[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 150 (2004), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 649]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


             FREEDOM FOR RICARDO SEVERINO GONZALEZ ALFONSO

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, January 28, 2004

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Ricardo Severino Gonzalez Alfonso, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Gonzalez is the president of the Manuel Marquez Sterling 
Journalists Society and an independent reporter in totalitarian Cuba. 
Mr. Gonzalez works and writes to inform the world about the gross human 
rights abuses that occur every day under the repressive regime of the 
Cuban dictator.
  Unfortunately, writing and reporting the truth is not allowed under 
Castro's tyrannical dictatorship. All attempts to portray the absolute 
lack of freedom in totalitarian Cuba are viciously condemned and their 
authors are imprisoned or exiled. Mr. Gonzalez has been harassed by 
Castro's thugs since 1997, and on March 18, 2003, he was arrested for 
his insistence on publishing the truth about Castro's totalitarian 
Cuba.
  The sham trial verdict that sentenced Mr. Gonzalez to 20 years in the 
Cuban gulag read:
  ``. . . he managed to get his articles, which were subversive and 
misleading in nature with regard to the Cuban system, published in 
various newspapers and magazines such as Reporters Without Borders.''
  Mr. Speaker, Mr. Gonzalez was 53 years old when he was condemned to 
20 years in Castro's gulag. The conditions in the Cuban totalitarian 
gulag are so atrocious as to almost guarantee that Mr. Gonzalez will 
not walk out if he were to have to serve the entirety of his sham 
sentence. Let me be very clear, Mr. Gonzalez has been sentenced to die 
in the gulag by the Cuban tyrant for writing the truth about Castro's 
brutal, repressive regime. It is imperative that Cuba be free as soon 
as possible, so that Mr. Gonzalez and all the political prisoners can 
also live in the freedom and dignity that they deserve.
  My colleagues, we must cry out for the release of all those who 
languish in dungeons because they believe in human rights and freedom. 
We must demand the immediate release of Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso and 
every political prisoner.

                          ____________________