[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 36 (Wednesday, March 1, 2017)]
[House]
[Pages H1395-H1396]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN CUBA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, appalling human rights violations take 
place in my native homeland of Cuba on a regular basis and have only 
gotten worse in the past few years. Just last week, the Castro regime 
sentenced a man to a year in prison. What was his crime? He did not 
watch Fidel Castro's funeral on the television. And just a few months 
ago, Danilo Maldonado, also known as El Sexto, was arrested for writing 
``he's gone'' on a wall after Fidel Castro's death.
  Mr. Speaker, the Cuban people lack the most basic of human rights, 
and they are punished for any sentiment that is not in accordance with 
the Castro regime. The former administration of this wonderful country 
failed the people of Cuba.
  Since the change in the Cuba policy, reports show that the 
humanitarian crisis has only gotten worse on the island. The 2017 
Freedom in the World report put out by Freedom House showed that 
arbitrary arrests were at the highest level in 7 years. The Cuban 
Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation documented a 
monthly average of 862 arbitrary detentions between January and 
November of last year.
  Raul Castro tries to silence the Cuban people by subjecting human 
rights defenders, journalists, and peaceful protesters to arbitrary 
arrest and short-term detentions. Castro also tries to cut any relation 
between the opposition and outside groups.
  Just last week, Mr. Speaker, Luis Almagro, the Secretary General of 
the Organization of American States, the OAS, was denied entry to Cuba. 
He was to receive the first Oswaldo Paya Liberty and Life Award. Paya 
was a human rights activist murdered by the Castro regime just 5 years 
ago. Almagro was to be presented with the award by Paya's daughter, but 
the Castro regime called this ``an unacceptable provocation''--
receiving an award.
  Similarly, the former Education Minister of Chile denied entry to 
Cuba and former Mexican President denied entry to Cuba simply because 
they planned to meet with true human rights activists and defenders on 
the island.
  I challenge these U.S. congressional delegations that go to Cuba to 
march with the Ladies in White on any given Sunday. Here they are. Here 
are their faces. Will they be brave enough to do so, to march with 
these defenseless ladies, or do they just want a junket to glamorize 
Cuba?
  Not to mention the many human rights abuses that go unreported, Mr. 
Speaker. Instead, the Cuban people risk their lives to record abuses, 
to report them to outside organizations.
  The Ladies in White, Las Damas de Blanco, march every Sunday, 
peacefully protesting the unjust and barbaric imprisonment of 
dissidents.
  Look at these images, Mr. Speaker, and the stories of the women on 
these posters. They are regularly beaten and arrested, yet they 
continue fighting for the freedom of their country. Protesters like 
Xiomara de las Mercedes Cruz Miranda, who has been in prison since last 
April; or Maria del Carmen Cala Aguilera, in prison since April of 
2015; or Juana Castillo Acosta, who was beaten in her own home, and 
then sentenced to 5 years in house arrest.
  There are so many women to highlight, so I will flip the posters.
  Here are some other faces and other names: Yunet, Marieta, 
Jacqueline, Marta, and Aymara Nieto Munoz, right over here, just a 
handful of the many women who are in prison today in Castro's gulags.
  Mr. Speaker, these are just a few of the many who are persecuted 
daily for opposing the Castro regime. That is their crime. They are 
simply tossed in jail in Castro's effort to silence the people. But the 
Cuban people remain strong in the face of the repressive Castro regime. 
They do not give up hope of seeing a free and democratic Cuba.
  I see that same hope, Mr. Speaker, in the eyes of my constituents, 
Cuban Americans like me and my family, who were given the opportunity 
to create a life in a country--our country--that stands for everything 
that Castro is against: freedom of speech, assembly, petition, the rule 
of law, and democracy.

[[Page H1396]]

  Mr. Speaker, we must stand with the people of Cuba. We must stand 
against a Castro regime that seeks to benefit only itself. We must give 
the Cuban people hope and commit to help them achieve freedom and 
democracy.
  It is the duty of the new administration to review the previous 
administration's failed policy and start working for the people of Cuba 
and against the Castro regime.

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