[Congressional Record Volume 158, Number 62 (Friday, April 27, 2012)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E690-E691]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                THE HEROISM OF JOSE DANIEL FERRER GARCIA

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MARIO DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, April 27, 2012

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, today, I call attention to the brutal, 
unjustifiable imprisonment of pro-democracy activist and member of the 
Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), Jose Daniel Ferrer Garcia, who was 
once again arrested on April 2, 2012 and remains in prison more than 
three weeks later.
  Ferrer was one of the seventy-five pro-democracy activists arrested 
during the infamous Black Spring of 2003, when Castro's thugs brutally 
arrested and imprisoned those who dared to speak out against 
oppression. Ferrer works closely with Cuba's well-known pro-democracy 
group, the Ladies in White, and has often documented the details of 
their arrests, beatings and other harassment to disseminate to the 
international community.
  On April 2, at the time of the arrest, Ferrer's 14-year-old daughter, 
Martha Beatriz Ferrer Cantillo, reported that Ferrer and his wife, 
Belkis Cantillo, a Lady in White, were arrested in their home in 
Palmarito de Cauto in the province of Santiago de Cuba. Both Ferrer and 
Belkis were brutally beaten and removed from their house, and several 
of their personal items, including a picture of Laura Pollan, the 
courageous founder of the Ladies in White murdered by the regime, were 
taken by Castro's thugs. Their minor daughter was also beaten and 
threatened by Castro's thugs.
  Ferrer remains confined in abhorrent conditions in the Versailles 
Police Unit prison used for violent criminals. His wife was able to 
visit him in prison for a few minutes on April 10, and she said that 
Ferrer was covered in insect bites and had become very thin. Earlier 
this week, Ferrer began a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment. He 
told his wife that, ``they are killing me slowly.''
  Amnesty International once again listed Ferrer as a prisoner of 
conscience and called

[[Page E691]]

for his release, saying that he was ``detained only for peacefully 
exercising [the] right to free speech.'' Prior to his arrest, Ferrer 
was offered the chance to go into exile and escape the regime's 
brutality. However, he bravely chose to stay in Cuba and continue the 
struggle for freedom.
  Regrettably, the arrest of Ferrer is not an isolated instance, but a 
common tactic of the regime. These arrests are part of an increasingly 
brutal campaign of oppression meant to silence Cuba's growing pro-
freedom movement. For example, we remember the daring protest of Andres 
Carrion Alvarez, the ``mysterious'' protester who dared to speak 
against the regime's oppression during the Pope's visit last month. 
Like Ferrer, he also languishes in prison for exercising his 
fundamental right to speak.
  In fact, according to the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and 
National Reconciliation, the number of political arrests more than 
doubled in 2011 from those in 2010. This year, the regime is on course 
to make even more arrests. For the first three months in 2012, the 
Castro dictatorship has made 2,393 political arrests.
  The days of the aging Castro dictatorship are numbered, and soon the 
real criminals will be held accountable for their crimes. Until then, 
we must call on the international community to stand with brave pro-
democracy activists like Ferrer, and we must continue to recognize 
those who refuse to stay silent in the face of brutal oppression.
  The Cuban people are demanding freedom, and many pay a high price for 
their courage. Here in the halls of Congress, the Cuban people are 
never forgotten. While Ferrer waits in a dark, humid cell covered with 
insect bites and growing thinner each day, he is never alone.

                          ____________________