[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 11]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 15366]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 FREEDOM FOR ANTONIO RAMON DIAZ SANCHEZ

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Monday, June 11, 2007

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Antonio Ramon Diaz Sanchez, a prisoner of conscience in 
totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Diaz Sanchez, an electrician by profession, is a member of the 
Christian Liberation Movement and a peaceful pro-democracy activist who 
desires to exercise his basic human rights and who supports freedom, 
democracy and the Rule of Law for the people of Cuba. Unfortunately, 
the nightmare that is the totalitarian regime continues to oppress the 
men and women of Cuba, especially those who work to shed light on the 
vicious crimes committed against the Cuban people by the tyrant.
  In March 2003, as part of the tyrant's condemnable crackdown on 
peaceful, pro-democracy activists, Mr. Diaz Sanchez was arrested simply 
for expressing his opinions. Mr. Diaz Sanchez was subjected to a sham 
trial where he was ``sentenced'' to 20 years of confinement in the 
infernal totalitarian dungeons of the brutal regime.
  Mr. Diaz Sanchez has continued to advocate for freedom and justice 
while locked in the hellish squalor of the dictatorship's gulag. He has 
participated in various hunger strikes to draw attention to the 
horrific conditions that political prisoners are subjected to in the 
gulag. He is routinely denied medical treatment although he currently 
suffers from painful colitis and has been denied a biopsy for a rapidly 
growing tumor on his prostrate.
  According to Mr. Diaz Sanchez's nephew, NGOs have offered Mr. Diaz 
anti-inflammatory medications to relieve his symptoms but as of yet 
neither he nor his family have received any such medications to relieve 
his symptoms. The burden of the cruel treatment he has received and the 
physical strain of the subhuman conditions in which Mr. Diaz Sanchez is 
forced to live have completely drained him of his desire to nourish 
himself. He survives on barely on a few spoonfuls of putrid food each 
day.
  In the face of such horrific mistreatment, the regime's henchmen 
refuse to provide Mr. Diaz or his family with medical diagnoses. Madam 
Speaker, let me be very clear, Mr. Diaz Sanchez is suffering at the 
whim of a monstrous regime just 90 miles from our shore, although he 
has done nothing other than desire that his children and the long-
suffering people of Cuba live in freedom with fundamental human rights 
and dignity.
  Madam Speaker, Mr. Diaz Sanchez has courageously risked his life in 
order to bring a semblance of humane treatment to those confined in the 
nightmare that is the totalitarian gulag. His example shines a light of 
courage on the abominable disregard for human rights in that oppressed 
island. My Colleagues, we must demand the immediate and unconditional 
release of Antonio Ramon Diaz Sanchez and every political prisoner in 
totalitarian Cuba.

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