[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 145 (1999), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 13078]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


[[Page 13078]]

 URGING MEMBERS TO SUPPORT VALIANT MEN AND WOMEN FASTING FOR DEMOCRACY 
                                IN CUBA

  (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, the courageous fasts that began last 
week in Havana are gaining momentum as dozens of dissidents across the 
enslaved island of Cuba join the public protest started in Tamarindo 
34, peacefully demanding freedom of expression and the release of 
hundreds of political prisoners.
  One of the heroines currently fasting is Magaly de Armas, wife of 
Vladimiro Roca, one of the four opposition members imprisoned earlier 
this year for criticizing a communist party document that they dared to 
say did not present solutions to Cuba's problems.
  Roca is also fasting, his will unshaken by Castro's torturous prison 
in Cienfuegos, and has asked his countrymen to join him in what is 
becoming a national movement.
  On behalf of Vladimiro Roca, Felix Bonne, Rene Gomez Manzano, Marta 
Beatriz Roque Cabello, and all of the other political prisoners 
unjustly shackled by Fidel Castro, I ask my colleagues to support the 
valiant men and women currently fasting. We pray that their courageous 
democracy efforts become the beginning of true liberty on the island.

                          ____________________