[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 10 (Wednesday, February 1, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E52]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  FREEDOM FOR JORGE LUIS GARCIA PEREZ

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 1, 2006

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
remind my colleagues about Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, better known as 
Antunez, a long suffering and heroic political prisoner in totalitarian 
Cuba.
  Antunez, Mr. Speaker, is the face of the real Cuba.
  Antunez has been locked in the totalitarian gulag since 1990. In a 
sham trial, he was sentenced to 6 years in prison for ``oral enemy 
propaganda.'' In May 1993, he was tried in a second sham trial, and 
sentenced to an additional 15 years to be served from that moment. In 
total, Antunez has been sentenced to 18 years in Castro's grotesque, 
inhuman gulag.
  Despite being locked up in the tyrant's gulag, Antunez has bravely 
carried out heroic activism in Cuban jails, writing reports on prison 
conditions and carrying out numerous protests and hunger strikes to 
demand more humane treatment for prisoners. He has never wavered in his 
commitment to human rights and democracy for the Cuban people. Antunez 
has never given in to the beatings, the punishment cells and the 
instruments of torture inflicted on him by the Castro regime. Antunez 
always rises up and calls out, demanding human rights and freedom for 
Cuba.
  After over 15 years in the gulag, Antunez is still feared and 
relentlessly attacked by the dictatorship. According to the Department 
of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004, ``on 
July 6, family members of political prisoner Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, 
reported being beaten along with Garcia during a prison visit. 
Authorities handcuffed and beat Garcia and later punched his sister and 
kicked his girlfriend's 9 year old son after the visitors protested the 
harsh treatment.''
  No matter how intense the repression, no matter how horrifically 
brutal the consequences to him and his family, Antunez will not waiver 
in his conviction that Cuba should be and will be free. He is a symbol 
of dignity and heroic resistance to tyranny.
  Mr. Speaker, this courageous man has been in Castro's gulag since 
1990, for failing to keep silent about the nightmare that is the Castro 
regime. My Colleagues, it is a profound embarrassment for mankind that 
the world stands by in silence and acquiescence while political 
prisoners are systematically tortured because of their belief in 
freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. We should never 
forget those who are locked in gulags because of their desire to be 
free. We must demand the immediate and unconditional release of Jorge 
Luis Garcia Perez and every prisoner of conscience in totalitarian 
Cuba.

                          ____________________