[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 1]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 1131-1132]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                FREEDOM FOR DR. JOSE LUIS GARCIA PANEQUE

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                       Tuesday, January 29, 2008

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to 
again remind my colleagues about Dr. Jose Luis Garcia Paneque, a 
political prisoner in totalitarian

[[Page 1132]]

Cuba. The reason I rise once again to bring attention to Dr. Garcia 
Paneque's imprisonment is because I have been told that his medical 
condition in Castro's gulag has seriously deteriorated.
  Dr. Garcia Paneque is a surgeon by training, an independent 
journalist and a member of the Cuban Independent Medical Association. 
As a director of the independent news agency Libertad, and 
administrator of the Carlos J. Finlay independent library in Las Tunas, 
Cuba, Dr. Garcia Paneque has devoted his life to exposing the truth 
about the horrors inflicted upon the Cuban people by the dictatorship 
in Havana.
  On March 18, 2003, the totalitarian Cuban regime began an island-wide 
crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy activists in order to stifle 
nonviolent political dissent. As part of the crackdown the regime 
arrested Dr. Garcia Paneque and charged him with ``acts against the 
independence or territorial integrity of the state'' because of his 
work with the unofficial Cuban Medical Association. Just weeks after 
his arrest, in what was nothing more than a farce of a judicial 
proceeding, Dr. Garcia Paneque was sentenced to 24 years in the 
totalitarian gulag. The real reason he was arrested is that he is a 
supporter of freedom and democracy who has worked to expose the 
depraved horror that is the Cuban tyranny.
  Since his initial incarceration in the subhuman conditions of the 
tyranny's totalitarian dungeons, Dr. Garcia Paneque's weight has 
dropped from a healthy 190 pounds to an emaciated 100 pounds. Since 
last year prison authorities at the Las Mangas Prison have not allowed 
Dr. Garcia Paneque access to fresh air or sunlight.
  According to his mother, Dr. Garcia Paneque suffers from dizziness 
due to a serious episode of diarrhea and profuse rectal bleeding and 
may be suffering from a duodenal ulcer. It is reported that the 
bleeding is a complication related to an eating disorder known as 
Malabsorption Syndrome, which he developed in prison. The condition 
does not allow food he ingests to nourish his body.
  Dr. Garcia Paneque's health while languishing in a hellish dungeon 
has been a point of constant concern for some time now. In June Dr. 
Garcia Paneque was diagnosed with a kidney tumor and pneumonia. As a 
result of the pneumonia, he suffers from pleural effusion of the right 
lung and constant chest colds. Yet as Dr. Garcia Paneque's condition 
continues to deteriorate, his jailers have refused to allow him 
consultation with doctors not affiliated with the prison or even 
provide him adequate medical care.
  Madam Speaker, this is a textbook case of how the Cuban totalitarian 
regime treats prisoners of conscience who dare speak the truth and call 
for democracy and human rights.
  But this cruel and inhumane treatment is not confined to those inside 
the regime's gulags. Since Dr. Garcia Paneque's arrest, his wife and 
four young children faced intense harassments and attacks by angry mobs 
on their home. They have since fled Cuba and were granted asylum in the 
United States. His wife says that Dr. Garcia Paneque ``takes great 
comfort from his Bible . . . which he reads every day.'' While his wife 
says his physical health continues to suffer, his ``spiritual health is 
strong.''
  On October 24, 2007, Dr. Garcia Paneque's wife and his daughter 
Shirlen were received and honored by President George W. Bush at the 
White House, where the President publicly called upon the regime to 
release Dr. Garcia Paneque forthwith.
  Even though Dr. Garcia Paneque has endured constant physical and 
psychological torture at the hands of regime thugs, he continues to 
demand human rights and dignity for the people of Cuba. He is 
languishing in the squalor of the infernal gulag at the whim of a 
merciless tyrant, simply because he believes in freedom, truth, 
democracy, and human rights for the people of Cuba.
  Madam Speaker, it is unconscionable that journalists and physicians 
like Dr. Garcia Paneque are locked in dungeons for writing the truth. 
My colleagues, we must demand the immediate and unconditional release 
of Jose Luis Garcia Paneque before his prison sentence turns into a 
death sentence.

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