[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 21]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 29412]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  FREEDOM FOR RICARDO GONZALEZ ALFONSO

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, December 16, 2005

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, once again I rise 
today to speak about Ricardo 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.
  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 and disgusting regime.
  Mr. Gonzalez's wife is calling for the governments of free nations, 
NGOs, and all those that cherish human rights to demand the release of 
her husband. I applaud her bravery and patriotism and join her cause. 
It is categorically unacceptable that men and women who demand freedom 
from tyranny are locked in the dungeons of monsters. The willful 
ignorance of Cuba's suffering under the Castro regime by much of the 
world's press, and most of the international community, amounts to 
aiding and abetting the Cuban dictatorship. Let us never forget and 
always support, those who are struggling to liberate their people from 
the grip of tyranny.
  Mr. Speaker, we must cry out for the release of all those who 
languish in dungeons because they believe in human rights and freedom. 
My Colleagues, we must demand the immediate and unconditional release 
of Ricardo Gonzalez Alfonso and every prisoner of conscience locked in 
Castro's toalitarian gulag.

                          ____________________