[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 43 (Thursday, March 13, 2008)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E386-E387]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    FREEDOM FOR RANDY CABRERA MAYOR

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 13, 2008

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak about 
Randy Cabrera Mayor, a prisoner of conscience in totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Cabrera Mayor was imprisoned by the Cuban totalitarian 
dictatorship in 1989, a month before his 19th birthday. for his refusal 
to join the dictatorship's armed forces.
  Eight months after his imprisonment, Mr. Cabrera Mayor courageously 
escaped the atrocious confinement facility known as ``Ganusa'', located 
in San Jose de las Lajas. He promptly built himself a makeshift boat 
and attempted to reach freedom in the United States. Unfortunately, Mr. 
Cabrera Mayor was caught ten miles off the coast of Matanzas by agents 
of the communist dictatorship. He was convicted by a sham tribunal on 
charges of ``treason'' and ``illegal departure from the island.'' This 
would mark the first of many unsuccessful attempts by this brave 
political prisoner to achieve his god-given right to freedom.
  My colleagues, I wish to bring to your attention the inhumane 
conditions Mr. Cabrera Mayor is currently living in. The food he is 
being provided is consistently under an advanced stage of decomposition 
to the point that it is propagating intestinal diseases. He spends long 
periods of time in solitary confinement without access to a bathroom 
and shackles have been attached to his ankles to hinder his movements. 
When not in solitary confinement, Mr. Cabrera Mayor and other political 
prisoners are held in the same cells as common criminals of the most 
dangerous kinds.
  Madam Speaker, Mr. Randy Cabrera Mayor has engaged in numerous hunger 
strikes to

[[Page E387]]

protest his conditions and those of other prisoners, and he has been 
met with threats of beatings and withholding of sustenance, all in 
accordance with the usual treatments that the brutal regime that 
currently oppresses Cuba affords its political opponents in the dark 
and cruel world of Castro's gulags.
  Madam Speaker and colleagues, the conditions in which prisoners of 
conscience in Cuba are held are abominable and condemnable. We must 
demand the immediate release of Mr. Cabrera Mayor and all unjustly 
incarcerated prisoners, including all the political prisoners in 
totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________