. Speaker, that this resolution we have
today is a reiteration. It is a bipartisan resolution offered by my
friend and colleague from New Jersey (Mr. Menendez). And I hope that
every member will vote in favor of it.
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. Sixty-one 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 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, Noble prize winner Jose
Saramago, a Portuguese communist and close friend of Castro commented
after three alleged Havana ferry hijackers were killed by firing squad
in Cuba in May 2003, ``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.''
Illusions, as Castro lover Jose Saramago 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.
At the 61st session of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights
in Geneva this past month, the United States offered a resolution on
the human rights situation in Cuba. The resolution recalled the
resolutions of the previous 15 years which the Commission had passed on
Cuba, and asked that the mandate of the Personal Representative of the
High Commissioner be continued. The resolution passed by a vote of 21-
17, with 15 abstentions, but only after a fullcourt lobbying press by
the U.S. delegation which included personal pleas from President Bush
to the Presidents of Ukraine and Mexico. China, Congo, Cuba, Egypt,
Eritrea, Ethiopia, Guinea, India, Indonesia, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria,
Qatar, Russia, South Africa, Sudan and Zimbabwe all voted against the
resolution, in effect putting their stamp of approval on Castro's
actions.
[[Page H2505]]
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.
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 U.N. 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. Some day these oppressors will be held to
account and the people of Cuba will live in freedom.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of our time.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I might consume.
Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of this resolution. Let me first
thank my colleague, the distinguished chairman of the International
Relations Committee, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde), for
facilitating our body's consideration of the resolution so
expeditiously. And let me thank my two friends on the other side, the
gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) and the gentlewoman from Florida
(Ms. Ros-Lehtinen), for their indefatigable fight for all human rights
issues globally. I also want to thank my friend, the ranking Democratic
member of the Western Hemisphere Subcommittee, the gentleman from New
Jersey (Mr. Menendez), for his ongoing battle for human rights in Cuba.
Mr. Speaker, it is inexcusable that 2 years after 75 Cuban lovers of
freedom were tried in kangaroo courts in Havana, sentenced to prison
terms ranging from 6 to 28 years for a total prison term of a thousand
years and imprisoned in rat-infested dank cells, Castro's totalitarian
machine is still trying to crack the backs of that Caribbean island's
internal opposition by continuing to lock up some of its most
distinguished civic and human rights leaders.
These political prisoners, Mr. Speaker, are suffering unspeakable
horrors at the hands of Cuban police agents simply because they dare to
articulate their disagreement with Castro's Communist government;
because they dared to share their personal book collections with their
friends and neighbors; because they dared to advocate for labor unions;
and because they refused to compromise their journalistic integrity.
These soldiers of freedom, Mr. Speaker, who stand shoulder to
shoulder in spirit with the likes of Poland's Lech Walesa and the Czech
Republic's Vaclav Havel, were thrown behind bars because they practiced
their professions or attempted to exert their political rights and
civil liberties without the blessings of Castro's oppressive regime.
Many of those arrested were supporters of the so-called Varela
Project, a grassroots, nonviolent citizens' movement in Cuba that seeks
fundamental political change on the island by petitioning the Cuban
Government for a referendum on reform.
Mr. Speaker, it is painfully clear that Castro still does not grasp
what has become obvious to many leaders of isolated countries, that the
ideological contest between democratic liberty and totalitarian
suppression was won over a decade ago. There is no question today, as
there was during World War II or throughout the long years of the Cold
War, that systems and individuals who seek to repress and terrorize
their people ultimately will not prevail.
It is only a matter of time before the Communist government of Cuba
will realize that the choice before it is not whether the cronies of
Castro will be able to maintain power, for the answer to that question
is a clear and resounding no; but rather whether they want to
participate constructively in a process that will surely transition
Cuba to a future of freedom, democracy, and economic opportunity for
all.
Mr. Speaker, recently, the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere
convened a remarkable hearing at which members of the internal
opposition spoke via telephone from Havana, despite placing themselves
at risk of state persecution. These courageous political dissidents
forcefully argued that we in Congress should call upon the
international community to denounce Cuba's human rights record at every
opportunity.
Mr. Speaker, here in this House we may disagree on how best to bring
about change in Cuba. But we stand together in steadfast solidarity
with those who endure the depths of human depravity solely because they
strive each day to loosen the shackles of communist repression for
themselves and their fellow countrymen and women.
I strongly urge my colleagues to support H. Con. Res. 81, and I
reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as she may
consume to the distinguished gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Ros-
Lehtinen).
Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, I am greatly humbled to follow such
internationally recognized human rights leaders as the distinguished
gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), my good friend, and my equally
wonderful friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith). I am
honored to be in their presence.
And we stand here today, Mr. Speaker, 2 years after a cruel,
despotic, and vicious act by one of the most cowardly and evil men in
the world, Fidel Castro, the unlawful arrest of over 70 peaceful
dissidents on the island of Cuba.
The arrest of these innocent men and women are promulgated by a
culture of fear, Mr. Speaker, one that has banned libraries, one that
has banned books, one that maintains a system of remote and unmonitored
gulags for prisoners of conscience, one that forbids independent labor
unions, one that causes the systematic mistreatment of religious
believers, one that mandates the summary execution of independent
journalists and conscientious objectors.
This important resolution before us demands that the Cuban regime
release all political prisoners, legalize all political parties, labor
unions and the press, and hold free elections. In other words, to be
afforded their basic freedoms.
Further, it calls for the European Union, as well as other countries
and international organizations, to pressure the Cuban regime to
improve its deplorable human rights record.
As we convene in this great Hall of democracy, many in Cuba continue
to be dragged down stairs, strapped to chairs and beaten for wanting
one thing and one thing only, freedom, and with that, the freedom to
express their thoughts and their ability to exercise their basic
universally held human rights.
In passing this legislation, Mr. Speaker, we are once again in the
Congress reaffirming our commitment to the brave people of the island
of Cuba, especially those 75 men and women who were cruelly arrested
for advocating peacefully in favor of freedom, democracy, and respect
for human rights.
I commend my good friend, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr.
Menendez), as well as the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos) and
the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith),
[[Page H2506]]
for this bill, and wholeheartedly support this legislation. And I ask
my colleagues to vote in favor of it today.
Mr. ANDREWS. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H. Con.
Res. 81, a resolution which condemns the crackdown on political
dissidents that was orchestrated by the regime of Fidel Castro two
years ago. Through this remarkable violation of human rights, the Cuban
government arrested more than 75 journalists, labor union organizers,
civic leaders, librarians, and human rights activists, and took them as
political prisoners. On this occasion, it is important that we keep in
mind the struggle in which our brothers and sisters in Cuba continued
to be engaged--that is, the struggle for freedom and true democracy.
One of the many dissenters arrested in March 2003 was Mr. Jose Daniel
Ferrer Garcia, a pro-democracy activist in Cuba who has been jailed for
his outspoken leadership in the Cuban democracy movement. Mr. Garcia is
the regional coordinator for the Christian Liberation Movement in
Santiago Province. Through this leadership position, he has moblilzed
many Cuban youth for democratic change, and has focused on
accomplishing the movement's chief objective: to unite citizens that
are willing to defend and promote human rights and achieve changes in
the Cuban society through peaceful means. Because of the efforts of
determined individuals such as Mr. Garcia, the struggle for democracy
in Cuba continues, and we should keep this in mind when considering any
potential changes in United States policy towards Castro's regime.
Mr. Speaker, I ask that all of my colleagues in the House of
Representatives join me in supporting H. Con. Res. 81, and continue to
voice their solidarity with Mr. Garcia and all other pro-democracy
activists in Cuba as they continue their push for true freedom.
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker. A todos mis hermanos y hermanas quienes
sufren en las carceles de Castro bajo su regimen, a sus familias y
amistades aqui en los Estados Unidos y en Cuba, les digo que el pueblo
americano esta con ustedes. Y, aqui en el Congreso de los Estados
Unidos, vamos a defender su libertad y ganar la lucha contra la
brutalidad y la opresion.
Por eso, junto con mis otras colegas en el Congreso, escribi esta
resolucion que condena la ola represiva contra los disidentes que hizo
la regimen Castro hace dos anos y que declara que la gente cubana debe
tener los derechos humanos y la libertad--la libertad de expresion y de
asociacion--y el derecho de tener elecciones libres.
To all my friends here today who don't speak Spanish, don't worry, I
won't spend the rest of my time speaking in Spanish. But I did want to
take a moment to speak directly to the Cuban people to let them know
that we stand with them in their fight for freedom and human rights.
We are debating this resolution today under the shadow of the 2nd
anniversary of the crackdown on dissidents in Cuba. We often think of
an anniversary as a moment to celebrate--but clearly we have nothing to
celebrate today. Instead, we use this anniversary to mark a tragedy in
the lives of the Cuban people and to the lives of all those who support
democracy and human rights in the hemisphere.
The whole world was horrified as more than 75 journalists, human
rights activists, and opposition political figures were arrested, given
summary trials, and then sentenced to prison terms of up to 28 years.
Many of the prisoners, along with other prisoners of conscience, spent
over a year in solitary confinement. Some have been deprived of
adequate medical treatment and reports from Cuba detail beatings and
harassment.
I am not fooled by the recent release of a number of dissidents, by
this attempt to trick the international community. I am not fooled
because I know that when they released those dissidents, who should
never have been in jail in the first place, they also arrested new
dissidents. I am not fooled because I know that they only released
these dissidents on ``parole,'' meaning that they could be arrested
again at any time.
Hundreds of political prisoners remain in Castro's jails today.
Clearly, the Castro regime has no respect for the Universal Declaration
of Human Rights, which states in Article 4 that, ``No one shall be
subjected to torture or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or
punishment.'' And the world has recognized these injustices. The State
Department calls this wave, ``the most despicable act of political
repression in the Americas in a decade.''
Castro's human rights record has been condemned by Amnesty
International, Freedom House, and other human rights groups.
In a statement, Amnesty International said that these ``prisoners of
conscience'' should be immediately released and called on the Cuban
regime to, ``comply with the principles laid out in international
rights standards for the treatment of prisoners.''
Freedom House included Cuba in its report entitled, ``The Worst of
the Worst, The World's Most Repressive Societies, 2004.'' And the House
of Representatives has condemned Castro's human rights record as well,
in multiple resolutions. This year, on the two-year anniversary, we are
here to pass a resolution that condemns Castro's brutal crackdown and
demands that the Cuban regime immediately release all political
prisoners, legalize all political parties, labor unions, and the press,
and hold free and fair elections.
Today is a time for all of us to come together, from both sides of
the aisle, to stand together for a universal cause: human rights.
Today, in voting for this resolution, we will celebrate the strength
and perseverance of the Cuban people.
Today, we will vote for the universal values which we all share.
So I call on all of the Members of the House of Representatives to
join me in the fight for human rights and democracy for the Cuban
people.
Now is the time for us to stand together against brutality, torture
and dictatorship.
Now is the time for us to stand together for freedom, for the right
to free speech and free association, and for human rights in general.
Now is the time for us to stand together as we call on the Cuban
regime to immediately release these prisoners of conscience, who were
jailed for standing up for democracy and human rights against a brutal
dictatorship.
To my brothers and sisters who suffer in Castro's jails, to their
families and friends both here in the United States and Cuba, and to
the Cuban people, I say that Castro will not succeed in his vain
attempt to suppress the spirit of the Cuban people. I look forward to
the day, which is coming soon, when we will all celebrate a free and
democratic Cuba. It is the spirit of the Cuban people and their courage
that will ultimately be Castro's downfall.
So, I ask each of you to join me in voting yes for this resolution.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, we have no further requests for
time.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, we have no additional requests for time, and
I yield back the balance of our time.
Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my
time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Boozman). The question is on the motion
offered by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Smith) that the House
suspend the rules and agree to the concurrent resolution, H. Con. Res.
81.
The question was taken.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. In the opinion of the Chair, two-thirds of
those present have voted in the affirmative.
Mr. LANTOS. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX and the
Chair's prior announcement, further proceedings on this motion will be
postponed.
____________________