[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 63 (Friday, May 13, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E962]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FREEDOM FOR IVAN HERNANDEZ CARRILLO

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 12, 2005

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Ivan Hernandez Carrillo, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Hernandez Carrillo is a member of the Pedro Luis Boitel Democracy 
Party and an independent journalist. He is peacefully striving to 
create an open society that recognizes human rights, freedom, and 
democracy. Unfortunately, the dictatorship forcefully represses those 
who bravely support freedom and rise in resistance to the despotic 
regime.
  According to Amnesty International, Mr. Hernandez Carrillo has been 
constantly harassed by the nightmare that is the Castro regime. He was 
arrested by the tyrant in 1997, 1999, and 2002 for his pro-democracy 
activities. Unfortunately, on March 18, 2003, as part of Castro's 
heinous crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy activists, Mr. Hernandez 
Carrillo was once again arrested by the dictatorship. In a sham trial, 
Mr. Hernandez Carrillo was sentenced to an abominable 25 years in the 
totalitarian gulag.
  According to Amnesty International, in 2003, while incarcerated in 
the inhuman gulag, Mr. Hernandez Carrillo was placed in a punishment 
cell. These punishment cells are the very depths of depravity. 
According to the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights 
Practices for 2004: `` `punishment cells,' were located in the basement 
of a prison, with continuous semi dark conditions, no available water, 
and a hole for a toilet. Reading materials, including Bibles, were not 
allowed. . . . Prisoners in punishment cells had no access to 
lawyers.''
  In 2004, according to Amnesty International, Mr. Hernandez Carrillo 
supported his fellow pro-democracy fighter Mario Enrique Mayo in a 
hunger strike that lasted from August 15th until August 25th. Their 
demands were medical assistance and food.
  Mr. Hernandez Carrillo is a brilliant example of the heroism of the 
Cuban people. Despite incessant repression, harassment, incarceration 
and abuse, he does not waiver in his conviction that freedom and 
democracy are the inalienable right of the Cuban people. It is a crime 
against humanity that Castro's totalitarian gulags are full of men and 
women, like Mr. Hernandez Carrillo, who represent the best of the Cuban 
nation.
  Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear, Mr. Hernandez Carrillo is 
languishing in the grotesque squalor of the gulag because he desires 
freedom for all Cubans. My Colleagues, we must demand the immediate and 
unconditional release of Ivan Hernandez Carrillo and every political 
prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________