[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 153 (2007), Part 17]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 24127-24128]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    FREEDOM FOR ARTURO SUAREZ RAMOS

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, September 10, 2007

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Arturo Suarez Ramos, a long suffering and heroic prisoner 
of conscience in totalitarian Cuba.
  Mr. Suarez Ramos is a member of the Cuban Pro-Human Rights Committee 
and a leader of the pro-democracy movement in totalitarian Cuba. 
Because he believes that freedom is the birthright of every person, he 
has steadfastly demanded freedom, democracy

[[Page 24128]]

and human rights for the Cuban people. He has bravely denounced the 
cruel policies of the dictatorship, its apartheid-style discrimination 
against Cubans, and its constant indoctrination campaign, and demanded 
that the Cuban people be allowed to exercise their inalienable rights. 
Unfortunately, because the dictatorship forcefully represses those who 
bravely support freedom, he has repeatedly been a target of the 
regime's henchmen.
  Mr. Suarez Ramos rejected the regime's mandated lies and propaganda 
early in his life and was therefore denied by the dictatorship the 
opportunity to pursue a higher education. Knowing full well that in a 
totalitarian Cuba there was no future, only dire consequences, for 
those who voiced dissent, he refused to allow his cries for freedom to 
be silenced. In 1985 Mr. Suarez Ramos was arrested by state security 
thugs and in a sham trial ``sentenced'' to 18 months in the 
totalitarian gulag for being a ``menace to society'' by attempting to 
leave the country without ``proper permission''.
  Although Mr. Suarez Ramos was eventually released, his time outside 
the infernal totalitarian gulag was brief. On October 3, 1987, Mr. 
Suarez Ramos was again arrested, this time on charges of ``piracy'' and 
``illegal exit'' from the country. Although he was initially sentenced 
to death by firing squad for attempting to divert a plane to the United 
States, the dictator decided to ``commute'' his sentence to thirty 
years in his dungeons.
  Mr. Suarez Ramos has participated in several hunger strikes demanding 
his release and to draw attention to the abhorrent conditions in which 
political prisoners are kept. Currently, Mr. Suarez Ramos, among Cuba's 
longest serving political prisoners, suffers from migraines, loss of 
vision, severe back pains, chronic stomach pains, diarrhea and various 
other ailments. These maladies are brought on and compounded by the 
depraved, subhuman conditions to which he is subjected. Mr. Suarez 
Ramos has never relinquished his dream of freedom for the Cuban people. 
He continues to advocate for freedom and justice while locked in the 
hellish squalor of the dictatorship's dungeons and courageously endures 
countless attacks at the hands of his brutal jailers.
  No matter how intense the repression, no matter how horrifically 
brutal the consequences of a dignified struggle for liberty, the 
totalitarian gulags are full of men and women who represent the best of 
the Cuban nation. Madam Speaker, it is as inconceivable as it is 
unacceptable that Mr. Suarez Ramos continues to be systematically 
tortured because of his belief in freedom, democracy, human rights and 
the rule of law. My Colleagues, we must demand the immediate and 
unconditional release of Arturo Suarez Ramos and every political 
prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________