[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 13]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 17772]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 EXPRESSING SOLIDARITY WITH CUBAN PRISONER OF CONSCIENCE RAFAEL IBARRA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 10, 2003

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, every week I rise to 
speak about the brave men and women who are languishing in prisons in 
totalitarian Cuba, that island that has been for 44 years oppressed by 
a totalitarian dictator. Each week I bring forth specific cases to 
remind our colleagues and all those who will listen about the horrors 
taking place just 90 miles from the shores of the United States.
  This week, I rise to speak about Rafael Ibarra. Rafael Ibarra heads 
the 30th of November Democratic Party, an island wide opposition 
movement to the Castro tyranny. In 1994 he was sentenced to 20 years in 
prison and is currently at the prison known as Combinado del Este, 
after having spent 3 years in an isolation cell in Camaguey, hundreds 
of miles from his family. In 1997 his wife at the time, Maritza Lugo, 
also a highly respected pro-democracy activist, was arrested and 
incarcerated for 2 years; leaving their two daughters without their 
parents. On multiple occasions after 1999, Maritza would continue to be 
arrested and harassed by the Castro regime. Even when Maritza and 
Rafael were in prison at the same time, the dictator, Fidel Castro, 
sought to evict their two girls from their small farm house, which had 
become a gathering point for human rights and pro-democracy meetings.
  Rafael Ibarra was one of the political prisoners who recently signed 
the Cuban flag painted on a pillow case and sent it to the United 
Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
  Maritza and her two daughters, at Rafael's request, fled Cuba as 
refugees in 2002 to the United States so that the two girls would be 
able to live in freedom.
  Next year will mark 10 years that Rafael has been imprisoned. While 
other fathers have been able to watch and guide their daughters as they 
grow up, Rafael has been confined in Castro's Gulag for daring to work 
on behalf of a democratic Cuba.
  Our thoughts and prayers are with him, as is our solidarity and our 
profound admiration.

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