[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 12]
[House]
[Pages 16263-16264]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




         THREE YEARS OF CAPTIVITY FOR CUBAN HOSTAGE ALAN GROSS

  (Mr. RIVERA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. RIVERA. This week marked the 3-year anniversary that a United 
States citizen, Alan Gross, has been held hostage in Cuba. He was 
arrested on December 3, 2009, for engaging in humanitarian activities 
to help the oppressed Cuban people.
  Once again, the specter of a swap for Cuban spies being held in 
prison here

[[Page 16264]]

has been raised. I would continue to encourage the administration to 
reject that notion, particularly when these Cuban spies are being held 
for participating in a murder conspiracy against other American 
citizens that were shot down over international water.
  I would remind the administration that Cuba remains on the list of 
terrorist nations--nations that are specific enemies of this country 
and want to do harm to this country; a country that is harboring 
fugitives from U.S. justice, and a country where, just this week, 
peaceful dissidents in Cuba were attacked once again, according to 
reports from Cuba, by relatives of a political police captain on the 
island that attacked supporters of the peaceful group the Ladies in 
White.
  Once again, I would urge, as I have done so many times, that the 
international community continue to denounce the atrocious human rights 
abuses on the island nation of Cuba.

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