[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 114 (Tuesday, July 17, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1542]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               FREEDOM FOR CARLOS MANUEL HERNANDEZ REYES

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 17, 2007

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Carlos Manuel Hernandez Reyes, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Carlos Manuel Hernandez Reyes is a member of the John Paul II 
Peace and Justice Movement and a member of the Pedro Luis Boitel Civic 
Resistance Movement, an organization named for a legendary, heroic 
Cuban political figure who died in a hunger strike in 1972. The primary 
objective of the movement is to urge the Cuban tyranny to grant amnesty 
to all prisoners of conscience and to abolish ``political'' crimes in 
totalitarian Cuba. Because of Mr. Hernandez Reyes' steadfast belief in 
human liberty and his dream of freedom for the people of Cuba, who have 
for too long been enslaved by the nightmare that is the totalitarian 
regime, he has been a constant target of the tyranny's repressive 
machinery.
  Because of his belief in inalienable rights and his dream that the 
people of Cuba deserve freedom and democracy, Mr. Hernandez Reyes was 
arrested by state security thugs on March 15, 2007 on grotesque charges 
of ``disrespect,'' which amounted to nothing more than refusing to live 
out the regime's mandated propaganda. For his supposed ``crime'' Mr. 
Hernandez Reyes was maliciously ``sentenced'' to one year in the 
totalitarian gulag.
  I remind my colleagues that, under the Cuban totalitarian regime, any 
freedom of expression or effort to display truth or opinion that is not 
in step with the regime's mandated lies, is met with swift and violent 
repression. Upon his ``sentencing'' Mr. Hernandez Reyes was moved by 
mule to the Tres Veredas concentration camp in Guantanamo, Cuba. Madam 
Speaker, Tres Veredas is an infernal dungeon where men are herded and 
treated as animals, with little if any contact with the outside world, 
the camp being a three to four hour walk from the nearest town and 
almost only reachable by mule.
  Madam Speaker, Mr. Hernandez Reyes languishes in an unventilated, 
dank, and rancid smelling room without water, electricity, or sunlight. 
Recently, Mr. Hernandez Reyes was able to communicate to human rights 
activist Francisco Hernandez Gomez that there was a rampant outbreak of 
diarrhea among the prisoners. No one bothered to investigate the source 
of their illness or make the minimal effort of transporting prisoners 
to a hospital or clinic for diagnosis. Instead they were ``treated'' by 
a nurse at the facility itself without access even to electricity.
  Madam Speaker, this is only one episode of the criminally abhorrent 
injustices continually carried out on countless innocent Cubans just 90 
miles from our shores. And yet, though the tyranny has attempted to 
destroy Mr. Hernandez Reyes, he will never cease in his commitment to 
freedom for Cuba. My Colleagues, we must demand the immediate release 
of Carlos Manuel Hernandez Reyes and all prisoners of conscience in 
totalitarian Cuba.

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