[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 6006-6007]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    FREEDOM FOR OSCAR MARIO GONZALEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Tuesday, April 25, 2006

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
remind my colleagues about Oscar Mario Gonzalez, a political prisoner 
in totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Gonzalez is an independent journalist and pro-democracy activist 
in totalitarian Cuba. His peaceful, pro-democracy activities and 
truthful articles have helped the world to learn the facts about the 
nightmare that is the Castro regime. Unfortunately, the dictatorship 
forcefully represses those who bravely support freedom and rise in 
resistance to the despotic regime.
  According to Reporters Without Borders, on March 24, 2005, Mr. 
Gonzalez was summoned and questioned by regime agents, who threatened 
that he would not be able to see his family again if he continued 
practicing as an independent journalist. Despite these gangster tactics 
and heinous threats, Mr. Gonzalez continued to demand basic human 
rights for the people of Cuba.
  As part of the tyrant's heinous July 2005 crackdown on peaceful pro-
democracy opponents, on July 22, Mr. Gonzalez was arrested as he tried 
to participate in a peaceful demonstration outside the French Embassy 
in Havana, demanding the release of political prisoners in Cuba. As 
part of this vicious crackdown, over 30 brave opponents were arrested 
at home, on their way to the demonstration or on the sidelines of the 
gathering.
  According to CubaNet, Mr. Gonzalez has been charged with violating 
Law 88. This is the same brutal, sham law that the tyrannical regime 
used to wrongly convict many of the pro-democracy activists arrested in 
March 2003. According to Reporters Without Borders, Mr. Gonzalez is 
still awaiting trial for supposed ``crimes.''
  On April 26, 2006, The Miami Herald published the following moving 
letter from Mr. Gonzalez to his daughter:

       In all the years that I have been by your side, you have 
     never known me to pose a threat to anyone or anything, yet 
     today I am writing to you from prison.
       Neither one of us, in writing to each other for so many 
     years, ever imagined we be doing it from a prison cell.
       Such is life around these parts! Anything and everything 
     can happen in this green island that so few really know 
     about, weaving instead fantasies fed by the Cuban 
     government's propaganda.
       The reasons for my imprisonment would be incomprehensible 
     to anyone living in the society you live in, but they are 
     totally understandable to a Cuban.
       I had the temerity to criticize and question the government 
     of my country and to denounce its totalitarian character 
     before the world. I did it in the only way I know, 
     peacefully, with words.
       For that, the Cuban government classifies us as criminals 
     and calls us mercenaries and agents of U.S. imperialism. I 
     swear to you that I have never had so much as a private 
     conversation with any official of the United States or of any 
     other country, for that matter.
       Also, the only monies I have been paid from the only press 
     agency for which I have ever worked, Cubanet, scarcely cover 
     my few material needs.
       The real reason for my confinement is to have denounced my 
     country's government to a Cuban press agency in Miami, since 
     the news media inside Cuba are closed to those, who like 
     myself, exhibit independent criteria. Cuban media are only 
     open to sycophants and apologists for the regime.
       My conscience impels me to expose the abuses to which 
     Cubans have been subject for more than 47 years now.
       I never thought my modest contribution to the future of 
     Cuba would go very far.
       I'm a simple citizen who tried to make public the brutal 
     nature of the Cuban government, thinking that would be my 
     small contribution to the future of Cuba.
       How was I to know my humble purpose would land me in prison 
     at age 62 and in poor health?
       My love for my country, for liberty and democracy, are the 
     real causes for my imprisonment.
       If some day you hear me say something that contradicts what 
     I have said so far here, know that it is not your father 
     speaking. It would be another man, reduced, drugged or in the 
     throes of fear, and obligated to say whatever they wanted him 
     to say under pressure of threats and blackmail.
       I hope some day we can see each other again in our country, 
     with liberty to walk down the street holding hands and 
     looking to the future, without fear or hate.
       Teach my grandson, next to the love of God and neighbor, 
     the devotion to human rights and liberty so that he will 
     never put up with injustice and abuses.
       May God bless you, and may He allow me to kiss you soon.

  Mr. Gonzalez is a brilliant example of the heroism of the Cuban 
people. His letter exemplifies the Cuban desire to live in liberty, 
free

[[Page 6007]]

of the tyrannical repression imposed on them by the murderous despot. 
Read the strength of this letter, Mr. Gonzalez knows the violence, 
abuse, and repression that will be used to try to break him. Yet he 
stands strong in the strength of his conviction: ``My conscience impels 
me to expose the abuses to which Cubans have been subject for more than 
47 years now.'' Mr. Gonzalez is an apostle of freedom for Cuba.
  Despite incessant repression, harassment, incarceration and abuse, he 
remains committed to the conviction that freedom of the press and 
individual liberty 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. Gonzalez, who represent the best of the Cuban 
nation.
  Mr. Speaker, let me be very clear, Mr. Gonzalez is languishing in the 
grotesque squalor of the gulag because he desires freedom for all 
Cubans. My Colleagues, read his letter often. We must demand the 
immediate and unconditional release of Oscar Mario Gonzalez and every 
political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________