[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 54 (Thursday, April 28, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E816]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   FREEDOM FOR PROSPERO GAINZA AGUERO

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, April 28, 2005

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Prospero Gainza Aguero, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Gainza Aguero is a member of the Pedro Luis Boitel National Civic 
Resistance Movement. He has committed himself to peacefully bringing 
democracy to the men and women of Cuba and ending the nightmare that is 
the Castro regime. Because of his steadfast belief in freedom, 
democracy and the Rule of Law, Mr. Gainza Aguero has been targeted by 
the dictatorship.
  According to Amnesty International, Mr. Gainza Aguero was detained by 
the regime for participating in a protest to demand the release of a 
pro-democracy activist charged with ``public disorder.'' Despite 
continued harassment, Mr. Gainza Aguero remained bravely committed to 
opposing the dictatorship and advocating for freedom. On March 18, 
2003, as part of Castro's heinous crackdown on peaceful, pro-democracy 
activists, he was arrested by the dictatorship. In a sham trial, Mr. 
Gainza Aguero was sentenced to 25 years in the totalitarian gulag.
  According to Amnesty International, while locked up in the inhuman 
gulag for his belief in freedom, Mr. Gainza Aguero participated in a 
hunger strike to call attention to the abhorrent condition in the 
gulag, the lack of food, and the grossly inadequate medical care. 
Despite being imprisoned for his belief in human rights, despite the 
horrors of the totalitarian gulag, Mr. Gainza Aguero has not stopped 
working to bring change to a nation enslaved by Castro's despotic 
machinery of repression.
  Prospero Gainza Aguero is representative of the fighting spirit of 
the Cuban people: of their rejection of the brutality, discrimination, 
depravity, and oppression of the totalitarian tyranny.
  Let me be very clear, Mr. Gainza Aguero is imprisoned because he 
refuses to accept the dictatorship in Cuba today. Mr. Speaker, we must 
speak out and act against the abominable disregard for human rights, 
human dignity, and human freedom just 90 miles from our shore. My 
Colleagues, we must demand the immediate and unconditional release of 
Prospero Gainza Aguero and every political prisoner in totalitarian 
Cuba.

                          ____________________