[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 45 (Tuesday, March 23, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H2249-H2254]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      FREEDOM FOR THE CUBAN PEOPLE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 6, 2009, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, we have had a number 
of interesting debates in the last year, last few weeks in particular. 
One of the things that we should never forget is how precious freedom 
is and how frail freedom is. Just 90 miles away from our shores at this 
very moment, at this very instant, there are people who have been 
enslaved for over half a century under the boot of the same oppressive 
regime, the dictatorship of the Castro brothers. Half a century of 
brutality.
  Just last week marked the seventh anniversary of the beginning of 
what was known as the Black Spring in Cuba. The Cuban Black Spring in 
2003 was where 75 human rights activists, independent journalists, 
librarians, economists and other peaceful, pro-democracy activists and 
leaders were jailed for expressing their desire for democracy and 
democratic change in Cuba. All of them were sentenced to up to 25 years 
in prison in the worst possible conditions, in the worst possible 
prisons. Now, that is just some of the thousands of heroes who are 
standing up for freedom in the enslaved island of Cuba.

  The majority of this Congress for many, many years has always stood 
with the Cuban people, has stood in solidarity with the Cuban people 
and their struggle for that freedom which is inevitable but has cost so 
dearly for so long. I have a lot to talk about on this issue, Madam 
Speaker, but before I proceed, I, frankly, am deeply honored to be able 
to yield time to an individual who has been a leader in this Congress 
for issues of freedom, a leader in this Congress who has always been 
speaking out for the oppressed wherever they may be, but who is so well 
known by the dissidents, by the opposition leaders, by the pro-
democracy leaders in Cuba because his name rings as freedom for the 
Cuban people who have been enslaved. So I yield to the gentleman from 
Indiana, because it is a privilege to be able to share tonight with a 
person who everyone in Cuba--and there are those Cubans who live in 
freedom, whether it is in the United States or other parts of the 
world--recognizes this gentleman, Dan Burton from Indiana, as a fighter 
for freedom.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Wow, I really appreciate you saying that, 
because when I think of people who are really fighting for freedom in 
Congress regarding Cuba, I think immediately of Lincoln and Mario Diaz-
Balart. You two have been real stalwarts and are very eloquent. We are 
certainly going to miss Lincoln when he retires after this year, but I 
know that he will continue to fight for freedom and democracy in Cuba. 
And Ileana Ros-Lehtinen has been a real fighter, too. I appreciate all 
three of you and what you have been able to do. You worked so hard to 
help us get the Helms-Burton bill passed several years ago which dealt 
with the Cuban issue.
  The thing that bothers me the most is, as you said, Castro has been 
in power down there for over 50 years. When he first came into power 
when the revolution took place, I remember there were a lot of people 
in America who thought he was going to be the savior of Cuba because 
Batista, who was the dictator down there, was supposed to be so bad; 
but they didn't realize while Batista might have been a problem, Castro 
was an absolute disaster. He came in and started killing a whole bunch 
of people and started imposing his communist philosophy and putting 
people in prison for huge periods of time.
  There is a book that I read, ``Against All Hope'' by Armando 
Valladares. I know you both know him. When I read that book, I was on a 
plane. And he was in jail for, I think, 25 years only because he took 
issue with the communist approach to government in Cuba. I was on the 
plane, and when I got to a part of it I started to cry and the guy next 
to me thought something was wrong with me, and I assured him there 
wasn't and I told him about the book, and he said, I am going to have 
to read that myself. But I would say to anybody in their offices 
tonight that might be watching, I hope that you get a chance to read 
``Against All Hope'' by Armando Valladares because it will tell you how 
bad it really is. I think last week or the week before, we had a person 
who had a hunger strike. I can't remember his name right now.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Yes, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who 
died in prison as a political prisoner on a hunger strike.
  Mr. BURTON of Indiana. He went on a hunger strike and he ended up 
dying because he was protesting the terrible treatment and the people 
who are incarcerated for nothing other than opposing communism, and he 
died in his fight for freedom. That is just unbelievable. Castro 
continues to keep people incarcerated for huge periods of time without 
any real charge against them except they don't agree with communism.
  So, tonight, I am adding my support to Lincoln Diaz-Balart and Mario 
Diaz-Balart in their Special Order because Cuba should be free. It is 
only 90 miles from our border. Most of the people down there yearn to 
have their freedom and the democracy we have

[[Page H2250]]

here in the United States. Instead, they live in abject poverty and 
drive cars that are 50 years old because of the economy down there. If 
they work and the company they are working for is paid in dollars, that 
money has to go to the government and they are paid in pesos, which are 
worth almost nothing, and so people are kept in abject poverty with no 
hope except to continue to live that way.
  So I hope and I pray that there will be freedom and democracy in 
Cuba. I hope it will be before too long. I hope that people like 
President Chavez in Venezuela will stop giving support to the Cuban 
communist government. And if there is anything that the United States 
can do to stop Mr. Chavez from buoying up that government, I certainly 
want to see us do that, because he is absolutely committed to not only 
keeping Cuba a communist country, but spreading communism throughout 
Central and South America.
  But as long as the Diaz-Balart brothers are willing to fight and as 
long as Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is willing to fight, I will be glad to 
carry their bags, because Cuba should and must be free. And one day 
Cuba will be free. And when it is free, we are all going to go down 
there and I am going to let the Diaz-Balart brothers buy me a margarita 
and we will all celebrate together.

  Viva Cuba libre.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I thank the gentleman for his 
steadfast support for freedom.
  I am going to approach the well because I want to show some pictures 
on some boards of some individuals that I want to briefly talk about.
  Madam Speaker, the gentleman from Indiana just mentioned Orlando 
Zapata Tamayo. This is his picture here. He is a 42-year-old plumber 
and bricklayer in Cuba. He was arrested and thrown in prison, a 
peaceful pro-democracy advocate. While he was there, he was constantly 
being beaten and beaten and beaten, which is not unusual treatment for 
how that regime treats its political prisoners. It has hundreds upon 
hundreds upon hundreds of political prisoners.
  So in order to protest the beatings against him and the inhumane 
treatment of all of the other political prisoners and to highlight the 
cause of freedom, the cause of freedom that so many are struggling for 
and are suffering so thoroughly for, he stopped eating and went on a 
hunger strike on December 3. Again, he continued to suffer from that 
brutality.
  He had been arrested in 2003 during the Black Spring that I 
mentioned. Again, he was a person who had been declared a prisoner of 
conscience by international organizations like Amnesty International. 
So he went on this hunger strike, and after 80 days, 80 days, he passed 
away. He passed away because he refused to give up on the cause of 
freedom, and he refused to accept, as a normal everyday occurrence that 
should be accepted, the fact that the political prisoners should be 
beaten, mistreated, or incarcerated at all.

                              {time}  1800

  Let me also put up this poster now. This poster is of Orlando Zapata 
Tamayo's mother. What she is holding up here is the bloodied T-shirt of 
her son. That's the kind of beatings that he was receiving in prison as 
a political prisoner, as a prisoner of conscience, as a peaceful man 
who was just asking for freedom. And because of that, this is the kind 
of treatment that he was getting: constant beatings, constant, constant 
beatings in prison.
  And after he died, after Orlando Zapata Tamayo, that hero for freedom 
that, hopefully, all of us will always remember, because history must 
remember him for his incredible sacrifice, after that, one would ask, 
well, is that it? Is the cause dead?
  No, because there are other heroes that have come after him like the 
many heroes that came before. And they will continue to come until Cuba 
is free. And right after he died, another well-known political 
prisoner, very well-known activist, a very well-known pro-democracy 
activist also then stopped eating and went on a hunger strike. He's 
been on this hunger strike since the 24th of February.
  I want everybody to see him. This is a man who's a psychologist; he's 
a freelance writer. He's on a hunger strike, and he knows what the 
consequences of that hunger strike may be because he saw what happened 
to Zapata Tamayo; and he's on a hunger strike, knowing that his fate 
may very well be the same, that he may give his life so that others 
will finally wake up and speak out about the horrible atrocities that 
have taken place just 90 miles away from our shore.
  And, again, he says, he has stated that he will remain on this hunger 
strike until a number of other political prisoners who are--26 of them 
that are seriously ill, seriously ill--are set free. As you can see by 
this image, his condition is, well, very fragile. It doesn't take a 
medical doctor, because I'm not one, to understand that his condition 
is very, very fragile.
  Felix Bonet Carcases, I don't have a picture of him here, 
unfortunately. But he's an engineer and a former university professor. 
He has already publicly vowed that he will also go on a hunger strike 
if Guillermo Farinas were to die on his hunger strike; that he will 
replace him in the hunger strike until, as he said, the final 
consequences, to highlight the condition of the political prisoners, to 
highlight the lack of freedom of the Cuban people, to highlight the 
fact that that freedom is something that's desired by all, and yet 
receives so little attention, so little international attention, 
because where are the international communities? Where are the 
international groups? Where are they speaking out for the freedom of 
the Cuban political prisoners? Where are they asking and demanding 
elections for the Cuban people? Very few are anywhere to be heard, 
which is why, now, Felix has also said that he will go on a hunger 
strike as well, again, I repeat, as he said, until the final 
consequences.
  And the story goes on and on and on. I want to now put up a picture 
of Jorge Luis Garcia Perez and his wife, Iris Perez Aguillera. He is 
known as Antunez, by one word; everybody knows him as one word. He was 
arrested while talking to some friends in a public square. In 1990 he 
was talking about the lack of freedom in 1990 and he was arrested, and 
he spent 17 years as a political prisoner, and he was consistently and 
constantly beaten in prison and yet he never gave up. He never lost 
faith. And he was finally released in 2007.
  And what has he done since his release in 2007? Madam Speaker, he's 
continued to speak out. Madam Speaker, he's continued to speak out. 
He's continued to complain and denounce the treatment of the political 
prisoners and the lack of freedom and demanding democracy for Cuba. And 
just like he was beaten in prison, he and his wife, another hero, are 
now constantly arrested and rearrested; and they're beaten and beaten 
and beaten, time and time again. He's 45 years old, another hero that 
the American people need to know about.
  These are heroes 90 miles away from the United States. Both of these 
individuals are heroes.
  Another hero, Madam Speaker, Oscar Elias Biscet. He's a physician. 
He's a doctor. He was incarcerated. It started because he refused to 
perform forced abortions. They actually have forced abortions in the 
island of Cuba. He has dedicated his life to advancing human rights and 
democracy in Cuba. He's a medical doctor, as I said, and a total 
pacifist, a believer in Martin Luther King and in Gandhi, a person, 
who, again, continues to speak out, even from prison, even after the 
repeated beatings that he has received time and time and time again. He 
has been placed in solitary confinement. He has lost many of his teeth. 
And yet he continues to speak out.
  And, unfortunately, where are the international organizations 
demanding his release?
  And I can continue to go on and on and on, and we need to talk about 
some of these heroes that can never be forgotten, that we need to stand 
with them, next to them, behind them in solidarity.

  But to also speak on this issue and tell us a little bit about it--
and I know that he actually even, I believe he spoke, I think the 
gentleman spoke to Dr. Biscet.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. To Farinas.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. To Farinas. I'm sorry. To Farinas 
who is on a hunger strike recently. To

[[Page H2251]]

talk a little bit about that is a person who has dedicated his life to 
the cause of freedom, who has spent many years in public service, who 
will, even though he will be leaving Congress soon, will not stop 
fighting for the cause of freedom everywhere, not only in Cuba, but 
obviously, also in particular fighting for the political prisoners, for 
democracy, for the just causes, for the suffering of the Cuban people, 
and that is the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart).
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Thank you. I want to thank 
Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart for convening us here this evening. And, 
Mario, if you may, leave Biscet because I'm going to read first a 
statement he sent out, along with five other heroes on March 3. And I'd 
like to start by, as I was saying, thanking you for convening us, and 
by pointing out who the heroes and genuine representatives of Cuba are.
  There have not been free elections for many decades, and so the 
people cannot express themselves. When they are able to express 
themselves, these heroes and others like them, who, today enjoy the 
moral authority arising from their conduct, will have political 
authority. They will be elected at the municipal level, at the 
provincial level, at the national level as the leaders of Cuba. They 
are the representatives of the Cuban people.
  Dr. Biscet, whose photograph is on top there, and five other heroes, 
managed to send a statement from their prison. They are in one of the 
gulags of the Castro brothers, and they sent out a statement on March 
3; and I'd like to read it:

       We continue to suffer cruel treatment, inhuman, degrading 
     treatment and even torture in the Communist regime's prisons. 
     We ask all who support Cuba's freedom to, between March 12 
     and March 31, unite in short periods of fasting and study of 
     the Bible, demanding the liberation of all political 
     prisoners and liberty and democracy in Cuba. Please engage in 
     short fasts and prayer sessions in your homes, churches or 
     other public gathering places. And speak out in articles, in 
     conferences, to reflect upon and implement and help 
     implement, through peaceful, just and patriotic means, the 
     long-sought objectives of the Cuban people.

  Oscar Elias Biscet, whose photograph is there, Julio Cesar Galvez, 
Ricardo Gonzales, Normando Hernandez, Tres Iglesias and Angel Moya. 
Those six heroes sent out the statement that I read.
  A few days ago I was able to be in Lithuania, where I was invited to 
help form the Parliamentary Forum of the Community of Democracies. Over 
100 nations belong to the Community of Democracies; and Lithuania, a 
small country with extraordinary moral authority, is chairing the 
Community of Democracies, and had the initiative and the idea of the 
formation of a parliamentary forum. And I was honored to be elected one 
of the seven vice presidents. The new president of that now-established 
parliamentary forum, Chairman Zingeris, of the Foreign Affairs 
Committee of the Lithuanian Parliament, made a motion in the first 
meeting of the parliamentary forum in Lithuania a few days ago, and 
drafted a resolution in furtherance of the request of Dr. Biscet and 
the other heroes. And I'd like to read it:
  Resolution, in the convening meeting of the Parliamentary Forum of 
the Community of Democracies calling for support of Cuba's pro-
democracy movement.

  Whereas, the pro-democracy movement in Cuba has grown at a rapid pace 
over the last 3 years, and specific expressions of the movement are 
evident today in the explosion of bloggers on the island, independent 
journalists, musicians, artists, writers and others who are using their 
talents to denounce the atrocities of the dictatorship, all while 
putting forth new ideas for the transition to democracy;
  Whereas there are still extraordinary obstacles to overcome such as 
the continued repression by the totalitarian dictatorship, extremely 
limited access to the Internet and texting capabilities and a lack of a 
coherent message of solidarity from the international community;
  Whereas the dictatorship is fearful of the growth of the pro-
democracy movement;
  Whereas the message of the movement is coherent and clear in 
demanding freedom for all Cuban political prisoners, beginning with 
those who are gravely ill inside the prisons, freedom of expression and 
free, fair multi-party elections with international supervision;
  Whereas this common position of the Cuban pro-democracy movement 
requires greater recognition, dissemination and solidarity on the part 
of the Community of Democracies;
  Whereas now more than ever the Cuban pro-democracy movement requires 
that the democratic community take concrete steps to demonstrate its 
solidarity;
  Now, therefore, be it resolved that the Community of Democracies 
Parliamentary Forum condemns the brutality of the Cuban regime against 
Cuban political prisoners, expresses its full support for the Cuban 
pro-democracy movement, honors Cuban pro-democracy fighters, such as 
the martyr, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, and expresses its admiration for the 
efforts of other heroes such as Guillermo Farinas, calls for the 
immediate release of all Cuban political prisoners and for free multi-
party elections in Cuba, and calls on the democratic community to take 
concrete steps in demonstrating their solidarity with the Cuban pro-
democracy movement by providing humanitarian and technological 
assistance to the pro-democracy movement, urging foreign diplomatic 
posts in Havana to strengthen contacts with pro-democracy activists on 
the island, and encouraging foreign dignitaries to visit Cuba for the 
sole purpose of meeting with pro-democratic activists, and looking for 
opportunities to reiterate and support the common position of the Cuban 
pro-democracy movement in the international community.
  That resolution passed at the convening meeting of the Parliamentary 
Forum of the Community of Democracies in Vilnius, Lithuania on 12 March 
2010.

                              {time}  1815

  I see a distinguished colleague of ours. There is no one who I admire 
more than Christopher Smith, who has joined us.
  And before yielding back to you Congressman, Mario Diaz-Balart, the 
floor, I would like to make reference to two items. First, I will put 
in the Congressional Record a list of 25 gravely ill political 
prisoners in Cuba who are the reason for the hunger strike of Guillermo 
Farinas, who is in the photograph below Dr. Biscet. Guillermo Farinas 
is on a hunger strike and has been on a hunger strike for weeks now, as 
we speak, for the reason that these 25 political prisoners are near 
death because of grave illnesses. And they are still being held and 
have received sentences at the order obviously of the tyrant Fidel 
Castro of up to 26 years of length per sentence simply for calling for 
freedom, supporting freedom, and democracy.
  So after Chris Smith speaks, I will, if it is all right, read the 
names of these 25 heroes. And then I would like to simply make 
reference, if I may, to--I received a call--I wasn't able to answer it 
before coming to the floor--from a reporter from the National Journal, 
Tom Risen, who, according to my staff, is asking my opinion with regard 
to the initiative now with the subterfuge, under the subterfuge, of an 
agricultural bill where they tell the American farmer, This is to help 
you make sales.
  Legislation has been filed to open up what the Castro brothers 
consider their number one priority, to grant them their number one 
priority: The billions of dollars in mass U.S. tourism to their system, 
to their island, where they would then be able to receive the tourists, 
make sure that the tourists see the Potemkin village.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. If the gentleman will yield on that 
point.
  I think it's interesting to note this legislation that you're 
mentioning, it was filed on the same day that Orlando Zapata Tamayo 
died in prison in a hunger strike, the same day where you would expect 
solidarity, where you would expect somebody to say, What can we do to 
help those that are struggling, suffering in prison. That same day, 
some in this Congress filed a bill to unilaterally lift sanctions, 
asking nothing in return for that day.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. And granting the Cuban tyranny 
its number one priority.
  When some colleagues have come to me and said, What is your opinion 
on the agricultural bill that's been filed? I

[[Page H2252]]

said, Do you realize it has very little to do with agriculture? And it 
is the number one priority of the Cuban tyranny? To receive the 
countless billions in U.S. tourism unilaterally, thus in exchange for 
nothing.
  The prisoners would continue being tortured, the Cuban people would 
continue being bound and gagged, being denied their ability to speak, 
much less have free and fair multiparty elections. For over 50 years 
that would continue. And the regime would have unilaterally its 
billions, countless billions of U.S. dollars. That is what that bill is 
about. It's not about agriculture.
  The regime is allowed to purchase American agriculture by U.S. law, 
agricultural products. Castro has to pay so that the American taxpayer 
is not then given the bill afterward for billions, countless billions 
of dollars that he won't pay after he gets the ability to get 
financing. And if he gets mass U.S. tourism, then imagine the ability 
to further repress, to further torture, to further denigrate, 
discriminate, because the essence of that regime is not only 
totalitarian regime; it is a racist regime against the Cuban people.
  I wish to read the list of the heroes, but I think it's important 
that we recognize Chris Smith.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I'm also going to ask you to relay 
a little bit of the conversation that you had with one of the heroes. 
We were speaking about how the majority of Congress has always had 
great solidarity with the people of Cuba.
  One of the gentlemen that you most admire--and I knew of him before I 
got elected to Congress by having conversations with you, and then 
seeing his record. I also remember seeing a publication. I don't 
remember exactly what the quote was, but they called him one of the 
heroes of the oppressed. Not in Congress, just in our country.
  And so it's a privilege to have the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. 
Smith). Again, a hero of those who are oppressed, a hero if anyone is 
struggling in a political prison, in a gulag, for his or her belief. 
It's a privilege to have you here.
  We're talking about heroes and the gulags. We have it easy here 
because we live in freedom. But we can't forget the struggles of those 
around the world, including just 90 miles away. I want to thank you for 
never forgetting, never forgetting those that are struggling like Dr. 
Biscet who is in there for, frankly, just because he is pro-life. So 
thank you for being here.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. I thank my good friend for yielding.
  And I just say to the Diaz-Balart brothers, Mario and Lincoln Diaz-
Balart, you have spoken so bravely and for so long and with such 
clarity about human rights issues all over the world, including and 
especially in Cuba. The people of Cuba have no greater friends than you 
brothers, the Diaz-Balart brothers. There isn't a single argument, 
fight, debate, amendment, bill that you, the two of you, are not out in 
front taking all of the flak, all of the disinformation that is dished 
by those enablers of tyranny who believe that somehow if you coddle 
dictatorship, you will see an amelioration of their egregious acts. It 
doesn't happen. It didn't happen with the Nazis. It has not happened 
with the Chinese Communist regime. It has not happened in North Korea. 
And over this last half century, it has not happened in Cuba.
  The more you enable a dictatorship, the more of an appetite it has 
for political prisoners, for repression, because there is no check, 
there is no tourniquet on their horrific abuse.
  So let me say it again. No one has done more on behalf of human 
rights, especially for the beleaguered Cuban people, than Lincoln Diaz-
Balart and Mario. And I've been in Congress for 30 years, so I, along 
with Frank Wolf and others, have worked very hard along with you on 
human rights laws and policies. It is a privilege to be called your 
friend for your steadfast advocacy. It is incredible.
  When you spoke about the travel ban and other associated concessions 
to the dictatorship in Havana, it seems to me--and I say this to both 
sides of the aisle--but especially to my Democratic friends, especially 
to the Congressional Black Caucus that traveled down to Cuba, met with 
Raul and Fidel Castro, and as far as we can tell, never mentioned Dr. 
Biscet, never mentioned any of these courageous political prisoners who 
have been tortured, have been put in solitary confinement simply 
because of their steadfast belief in human rights and that every man, 
woman, and child in Cuba ought to live in liberty and freedom.
  There is an empathy deficit, a lack of empathy, a lack of compassion. 
We talk a lot about compassion in Congress. Very often it's just a 
simple word, a throwaway word that has all kinds of meaning. We need to 
have empathy to get in their shoes, realize what it must be like to 
spend hours without a light in darkness, eating worm-infested food, 
being sick, having diarrhea that seems to never go away, losing your 
teeth, as Dr. Oscar Biscet is in the process of doing, if he hasn't 
lost them all already.
  This brave man, an OB-GYN, a doctor who stood up for human rights, 
not one member of the Congressional Black Caucus, to the best of my 
knowledge, and other members who are always patronizing Fidel Castro, 
stood up and said, What about him? Why can't we go and see him and 
visit him in his prison cell? Congressman Frank Wolf and I have tried 
for 20 years to visit Cuba to go to the prisons. Every time we're 
turned down by the Castro regime. We have a pending request right now. 
We were turned down last February.
  Those who go in and sing the praises of these modern day Adolf 
Hitlers. And let's not forget you take Fidel Castro and Raul Castro and 
what they have done: Torture, humiliation, execution, slow and long, 
sometimes a bullet, sometimes a very slow death. These people, if they 
were in a free society, not only would be prosecuted, they probably 
would be in an insane asylum for the kinds of terrible dark deeds that 
they commit on other people.
  I read Armando Valladares' book years ago, and I recommend it to 
everyone who wants to enable this dictatorship. It's known as ``Against 
All Hope.'' It's a chronicle of this brave man, years in the Castro 
gulags. He talks about one instance where in order to further humiliate 
the political prisoners, they lined them up and marched them into a vat 
of human excrement, submerged them; and these men, their noses, their 
eyes, their ears were filled with human excrement. Many of them lost 
their hearing. Many had eye problems, nose problems and all kinds of 
infections from it. They smelt horrible.
  That very act caused a kind of PTSD in Armando Valladares. Later on 
when his wife, after he was exiled, upon his release gave birth to 
children, he couldn't even change his children's diapers because it 
brought him back in a flash to that terrible, degrading torture that 
was inflicted upon him by Fidel Castro.
  Fidel Castro, ladies and gentlemen, ought to be at the Hague standing 
trial for crimes against humanity. He is in the same league as Pol Pot, 
Idi Amin, Slobodan Milosevic, and all of the passing parade of petty 
tyrants who maim, humiliate, and kill because they have a secret police 
that enables them to do it.
  We call on this administration, the Obama administration, to cease, 
stop its coddling of Fidel Castro. It is unconscionable, all of the 
smiles and happy words. This man needs to be dealt with for the tyrant 
that he truly is. And I'm not talking about just Fidel but his brother 
as well. These political prisoners need friends in the White House so 
that some day they can live in freedom.

  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Before you leave, though, again, 
the atrocities are such. I would like, if it is possible, there is a 
poster there right next to you. It's the last one, I believe. And it 
shows the women in white. The ladies in white. They're the wives and 
mothers of, daughters of, spouses of political prisoners. And they 
demonstrate in Havana. And all they do is very quietly they just march. 
And it's a demonstration basically asking for a release of their loved 
ones.
  This picture is from last week. That demonstration, that march--it's 
a march, it's a peaceful, quiet, march--was led by Reina Tamayo, whose 
son had just died in an 80-day hunger strike in a prison as a political 
prisoner.
  And there you see what happens to those women, peaceful women who 
just walk quietly, peacefully.
  A little while ago I showed the T-shirt held up by Reina Tamayo of 
her son who died in prison, a political prisoner who died in prison 
after a hunger

[[Page H2253]]

strike. Imagine the beatings. Imagine the beatings that that human 
being had to endure. Just look at that T-shirt. And look at that 
mother. Look at that mother and how anybody can then say, You know 
something? We're going to unilaterally give that regime what they want, 
asking nothing in return. Why is that happening?

                              {time}  1830

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. If I may, Chris Smith's point of 
the fact if there were justice, if there were justice in the world, the 
Cuban tyrant, Fidel Castro, and his brother, who now has the titles and 
carries out, continues to carry out the orders of Fidel Castro but has 
the titles now, some of the titles of power because Fidel Castro, the 
tyrant, is immobile and finds it difficult to receive people but still 
gives the orders and is the instigator and the source of terror in that 
island prison, if there were justice, the Cuban tyrant and his brother 
would be facing it in the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
  What is most appalling is that instead of that, what we see is, 
number one, deafening silence. We hear deafening silence.
  Where is the outrage? Imagine if these were hunger strikers 
protesting the lack of freedom in another dictatorship. Imagine. But 
the Cuban people now have had to, for 50 years, live as nonpersons. 
Where is the media? Where? These are men who are dying. Zapata Tamayo 
already died. Guillermo Farinas is in the process of dying. Felix Bonne 
Carcasses has said he will be next. Those are people who we know are on 
hunger strikes to protest specifically, to request the release of these 
25 heroes.
  I would like to, if I may, read their names, and then I will submit 
their names for the Record.
  Our friend, Dan Burton and now Chris Smith talked about Mario and 
Lincoln, the brothers. It has been and it is a great honor for me to 
serve with my brother first in Tallahassee in the legislature in 
Florida and now in the Congress of the United States. It has been an 
honor and a privilege, for the rest of my days I will cherish, to 
represent the wonderful people of south Florida for 18 years in this 
Congress and 6 years before that in the State legislature.
  But there are two brothers who are genuine heroes. Among these 25 
gravely ill political prisoners, two are brothers. At one point, four 
were political prisoners, four brothers. There are still two, and they 
are gravely ill, both of them, Ariel Sigler Amaya and Guido Sigler 
Amaya.
  The other names of 25 gravely ill political prisoners who we are 
aware of, and Guillermo Farinas is on a hunger strike demanding their 
release, their immediate release, the other names are: Antonio 
Villareal Acosta, Omar Moises Ruiz Hernandez, Arnaldo Ramos Lauzurique, 
Alfredo Manuel Pulido Lopez, Arturo Perez de Alejo Rodriguez, Jesus 
Mustafa Felipe, Angel Moya Acosta, Luis Milan Fernandez, Librado 
Ricardo Linares Garcia, Juan Carlos Herrera Acosta, Normando Hernandez 
Gonzalez, Jorge Luis Gonzalez Tanquero, Lester Gonzalez Penton, Ricardo 
Gonzalez Alfonso, Jose Luis Garcia Paneque, Julio Cesar Galvez 
Rodriguez, Miguel Galvan Gutierrez, Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia, also 
from another family and brothers who are heroes, two of them are 
political prisoners. Unfortunately, Luis Enrique Ferrer Garcia, one of 
the two brothers, is gravely ill. Juan Adolfo Fernandez Sainz, Alfredo 
Felipe Fuentes, Eduardo Diaz Fleitas, Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, 
and Pedro Arguelles Moran.
  Those 25 heroes we know of, and the hero Farinas, that psychologist 
and independent journalist who I had the privilege of speaking with the 
other day, the day I was leaving for Lithuania, I managed after many 
attempts to get through to him. Obviously, it's not easy, the 
dictatorship call. Now he is no condition to speak on the phone. He was 
very weak, even when I spoke to him. This was about a week ago. And I 
said, I am very worried about you. You are going to be very needed. And 
he said, No, don't worry about me. He said, There are many, many more 
qualified people who will be ready to help give a reconstruct. This has 
to be done.
  He told me all peoples need martyrs, all nations need martyrs, and 
the time now has arrived for a different--a different attitude by the 
opposition in Cuba. I was extremely moved during my conversation with 
the hero, Farinas, and my thoughts and prayers are with him as they are 
with all of those who at this moment are suffering in the gulag of the 
tyranny.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Thank you for relaying that 
conversation.
  The gentleman from New Jersey.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. You know, the long-suffering people of Cuba 
are really in a double unfortunate position. They are subjected to one 
of the cruelest dictatorships on the face of the Earth. Freedom House 
recently ranked Cuba as one of the least free countries in the world. 
The only country that ranked lower on the freedom scale than Cuba was 
the nightmare gulag of North Korea; yet, in an insane paradox, the 
Cuban tyrants remain romantic heroes. People have pictures of these 
tyrants on T-shirts, wear them on college campuses, and for many in the 
United States, including some Members of Congress, especially those 
who visited Cuba last year, they gush with admiration for these 
dictators who have so repressed people.

  You know, last year, the U.N. Human Rights Council did what they call 
the universal periodic review, at which time they looked at the record 
of human rights abuse in Cuba. It was scathing. Many members of that 
council raised serious questions at the council meeting and also said, 
Here are a number of recommendations. Virtually every recommendation 
was rejected out of hand, and that was the end of the story.
  I would call upon the Obama administration to call, as a member of 
the Human Rights Council, for a specific meeting of the Human Rights 
Council, the U.N. Human Rights Council--it only takes a third of the 
membership to do so--to refocus on Cuba and its horrific human rights 
abuses and the fact that they have taken every recommendation--I mean, 
even the International Committee of the Red Cross has been denied since 
Armando Valladares' day, access to those prisons. The ICRC, a sterling 
record of investigations and interventions on behalf of political 
prisoners around the world, they can't even get into the Cuban prisons. 
So I would call on the Obama administration to ask for a specific 
meeting just on Cuba and the rejected recommendations.
  Let me also point out that chronicling the abuse isn't all that hard. 
The State Department, in its human rights report released just 2 weeks 
ago, couldn't be more clear in laying out the catalog of abuses 
routinely visited upon the people, especially the almost 200 known, and 
there are others, political prisoners in Cuba's gulags.
  Let me finally say, during the 1980s, many of us were very active 
fighting against the abuses of the Soviet Union. In the mid 1980s, 
Congressman Frank Wolf and I actually got into Perm Camp 35, the 
infamous gulag where great heroes like Sharansky and many others and 
all these other great leaders spent time in solitary confinement and 
suffering at the hands of the KGB. We actually got in, visited with 
videotape and agitated for the release of almost two dozen political 
prisoners, and one by one they got out.
  I visited Xanana Gusmao when he was a political prisoner in 
Indonesia, in a prison in Indonesia. He went on to become the President 
of East Timor.
  Frank Wolf and I got into Beijing Prison Number 1, where at least 40 
Tiananmen Square activists, 40 Tiananmen Square activists with shaved 
heads were thrown into that gulag, known as the Laogai in China, and 
suffered horrifically, but at least the Chinese Government allowed us 
in.
  A lot of people want to get out of Cuba. A lot of people--all people 
want to get out of their political prisons. Mr. Wolf and I are asking 
to let us in, and I renew that request of the Cuban Government as well 
as, again, to ask that this administration help to make that happen.
  Finally, my friends will know, because I worked so closely with Mr. 
Diaz-Balart--Mario wasn't here yet--on the issue of linking a series of 
human rights with the lifting of a travel ban, most important of which 
was the full release of the political prisoners. That legislation 
passed here. It didn't pass in the Senate, unfortunately, and I will 
offer that again if

[[Page H2254]]

given the opportunity, although the rules will probably forbid it.
  But that's what we need to do. You need linkage. You need to say to a 
dictatorship, If you want a benefit, you have to cease persecuting your 
own people. And, you know, there is a great group, we all know it, 
Brothers to the Rescue. The Diaz-Balart brothers are the brothers to 
the rescue.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. You are very kind.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. You mentioned Brothers to the 
Rescue. I think it is important to note that this is a regime that 
obviously incarcerates, and oppresses its own people, but it also has a 
history of murdering Americans.
  You mentioned Brothers to the Rescue. Two airplanes, American 
airplanes, civilian American airplanes in international airspace that 
were shot down by Cuban MiGs one fine day just because, because they 
could, because they wanted to, killing four individuals, four innocent 
individuals that, I guess, their sin was trying to save people in the 
ocean, looking for people that were in the ocean seeking freedom.
  And the same regime that killed those individuals is the same regime 
that harbors multiple terrorists and criminals and fugitives of 
American law, including cop killers who are living in Cuba; the same 
regime that right now as we speak, as some will file bills to 
unilaterally give concessions and asking nothing in return, has another 
American hostage. That's the regime that we are dealing with.
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I thank Christopher Smith for, 
first of all, his leadership, commitment, clarity. History will thank 
him, as it must. I reiterate my admiration.
  I want to make a comment with regard to political prisoners. We know 
of these 25 gravely ill political prisoners.
  The reason we know is because Guillermo Farinas, the hero on hunger 
strike, said that's why I am on hunger strike. Release them now before 
they die. We know of, yes, the names of 200 prisoners of conscience, 
but we also know that there are thousands of political prisoners for 
crimes that are only crimes in the fiefdom of a demented totalitarian 
tyrant, crimes like dangerousness. What is that? Crimes like trying to 
leave the country without permission.
  But imagine being in prison and charged with dangerousness. 
Thousands, countless thousands of Cubans are in the gulag because of 
so-called crimes like that. They are political prisoners, and they have 
to be released unconditionally, immediately, as all political parties 
must be legalized--the press, labor unions--and free and fair 
multiparty elections must be scheduled.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. The State Department report, the human 
rights report, released 2 weeks ago again, they can catalog or 
chronicle 5,000 prisoners who are in there because of 
``dangerousness.''
  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. That are known, that are known.
  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Yes.

                              {time}  1845

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. So it is thousands of political 
prisoners, because we know the names of 200 prisoners of conscience; 
let's not forget the countless thousands of political prisoners.
  And you, Chris Smith, and Frank Wolf, who have not sought to go to 
Cuba to laugh at the jokes of the tyrants, but rather to meet with 
Biscet and meet with Farinas and meet with Antunez and meet with the 
other heroes and the leaders of the future, you were called 
specifically by name by the Cuban tyrant Fidel Castro ``provocateurs 
who will never enter Cuba.''
  But what he must, he should, know is his days are limited. And the 
Cuban people, Christopher Smith, are going to thank you and they are 
going to thank Frank Wolf, and they are going to thank all those men 
and women of the world who stood with them. Obviously, we wish there 
were many more Chris Smiths and Frank Wolfs, like there are more, now, 
people. Look at this example in Central Europe and Eastern Europe of 
solidarity. And more is coming, but much more is needed.
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. I thank the gentleman from New 
Jersey for spending this time and really explaining what is at stake 
here.
  It is interesting how those who do get it--and again it is important 
to note that the majority of Congress has stood next and by the Cuban 
people and continues to stand by the Cuban people, but there are others 
as well that do. You mentioned the Lithuanians, the Poles, the Czechs, 
the Romanians. Those who have suffered from lack of freedom understand 
the frailty of freedom, also particularly understand the horrors of 
that Marxist regime 90 miles away from the United States, because they 
suffered under very similar types of totalitarian regimes.
  But it is interesting to note, I mention this again, that this 
Congress in a bipartisan fashion stands by the Cuban people, stands by 
the political prisoners, stands by those relatives who have lost loved 
ones in the gulags and in the ocean, will continue to stand by the 
Cuban people, will not be swayed by propaganda.
  This Congress does not forget the suffering of the Cuban people and 
does not forget that the most important thing that any human being has 
is freedom.
  So I am so grateful to the solidarity of the American people, and I 
am so grateful because of that strong solidarity of the majority of 
this Congress. The Cuban people will be free. This Congress will do 
everything it can to make sure that they know that we are with them. 
They will be free. They are giving it all. They are sacrificing even 
their lives. And it is important that tonight they know that they are 
not alone, they are not forgotten. We know they are there. We admire 
you, we respect you, and we stand 100 percent behind you.
  I yield back the balance of my time.

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