[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 5]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages 6295-6296]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   FREEDOM FOR OMAURIS RONDON RIVERO

                                 ______
                                 

                        HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 3, 2009

  Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to 
speak about Omauris Rondon Rivero, a political prisoner in totalitarian 
Cuba.
  The Cuban people continue to suffer a repression unprecedented in the 
history of our hemisphere. For 50 years Fidel and Raul Castro have 
imposed a brutal, murderous and unscrupulous totalitarian tyranny on 
the Cuban people.
  Last May, Mr. Rondon was thrown into a dungeon after being accused of 
``defamation of government institutions, heroes and martyrs'' by the 
dictatorship. It is unclear what Mr. Rondon had said, but the 
dictatorship sends people to the gulag even for the slightest of 
``verbal transgressions.''
  Mr. Rondon is not known to be a member of any human rights group, 
opposition political party or independent civil society organization. 
But he said something that bothered the criminal thugs who oppress the 
Cuban people. He was ``sentenced'' to a year in the gulag. Reports from 
within the political prisons have pointed out that Mr. Rondon has 
suffered continuous and serious beatings inside the degrading gulag 
where he is locked up. In totalitarian Cuba the cries of the tortured 
are never heard; we can only imagine the horrors Omauris Rondon is 
being subjected to.

[[Page 6296]]

  Thousands, like Mr. Rondon, languish in Cuban dungeons simply for 
their support of freedom, democracy and the Rule of Law, or for other 
acts that are considered criminal only by a murderous and demented 
totalitarian tyranny such as the Castros' (actions like ``attempting to 
leave the country without permission'').
  While countless thousands of Cubans suffer in the tyranny's infernal 
gulag, tourists visit the island's ``delights'', enjoying the regime's 
apartheid tourism system and partaking of the child prostitution 
promoted by the Castros' regime. Heads of State and government, foreign 
ministers and other ``dignitaries'' flock to totalitarian Cuba, 
partaking in the regime's sponsored ``delights'', and bringing ignominy 
to the nations they allegedly represent.
  But, Madam Speaker, I rise to remind my colleagues of the real Cuba. 
I rise to remind my colleagues that Omauris Rondon Rivero, and 
thousands of others who suffer in the Castros' gulag, exist. That they 
represent the best of the Cuban nation. That they represent the future 
of Cuba, a free and democratic Cuba. And I rise to demand the immediate 
and unconditional release of Omauris Rondon Rivero and all the 
political prisoners in the nightmare that is totalitarian Cuba.

                          ____________________