[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 22499]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 FREEDOM FOR EFREN FERNANDEZ FERNANDEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, December 5, 2006

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Efren Fernandez Fernandez, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Fernandez is a member of the Christian Liberation Movement and an 
opponent of the tyranny in Havana. In March of 2003, Mr. Fernandez was 
arrested as part of an abhorrent island-wide crackdown on peaceful pro-
democracy activists who were calling for the most basic of human rights 
for Cuba. His participation in a collection of signatures in support of 
a call for some elemental rights for Cubans was all that the communist 
regime needed to incarcerate him.
  In a sham trial, Mr. Fernandez was sentenced to 12 years in the 
totalitarian gulag. He has endured numerous prison transfers and 
solitary confinements based only on his captors' whims and arbitrary 
reasons. Since his ``sentencing'', he has managed to survive against 
all odds in the most deplorable of human conditions. Mr. Fernandez' 
bravery and commitment to freedom has not wavered even though since his 
unjust incarceration he has lost more than thirty pounds and suffers 
from frequent fits of vomiting and chronic intestinal problems.
  According to Carta de Cuba, on September 7, 2006, Mr. Fernandez was 
administered antibiotics intravenously for an unidentified bacterial 
infection affecting his kidneys. Immediately following that treatment, 
Mr. Fernandez fainted and complained of experiencing severe heart 
palpitations and arterial tension.
  Let me be very clear, Mr. Fernandez is languishing in the 
totalitarian gulag simply for believing that every Cuban citizen has 
the fundamental right to live in freedom with the most basic of human 
rights and protections of their individual liberties. He suffers the 
consequences, no matter how brutal or at what risk to his health, and 
continues his dignified struggle for freedom on that oppressed island.
  It is unconscionable that a mere ninety miles from our shores, men 
and women are suffering in the darkness of totalitarian repression. Mr. 
Speaker, this constitutes a crime against humanity. Mr. Fernandez's 
only crime is to demand that basic human rights be restored to the 
people of Cuba.
  It is incumbent on all of us who serve in this great democratic body 
to recognize and remember the terrible plight of those brave men and 
women like Mr. Fernandez who suffer the living nightmare of despotic 
totalitarianism. Let us all join in demanding the immediate release of 
Efren Fernandez Fernandez and all political prisoners in Cuba.

                          ____________________