[Congressional Record Volume 156, Number 60 (Tuesday, April 27, 2010)]
[House]
[Pages H2926-H2927]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LADIES IN WHITE
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart) is recognized for 5
minutes.
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, the Ladies in White
are a group of wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of Cuban
political prisoners. The group came together after the arrests of 75
Cuban dissidents in April 2003. Seventy-five Cuban political prisoners
who, 7 years ago, joined the thousands of others who are imprisoned in
Cuba because of their political beliefs or for ``crimes'' that are only
``crimes'' in a country brutally oppressed by a totalitarian regime of
gangsters, by gangsters, and for gangsters. Because that is what the
Castro brothers are--gangsters.
Fidel Castro has been a gangster since he was a juvenile delinquent.
He became a Communist to give ideological clothing to his gangsterism.
Raul Castro came to gangsterism via Marxism-Leninism, after his brother
sent him as an almost illiterate adolescent to then-Czechoslovakia,
where he received a rigorous indoctrination in Marxism-Leninism. So the
brothers arrived at gangsterism via separate paths, but they are both
experienced and ruthless practitioners of the most violent and brutal
forms of gangsterism.
The Ladies in White experience the tactics of the Castros'
gangsterism every single day. The Castros' state security apparatus
pays and trains thugs to strike fear in the hearts of all Cubans in
order to keep the regime in power. The thugs, the plainclothes
terrorists of the Castros' regime, harass, intimidate, insult, spit
upon, and engage in violence against the unarmed dissidents and other
independent civil society members in Cuba. These spectacles are known
as ``acts of repudiation.'' The international press refers to the
plainclothes thugs of the Castros' state security apparatus as
``civilian government supporters,'' but that doesn't change their true
nature. No, they're not ``plainclothes government supporters.'' They're
plainclothes thugs of Cuban state security.
On recent Sundays, the Ladies in White have gone to church, as every
Sunday, to pray for their family members who are political prisoners,
and the thugs have become more violent. Protected by uniformed state
security agents, the plainclothes thugs have spat upon and committed
acts of violence against Laura Pollan, Bertha Soler, Reina Tamayo,
Julia Esther Nunez, Asuncion Carrillo, Loida Valdez, Laura Maria
Labrada, and the other Ladies in White.
I hereby submit for the Record the names of 96 Ladies in White who
have been actively demanding the release of Cuban political prisoners
in recent months.
1. Martha Diaz Rondon
2. Regla Vaillant Planas
3. Mildre Noemi Sanchez Infante
4. Ercilia Correoso Perez
5. Maritza Castro Martinez
6. Blanca Hernandez Moya
7. Lilia Castaner Hernandez
8. Ivonne Malleza Galano
9. Deysi Lazara Suarez Martinez
10. Odalys Sanabria Rodriguez
11. Caridad Caballero Batista
12. Zoila Hernandez Diaz
13. Gertrudis Ojeda Suarez
14. Niurkis Rivero Despaigne
15. Mercedes Fresneda Castillo
16. Sara Martha Fonseca Acevedo
17. Ismari Salomon Carcases
18. Tania Montoya Vazquez
19. Yolanda Martinez Guerra
20. Guadalupe Varela Mora
21. Zayli Figueroa Acosta
22. Odalys Zurman Gonzalez
23. Barbara Couyedo Riego
24. Miriam Espinosa del Valle
25. Doraida Perez Paceiro
26. Iris Tamara Perez Aguilera
27. Mayra Morejon Hernandez
28. Mari Blanca Avila Esposito
29. Petra Serafina Diaz Castillo
30. Rosario Morales La Rosa
31. Sonia Garro Alfonso
32. Maylisis Abrahantes Munoz
33. Juana Gomez Riego
34. Yudermis Fonseca Rondon
35. Crispina Xiomara Duquesne Suarez
36. Doralis Alvares Soto
37. Ana Iris Vega Rodriguez
38. Lazara M. Caballero Betancourt
39. Marlenis Guerra Martin
40. Nerys Castillo Moreno
41. Tania Maceda Guerra
42. Caridad Sarduy Fernandez
43. Raquel Castillo Urquiza
44. Sandra Guerra Perez
45. Maria Elena Fernandez
46. Yaneris Perez Rey
47. Roxaida Ramirez Matos
48. Dulce Avalo Diaz
50. Ariela Riviaux Castillo
51. Evelia Hernandez Ravelo
52. Georgina Noa Monte
53. Belinda Barzaga Lugo
54. Marioris Moreno Noa
55. Xiomara Duquesne Suarez
56. Mirtha Gomez Colas
57. Madeline Lazara Betancourt
58. Yaquelin Cutino
59. Gladis Lugo Exposito
60. Dulce Maria Quintana
61. Suyoanis Tapia Mayeta
62. Leonor Reynord Borges
63. Leydi Coca Quesada
64. Noely Camila Araujo Molina
65. Yordanka Pena Lopez
66. Yeni Palenzuela Izquierdo
67. Ana Aguililla
68. Laura Ines Pollan Toledo
69. Bertha Soler Fernandez
70. Melba Santana Ariz
71. Reyna Luisa Tamayo Danger
72. Belkis Cantillo Ramirez
73. Alejandrina Garcia de la Rivas
74. Julia Nunez Pacheco
75. Nelida Borrego Aragon
76. Reyna Maria Ortiz Tamayo
77. Milka Maria Pena Martinez
78. Ana Belkis Ferrer Garcia
79. Loida Valdes Gonzalez
80. Lidia Esther Lima Valdes
81. Magaly Broche de la Cruz
82. Isabel Sanchez Altarriba
83. Yamile Velazquez Batista
84. Sonia Alvarez Campillo
85. Asuncion Carrillo Hernandez
86. Irene Viera Filloy
87. Barbara Rojo Arias
88. Iraida Soledad Rivas Verdecia
89. Amada Evelia Hernandez Ravel
90. Catalina Cano
91. Elsa Gonzalez Padron
92. Belkis Barzaga Lugo
93. Gisela Delgado Sablon
94. Noelia Pedraza Jimenez
95. Nancy Sanchez Altarriba
96. Mercedes Acosta antiago de Cuba
I also submit for the Record a letter sent today by representatives
of the Ladies in White outside of Cuba, Blanca Reyes Castanon and
Yolanda Huerga, asking international leaders for support in the Ladies
in White's struggle for human rights and liberty.
March 27, 2010.
Dear Sir, We write you as the Representatives of the Ladies
in White in Europe and the United States, to seek your urgent
attention for the current plight of Cuba's political
prisoners and their families.
The Ladies in White are members of independent civil
society and the group was born spontaneously, seven years
ago, as a result of the arrest of 75 members of the peaceful
opposition by the Cuban regime during the Black Spring of
2003. Wives, mothers, sisters, and daughters of these
prisoners only ask for the right to see their unjustly jailed
relatives freed.
By this means we seek to ask, that as a representative of a
democratic nation where human rights and freedom of speech
are respected, that you attempt, and within your ability,
interest yourself personally and seek the attention of those
individuals and institutions that you see fit, to defend
these
[[Page H2927]]
women, and their relatives, so that all hostility that they
suffer in the streets of Havana and in all of Cuba cease,
both physically and verbally, for defending their right to
freedom.
We thank you for your time and cooperation, and we trust in
your invaluable help, at the same time that we insist that
the current situation is extremely delicate and dangerous.
Respectfully,
Blanca Reyes Castanon,
Representatives in Europe.
Yolanda Huerga,
Representative in the United States.
This last Sunday, the day before yesterday, the Ladies in White were
surrounded and subjected to 7 hours of insults and acts of violence by
the plainclothes thugs of the Castros' state security apparatus.
Surrounded and subjected to nightmarish, abominable insults and
grotesque sexual gestures, as well as loud, constant screams and chants
of communist slogans and violence for 7 hours, the day before
yesterday, subjected to the well-planned tactics which are part of the
training of the plainclothes state security agents of the Castros'
gangster regime.
But the Ladies in White continue to stand tall. Like the political
prisoners who they defend, the Ladies in White represent the true Cuba.
They embody the decency, patriotism, and love of the real Cuba--not the
grotesque, perverted hatred, envy, and perfidy of the Castros and their
gangster regime.
This evening, my thoughts and prayers of limitless admiration and
solidarity are with Cuba's Damas de Blanco--the Ladies in White.
____________________