[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 27 (Friday, February 17, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E224-E225]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 FURTHER HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN CASTRO'S CUBA: THE CONTINUED ABUSE 
                         OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, February 17, 2012

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, yesterday I chaired a joint 
hearing of the Subcommittee on Africa, Global Health, and Human Rights 
and the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere to focus on just one 
aspect--though a deeply troubling one--of the overall abysmal human 
rights record of the dictatorship in Cuba.
  The hearing examined the ongoing violations of the human rights of 
Cuban political prisoners--from the arrest, prosecution, and 
persecution of political opponents of the Castro regime to the 
deplorable conditions of their imprisonment--to the terms under which 
they are released.
  The announcement of the release of some prisoners in late December, 
in conjunction with the release over the past two years of more than 
three dozen political prisoners, has been described as a public 
relations move designed to portray a loosening of Cuba's political 
repression of opponents. Those of us who have had the privilege of 
knowing and working with Cuba's human rights champions for decades, and 
have heard first-hand of the brutality of the Castro government, are 
not so easily persuaded or deceived.
  Cuba has been a totalitarian state with the Cuban Communist Party as 
the sole legal political party for more than half a century. Upon his 
seizure of power in Cuba in 1959, Fidel Castro promised a return to 
constitutional rule and democratic elections with social reforms. 
However, Castro's control over the military and government structures 
allowed his regime to crush dissent, marginalize resistance leaders and 
imprison or execute thousands of opponents. Between 1959 and 1962 
alone, it is estimated that the Castro regime executed 3,200 people. 
Hundreds of thousands of Cubans fled an increasingly radical 
government. Those who remained in Cuba faced a repressive regime that 
denied basic human rights.
  More than fifty years after Castro's assumption of power in Cuba, the 
U.S. Department of State human rights report on Cuba describes a 
government that still denies its citizens the right to change their 
government; threatens, harasses and beats its opponents through state 
security forces and government-organized mobs; sentences opponents to 
harsh and life-threatening prison conditions; arbitrarily detains human 
rights advocates and members of independent organizations, and 
selectively prosecutes perceived opponents and then denies them a fair 
trial.
  Cuba's political prisoners are held, together with the rest of the 
prison population, in substandard and unhealthy conditions, where they 
face physical and sexual abuse. Most prisoners suffer from malnutrition 
and reside in overcrowded cells without appropriate medical attention. 
In fact, political prisoners face selective denial of medical care. 
Cuban prisons fail to segregate those held in pre-trial detention from 
long-term violent inmates, and minors are often mixed in with adults. 
Such are the conditions opponents of the Castro regime have faced over 
the years--some of them for decades.
  Armando Valladares, who unfortunately couldn't join us yesterday, but 
who will appear at a future hearing, was a Cuban Postal Bank employee 
who was arrested for refusing to display a sign on his desk that 
promoted communism. Mr. Valladares was imprisoned in 1960 at age 23, 
and spent 22 years in prison. Like many freed political prisoners, Mr. 
Valladares moved to the United States.
  In 1988, President Ronald Reagan appointed him to serve as the United 
States Ambassador to the United Nations Commission on Human Rights, a 
position in which he served for two years. I was with Ambassador 
Valladares in Geneva when he succeeded in bringing Cuba before the 
commission for human rights violations and authorizing a U.N. fact-
finding trip to Cuba to investigate prison conditions.
  I have read Mr. Valladares' memoir--Against All Hope--a book that 
chronicles his experiences and that of others in Cuba's gulags. Mr. 
Valladares systematically describes the torture, cruelty, and degrading 
treatment by Cuban prison guards. Yet, like so many other heroic Cuban 
dissidents, he persisted and overcame.
  Our surprise witness yesterday was the brilliant, humanitarian Dr. 
Oscar Elias Biscet. A medical doctor and courageous human rights 
advocate, Dr. Biscet was one of more than two dozen dissidents who were 
arrested and detained by Cuban police in August 1999 for organizing 
meetings in Havana and Matanzas. He was released after five days but 
was rearrested three more times. The second time he was arrested, later 
in 1999, he spent three years in prison. His third arrest in December 
2002 resulted in a beating, but not imprisonment. Upon his fourth 
arrest in March 2003, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison. Along 
with more than 50 other dissidents, Dr. Biscet was released in March 
2011 with the help of the Catholic Church. He has courageously remained 
in Cuba, where he continues to advocate for human rights. For his 
extraordinary bravery and commitment to freedom for the Cuban people, 
many of us have twice recommended Dr. Biscet for the Nobel Peace Prize.
  Other political prisoners have not had the ability to choose where 
they live following their release. Normando Hernandez Gonzalez, an 
independent writer and journalist, was arrested in March 2003 along 
with 74 other dissidents in Camaguey and was sentenced to 25 years in 
prison. As a result of his serious abuse in prison, Mr. Hernandez 
eventually was diagnosed with several diseases of the digestive system 
and later tuberculosis. Due to his deteriorating medical condition, Mr. 
Hernandez was released from prison in July 2010 and taken to the Havana 
Airport, where he was briefly reunited with his wife and daughter 
before being forced to board an overnight flight to Spain. He later 
emigrated to Miami, where he currently resides.
  I extend the gratitude of the subcommittee to our distinguished 
witnesses for joining us yesterday. My good friend and colleague Dan 
Burton, Chairman of the Subcommittee on Europe and Eurasia, testified 
about U.S. policy toward Cuba. In particular, we are deeply 
appreciative that Dr. Biscet took the serious risk that he will suffer 
retaliation for speaking with us publicly. The Castro regime should 
know

[[Page E225]]

that there will be a price to pay if that should happen. It is our 
sincere hope that it does not, and that this hearing and the spotlight 
that it will shine on Cuban political prisoners will contribute to 
authentic freedom and respect for the human rights of all the people of 
Cuba.

                          ____________________