[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 156 (2010), Part 9]
[House]
[Page 12912]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                              {time}  1030
                 CUBA'S RELEASE OF POLITICAL PRISONERS

  (Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida asked and was given permission to 
address the House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. MARIO DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this week we've seen 
that the Castro dictatorship has released a handful of political 
prisoners in an attempt to try to win concessions from the European 
Union and the United States. It's not the first time they've done that 
to try to win concessions.
  At the same time, the Obama administration recognizes that there are 
about 5,000 Cubans that are held in the gulags of that nation for the 
charge of dangerousness. Those are 5,000 additional political prisoners 
that languish in prison.
  We've got to remember who the Castro regime, that terrorist regime, 
who they are. This week alone they've blamed the United States for 
sinking the South Korean ship that killed 46 sailors early this year. 
They blamed the United States.
  This is the same regime that holds an American hostage, Mr. Alan 
Gross, a Jewish American contractor who was providing humanitarian aid 
to Cuban Jews within that island nation.
  This is the same regime that, last month, Fidel Castro himself 
compared Israel to Nazi Germany. And yet some want to give concessions 
to that regime. Some want to help that regime with billions of dollars.
  Let's stay firm. Let's demand elections. Let's demand freedom for the 
Cuban people.

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