[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 24 (Wednesday, February 13, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E179-E180]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    FREEDOM FOR CARLOS MARTIN GOMEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, February 13, 2008

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to 
remind my colleagues about Carlos Martin Gomez, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba who continues his struggle to bring human rights and 
dignity to the people of Cuba.
  In 2000 Cuban regime thugs arrested Mr. Martin for ``desecrating'' 
the thug-in-chief Fidel Castro. How exactly does one desecrate a 
tyrannical despot? In Mr. Martin's case by going to the Jose Marti 
Airport and calling out loud for the end of Fidel Castro's oppression 
of the Cuban people. Such a brave act earned Mr. Martin a 4-year 
sentence in the gulag.
  The regime may have thought they could quiet Mr. Martin's calls for 
the end to the dictatorship by throwing him into a prison to suffer 
under unbearable conditions. But Mr. Martin would not let the walls of 
the gulag suffocate his continued calls for a free Cuba. Because of his 
continued crusade to bring freedom to

[[Page E180]]

the Cuban people, the regime added somewhere between 14 years and 37 
years to his sentence.
  Now the dictatorship is trying a different tactic to silence Mr. 
Martin, they are refusing to provide him with adequate medical care 
after a fish bone got caught in his throat. According to his sister, 
Mr. Martin has lost considerable weight as he is only able to ingest 
liquids due to his untreated throat condition.
  Despite the gangster tactics and heinous threats against him, Mr. 
Martin refuses to back down and be silenced by the totalitarian regime. 
He still bravely continues to demand human rights and dignity for the 
Cuban people. On November 5, 2007, Mr. Martin released the following 
statement for the Cuban people from his prison:

       Cuba is a big prison which the regime has filled with 
     prisons, poverty, famine and disease. The communist thugs 
     have subjected us to this for 48 years. Hopefully, soon we 
     will see freedom in the beautiful land of our birth, and that 
     nobody has to flee . . . I reiterate my affection, respect 
     and love, from the No. 3 cell of the Melena del Sur prison, 
     in Havana province, to all who in one form or another, 
     struggle for the independence and freedom of Cuba.

  Madam Speaker, it is unconscionable that Carlos Martin Gomez is 
locked in a filthy dungeon for calling for human rights and freedom for 
the Cuban people. My colleagues, we must demand the immediate and 
unconditional release of Carlos Martin Gomez and every political 
prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________