[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 16]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 22198]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




DR. JOSE LUIS GARCIA PANEQUE--CUBAN SURGEON, HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATE, AND 
                           POLITICAL PRISONER

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Tuesday, September 16, 2003

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I come today to the 
floor of the House to speak about Cuban political prisoner Dr. Jose 
Luis Garcia Paneque. Surely few of my colleagues are aware of the case 
of Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Paneque, but that does not make his 
imprisonment by the Castro dictatorship any less brutal and inhumane, 
or any less deserving of our attention.
  Mr. Speaker, more of my colleagues need to know the names of Cuba's 
many political prisoners.
  Dr. Garcia Paneque is 38 years old, married, with four young 
children. He is a talented medical professional with an entire life and 
future ahead of him. However, he was born after the Castro 
dictatorship's take-over and into the totalitarian nightmare that some 
Castro sycophants say has improved the lives of the Cuban people. Dr. 
Garcia Paneque does not see it that way, because he is not free. He is 
a young doctor in jail because of his belief in freedom.
  Dr. Garcia Paneque was arrested, along with more than 100 others, in 
the March 2003 crackdown, on the internal opposition. What was his 
crime? He provided free medical care independent of the government, 
opened a private library, defended human rights, and worked with the 
independent media.
  Imagine, Mr. Speaker, there are Members of Congress who have dined 
with Castro and actually point to the dictatorship's health care system 
as a model, yet I am sure they do not even know the name of this man 
who was arrested because he was the leader of a regional branch of the 
unofficial Independent Medical Association. Dr. Garcia Paneque gave 
medical treatment to Cubans who were denied that treatment by the 
system run by the dictatorship.
  You see, Mr. Speaker, the Castro dictatorship uses access to medical 
treatment, food, education, and other things we take for granted, as a 
tool of political control. Dr. Garcia Paneque's association of medical 
professionals is nothing more than a group independent of the 
government controlled medical association. On Capitol Hill, we meet 
with dozens of associations representing medical professionals, but 
under the Castro dictatorship, there can only be one medical 
association in Cuba and it is controlled by the dictatorship.
  Dr. Garcia Paneque was detained March 18, sentenced on April 4 to 24 
years in prison, and transferred on May 17 to Villa Clara Provincial 
Prison with his hands and feet tied behind his back. It was a 7-hour 
ride by truck. According to what his wife has been told by his jailers, 
he was transferred to a prison 300 miles from where she lives to deny 
her and their four children regular visitation.
  Dr. Garcia Paneque's wife, Yamile Llanez, is a lawyer and also a 
member of the opposition movement. Because of her activities in support 
of human rights, she has been stripped of her job and her food ration 
card. She and her children are dependent on charity to survive.
  Dr. Garcia Paneque has lost 30 pounds since he was detained on March 
18. He is currently held in something worse than solitary confinement: 
a dark 2.5 by 5 foot punishment cell. In his cell, he cannot move or 
exercise, and there are absolutely no sanitary facilities. He suffers 
from currently untreated asthma, allergies, and skin fungus.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask my colleagues to know Mr. Garcia Paneque's name. 
And know the name of his wife, Yamile Llanez. I ask Members to learn 
the names of the other political prisoners I have spoken about from the 
floor of the U.S. House of Representatives: Ibarra, Rivero, Leyva, 
Antunez, Espinosa, Roque. I ask Members who visit with Castro to also 
raise the names of these brave political prisoners, to demand to visit 
them, and to demand their release.
  Mr. Speaker, I ask for my colleagues to believe what Dr. Garcia 
Paneque believes: that Cuba should be free.

                          ____________________