[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 22111]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  FREEDOM FOR LEONICO RODRIGUEZ PONCE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                      Wednesday, November 15, 2006

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Leoncio Rodriguez Ponce, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Rodriguez Ponce is a member of the Pedro Luis Boitel Association 
of Political Prisoners and an opponent of the dictatorship of the 
Castro brothers. He has committed himself to doing everything possible 
to bringing an end to the dictatorshp and to restoring democracy to 
that enslaved island. Because of his steadfast belief in freedom, 
democracy and the rule of law, Mr. Rodriguez Ponce has constantly been 
targeted by the dictatorship.
  According to Prima News, Mr. Rodriguez Ponce was severely beaten in 
the gulag and confined to a punishment cell in 2002. According to 
Directorio, he has undertaken numerous hunger strikes while in the 
gulag to call attention to the gross human rights abuses in Cuba and in 
July of this year he courageously signed the following statement:

       The Pedro Luis Boitel Association of Political Prisoners 
     would like to express, once again, its complete and 
     unconditional support for the measures presented by the 
     commission for a Free Cuba, and we urge the President of the 
     United States of America, George W. Bush, to implement them 
     immediately.
       Cuban political prisoners, conscious of the intolerance and 
     lack of political will of the Havana regime, support all 
     measures which pressure the dictatorship to concede to 
     openings with the objective of restoring a democratic system 
     in Cuba with the rule of law where each Cuban can exercise 
     the inalienable prerogatives and freedoms which they possess 
     by the single fact that they are human beings.
       We also support any initiative to offer support and help to 
     the democratic forces that are struggling and resisting from 
     inside Cuba in an unequal and titanic battle against the 
     totalitarian hoards of hate and oppression. In the same way, 
     we are sincerely encouraged by the great effort shown so that 
     Cubans on the island may receive with greater reach and 
     clarity truthful and objective information through Radio and 
     Television Marti.
       With the clear conviction and certainty of the importance 
     of depriving the regime of its repressive organs and 
     resources which uphold it and consequently are used to harass 
     citizens, we look with enthusiasm on any action to put an end 
     to such a terrible situation.
       We Cubans long for and need democracy, and in order to 
     obtain it we are willing to endure the greatest sacrifices. 
     The government in Havana and its lackeys in the media are 
     determined to distort the content and purpose of the 
     aforementioned Commission. They try to make one think that it 
     is a military threat from our neighbor to the north or an 
     interventionist policy. On the contrary, the measures 
     presented to the President of the United States by the 
     Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba only seek to 
     accelerate the nonviolent transition to democracy in Cuba, 
     which will have as its protagonists Cubans both in and out of 
     the island.
       For all of them, we urge all Cubans who long for the 
     reestablishment of democracy and an open and pluralist 
     society where the execution wall, exit permits, and exile 
     cease to be paths for those who dissent from government 
     policies, to support this initiative which together with 
     others will contribute decisively to bringing down this 
     unjust and undemocratic system which has lasted nearly half a 
     century.
       And to the frontmen of Castro's government-run press, it is 
     time to stop manipulating information. Far from attacking and 
     cowardly disqualifying their adversaries, they should have 
     the dignity of providing the people with transparent 
     information in its whole and unadulterated state so that 
     after knowing it, the people may come to their own 
     conclusions, without Machiavellian interference and 
     deliberate gaps. The contrary is deceit and political 
     cowardice.

  Mr. Speaker, it takes extraordinary, truly admirable courage to sign 
a document that demands freedom when the signer knows the Castro 
brothers' machinery of repression will be unleashed on him and his 
family. Mr. Rodriguez Ponce is representative of the fighting spirit of 
the Cuban people: of their rejection of the brutality, discrimination, 
depravity, and oppression of the totalitarian tyranny. Mr. Rodriguez 
does not waiver in his conviction that freedom and democracy are the 
inalienable right of the Cuban people. It is a crime against humanity 
that Castro's totalitarian gulags are full of men and women, like Mr. 
Rodriguez, who represent the best of the Cuban nation.
  Let me be very clear, Mr. Rodriguez Ponce is imprisoned because he 
refuses to accept the Castro brothers' dictatorship in Cuba today. Mr. 
Speaker, we must speak out and act against the abominable violations of 
human rights, human dignity, and human freedom just 90 miles from our 
shore. My colleagues, we must demand the immediate and unconditional 
release of a Leoncio Rodriguez Ponce and every political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________