[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 14 (Wednesday, February 8, 2006)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E94]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        FREEDOM OF RAFAEL IBARRA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 8, 2006

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
remind my colleagues about Rafael Ibarra, a long suffering and heroic 
political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Ibarra heads the 30th of November Democratic Party, an island 
wide movement dedicated to the establishment of a democratic society, 
an opposition movement to the Castro tyranny. In 1995 he was sentenced 
to 20 years in the totalitarian gulag. In 1997, his wife Maritza Lugo, 
also a highly respected pro-democracy activist, was arrested and 
incarcerated for 2 years; leaving their 2 daughters without their 
parents. On multiple occasions after 1999, Maritza would continue to be 
arrested and harassed by the tyannical regime. Even while they were in 
prison at the same time, the tyrant insisted on evicting their 2 girls 
from their small farm house, which had become a gathering point for 
human rights and pro-democracy meetings.
  Mr. Ibarra was one of the political prisoners who signed the Cuban 
flag painted on a pillow case and sent it to the United Nations Human 
Rights Commission in Geneva.
  Maritza and her two daughters, at Mr. Ibarra's request, fled Cuba as 
refugees in 2002 to the United States so that the 2 girls would be able 
to live in freedom.
  This year marks an abominable anniversary, the 11th year that Mr. 
Ibarra has been imprisoned. While other fathers have been able to watch 
and guide their daughters as they grow up, Mr. Ibarra has been 
incarcerated in the gulag for daring to dream of and to work on behalf 
of a democratic Cuba.
  Rafael Ibarra is a hero, in the tradition of the great figures of 
Cuba's long struggle for liberty. Quintin Banderas, Carlos Manuel de 
Cespedes, Ignacio Agramonte, Antonio Maceo, and thousands of other 
Cuban heroes established a tradition of heroism that today is being 
continued by countless men and women who have given their best years 
and often their lives for the freedom of Cuba. Rafael Ibarra is a hero 
in that same admirable tradition.
  My thoughts and prayers are with him, as is my solidarity and 
profound admiration. Mr. Speaker, this courageous man is locked in 
Castro's gulag for failing to keep silent about the nightmare that is 
the Castro regime. My colleagues, we must never forget those who are 
locked in gulags because of their desire for freedom for their 
countries. We must demand the immediate and unconditional release of 
Rafael Ibarra and every prisoner of conscience in totalitarian Cuba.

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