[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 13]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 18225]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]


INTRODUCTION OF A RESOLUTION CONDEMNING THE CUBAN REGIME'S MOST RECENT 
MEASURES OF EXTREME REPRESSION AGAINST MEMBERS OF CUBA'S PRO-DEMOCRACY 
                                MOVEMENT

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 26, 2005

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
introduce a resolution condemning the Cuban dictatorship's most recent 
measures of extreme repression against Cuba's pro-democracy movement.
  Following Castro's condemnable, March 2003, crackdown against 
peaceful pro-democracy activists, the European Union correctly took 
measures against the Cuban regime. However, in January 2005, the 
European Union suspended these measures and resumed its policy of so-
called ``engagement'' with the terrorist regime in Havana. This policy 
of appeasement includes inviting regime officials to diplomatic events 
and shamelessly disinviting Cuba's brave pro-democracy activists. 
Unfortunately, on July 14, 2005, the Government of France invited the 
dictatorship's Foreign Minister to the French Embassy in Havana for a 
Bastille Day celebration. And, the Government of France did not invite 
the heroic members of the democratic opposition to the same 
celebration.
  To protest this cowardly policy, members of the pro-democracy 
opposition in Cuba sought, on July 22, to demonstrate in front of the 
French Embassy in a peaceful and orderly manner for the liberation of 
all Cuban political prisoners, and to denounce the current policy of 
the European Union.
  In a viscous display of gangster-style repression, the Cuban regime 
mobilized its repugnant state security apparatus to try to intimidate 
and harass the peaceful demonstrators. Members of the Assembly to 
Promote Civil Society in Cuba, who were planning a peaceful 
demonstration in front of the French Embassy in Havana on the morning 
of Friday, July 22, were the victims of hate acts (``acts of 
repudiation''), their homes were ransacked, and at least 20 of them 
were arrested. Among those arrested were the leaders of the Cuban 
opposition Martha Beatriz Roque, Felix Bonne Carcasses and Rene Gomez 
Manzano. Mr. Gomez Manzano and other opposition members remain in 
prison as I speak.
  This is one more example of the brutality of a dictatorship that does 
not allow freedom of expression for Cubans, and instructs its thugs to 
assault the members of the peaceful opposition for the ``crime'' of 
seeking freedom, democracy and respect for human rights in Cuba. The 
world needs to respond in the strongest possible terms to this latest 
violation of the most elemental human rights in Cuba. This resolution 
condemns the latest violations of human rights by the Cuban regime, a 
regime of gangsters, by gangsters and for gangsters, led by a gangster 
in chief.

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