[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 152 (2006), Part 8]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 10750]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                  FREEDOM FOR ARMANDO BETANCOURT REINA

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                          Friday, June 9, 2006

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Armando Betancourt Reina, a political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Betancourt Reina is an independent journalist and has been a 
chronicler of truth amid the lies and deceit of Castor's villainous 
regime. Mr. Betancourt Reina works and writes to inform the world about 
the nightmare that is the Castro regime. Unfortunately, writing and 
reporting the truth is not allowed under Castro's tyrannical 
dictatorship. All attempts to portray the absolute lack of freedom in 
totalitarian Cuba are viciously attacked and their authors are 
imprisoned and harassed.
  According to Directorio and the Committee to Protect Journalists, Mr. 
Betancourt Reina was detained on May 23, 2006, in the city of Camaguey 
where the police were carrying out violent evictions. He was covering 
yet another atrocity committed by the regime against the Cuban people. 
In an attempt to suppress the truth about these violent evictions from 
the world, Castro's thugs arrested and imprisoned Mr. Betancourt Reina. 
Mr. Betancourt is locked in the totalitarian gulag, but he has not yet 
been charged with a ``crime.''
  I remind my colleagues that, under Castro's totalitarian regime, any 
freedom of the press, any effort to display the atrocities of the 
regime under the spotlight of truth, is met with swift and violent 
repression.
  Let me be very clear, Mr. Betancourt Reina is currently languishing 
in the depraved conditions of the totalitarian gulag for his truthful 
articles. The U.S. State Department describes the conditions in the 
gulag as, ``harsh and life threatening.'' The State Department also 
reports that police and prison officials beat, neglect, isolate, and 
deny medical treatment to detainees and prisoners. It is a crime of the 
highest order that people are imprisoned in these nightmarish 
conditions simply for reporting the facts.
  Mr. Betancourt Reina 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 and democracy are the inalienable right of the Cuban people. Let 
us never forget and always support those who are struggling to liberate 
people from the grip of tyranny.
  Mr. Speaker, it is as inconceivable as it is unacceptable that, while 
the world stands by in silence and acquiescence, independent 
journalists who write the truth about totalitarian regimes are 
systematically tortured. My colleagues, we must demand the immediate 
and unconditional release of Armando Betancourt Reina and every 
political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.

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