[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 86 (Friday, June 24, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1334]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                 FREEDOM FOR ALEXIS RODRIGUEZ FERNANDEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 23, 2005

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about 
Alexis Rodriguez Fernandez, a political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Rodriguez Fernandez is a member of both the Christian Liberation 
Movement and the Movement of Cuban Young People for Democracy. Mr. 
Rodriguez Fernandez believes in bringing freedom to an island enslaved 
by the nightmare that is the Castro regime. Unfortunately, Mr. 
Rodriguez Fernandez has been a constant target of the dictatorship.
  According to Amnesty International, in January 2002, Mr. Rodriguez 
Fernandez was attacked and threatened by plain clothes state security 
agents and later abandoned in a remote area. In March 2003, as part of 
Castro's heinous crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy activists, Mr. 
Rodriguez Fernandez was arrested. Subsequently, in a sham trial, he was 
sentenced to 15 years in the totalitarian gulag.
  Mr. Rodriguez Fernandez is currently languishing in an infernal cell 
in the totalitarian gulag. These depraved conditions are truly 
appalling. The State Department describes the conditions in the gulag 
as, ``harsh and life threatening.'' The State Department also reports 
that police and prison officials beat, neglect, isolate, and deny 
medical treatment to detainees and prisoners. It is a crime of the 
highest order that people who work for freedom are imprisoned in these 
nightmarish conditions.
  Let me be very clear. Mr. Rodriguez Fernandez is languishing in these 
depraved conditions because he believes in freedom. He believes in 
freedom of religion and human rights for every Cuban citizen. It is 
intolerable that freedom fighters like Mr. Rodriguez Fernandez are 
locked in gulags 90 miles from our shore because they believe in 
fundamental human rights.
  Mr. Rodriguez Fernandez is one of the many heroes of the peaceful 
Cuban democratic movement who are locked in the dungeons of the 
dictatorship for their beliefs. They are symbols of freedom and 
democracy who will always be remembered when freedom reigns again in 
Cuba.
  Mr. Speaker, it is condemnable and unconscionable that any person can 
be sentenced to 15 years in the grotesquely inhuman quarters of 
Castro's gulag for a belief in democracy. My Colleagues, we must demand 
the immediate and unconditional release of Alexis Rodriguez Fernandez 
and every prisoner of conscience in totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________