[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.

                          ____________________