[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 8767]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             FREEDOM FOR LEONEL GRAVE DE PERALTA ALMENARES

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 5, 2005

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Leonel Grave de Peralta Almenares, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Grave de Peralta is a member of the Christian Liberation Movement 
and an independent librarian. According to Human Rights First, as 
director of the Bartolome Maso Library, Mr. Grave de Peralta had a 
circulation record of over 700 book loans. His life is dedicated to the 
proposition that the men and women of Cuba must be free: free to learn, 
free to worship, free to enjoy their inalienable human rights.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Grave de Peralta has been targeted by the 
totalitarian regime because of his belief in freedom and democracy. 
According to Amnesty International, he was harassed in 2002 when his 
home was besieged by the tyrant's thugs. Despite the constant threat of 
oppression, harassment, and torture, Mr. Grave de Peralta continued his 
peaceful, pro-democracy activities.
  In March 2003, as part of Castro's heinous crackdown on peaceful pro-
democracy activists, Mr. Grave de Peralta was arrested. Subsequently, 
in a sham trial, he was sentenced to 20 years in the totalitarian 
gulag.
  Mr. Grave de Peralta is representative of the fighting spirit of the 
Cuban people: of their rejection of the brutality, discrimination, 
depravity, and oppression of the totalitarian tyranny. Thousands 
languish in the gulag because, like Mr. Grave de Peralta, they refuse 
to accept the tyrannical dictatorship in Cuba today.
  Mr. Speaker, it is as inconceivable as it is unacceptable that, while 
the world stands by in silence and acquiescence, Mr. Grave de Peralta 
languishes in the horror of the totalitarian gulag because of his 
belief in freedom, democracy, and human rights. My Colleagues, we must 
demand the immediate and unconditional release of Leonel Grave de 
Perlata Almenares and every political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.

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