[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 182 (Thursday, November 14, 2019)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1443]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




          GRAVE CONCERN FOR THE WELFARE OF JOSE DANIEL FERRER

                                 ______
                                 

                         HON. MARIO DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, November 14, 2019

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Madam Speaker, I am gravely concerned for the 
welfare of Jose Daniel Ferrer, a courageous Cuban pro-democracy 
activist and hero of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU).
  Ferrer was seized on October 1, 2019, and remains held without access 
to family, friends, legal counsel, international human rights groups, 
or other concerned members of his organization.
  Human rights groups including Amnesty International have cited 
alarming but unverified reports of torture and maltreatment at the 
hands of the regime's thugs, including the withholding of necessary 
medical care, food and water.
  It is a disgrace that the King and Queen of Spain are in Cuba, while 
Ferrer languishes in prison, and have failed to exercise simple human 
decency by demanding his release, or meeting with other courageous 
independent democracy and human rights activists.
  The regime in Cuba has the blood of innocents on its hands, those 
whose only ``crime'' was daring to speak against the evils of the 
dictatorship including:
  Orlando Zapata Tamayo, who died in state custody on February 23, 
2010; Juan Wilfredo Soto Garcia, who died on May 8, 2011;
  Laura Pollan, the renowned leader of the Ladies in White, who died 
under suspicious circumstances on October 14, 2011;
  Wilman Willar Mendoza, who died on January 19, 2012;
  Armando Sosa Fortuny, who died on October 28, 2019;
  We also remember Oswaldo Paya and Harold Cepero of the Christian 
Liberation Movement, both of whom died on July 22, 2012 in a suspicious 
car accident that has not been fully and appropriately investigated.
  The regime of firing squads, political prisoners, the Tugboat 
Massacre, the Brothers to the Rescue shootdown, the Black Spring, and 
the murders of activists continues its evils to this day. It continues 
to intimidate, detain, encourage acts of repudiation, and inflict 
brutal violence to suppress the Cuban people.
  Jose Daniel Ferrer must be released immediately and without 
condition, and those who participate in vile human rights abuses must 
be held accountable. The world is watching. Should any harm come to 
Ferrer, the murderous Cuban dictatorship headed by Raul Castro and his 
puppet Miguel Diaz-Canel bear sole responsibility.

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