[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 16]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 21750]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 FREEDOM FOR ALBERTO GIL TRIAY CASALES

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 29, 2006

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Alberto Gil Triay Casales, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Triay Casales is an independent journalist and the founder of the 
Estrella Solitaria information centre. According to Reporters Without 
Borders, Mr. Triay Casales also bravely wrote articles every week 
describing the truth about the horrors of life under Castro. Because of 
his belief in truth in print, truth for the people of Cuba and truth to 
enable the world to better comprehend the daily horrors of totalitarian 
Cuba, Mr. Triay Casales became a target of the totalitarian regime.
  Because of his commitment to exposing the truth about the nightmare 
that is the Castro regime, he was arrested on November 9, 2005. 
According to Reporters Without Borders, he was hospitalized after 
several heart attacks and then transferred back to the totalitarian 
gulag in December. His farcical ``trial'' took place on June 22, 2006, 
but he is still incarcerated in the gulag while he awaits the 
``verdict.''
  Reporters Without Borders recently released this statement regarding 
Mr. Triay Casales, ``We are also worried about the fate of Mr. Triay 
Casales, whose health is deteriorating. He has had several heart 
attacks and has high blood pressure. He also has a serious hip problem 
that could leave him disabled if it is not treated properly.''
  I remind my colleagues that, under the Castro brothers' totalitarian 
regime, any freedom of the press, any effort to display the atrocities 
of the regime under the spotlight of truth, is met with exactly this 
type of swift and brutal repression. This report indicates exactly how 
abominable the conditions are in the gulag. Mr. Triay Casales has had 
multiple heart attacks because of the inhumane conditions in the gulag, 
yet he continues to advocate for freedom.
  Mr. Triay Casales is a brilliant example of the heroism of the Cuban 
people. Despite incessant repression, harassment, incarceration and 
abuse, he remains committed to the conviction that freedom of the 
press, democracy and the rule of law are the inalienable right of the 
Cuban people. Let us never forget and always support those who are 
struggling to liberate peoples from the grip of tyranny.
  Mr. Speaker, it is unconscionable that journalists such as Mr. Triay 
Casales are locked in dungeons for writing and publishing the facts 
about the nightmare that is the Cuban tyranny. My colleagues, we must 
fight for freedom whenever and wherever human beings are shackled by 
totalitarian dictators. We cannot allow peaceful pro-democracy 
activists to languish in the depraved prisons of tyrants. We must 
demand immediate freedom for Alberto Gil Triay Casales and every 
prisoner of conscience in totalitarian Cuba.

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