[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 11]
[House]
[Pages 14786-14787]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           DEMOCRACY FOR CUBA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, over the years, I have come down here 
regularly to the Chamber, one of the most iconic symbols of our 
wonderful democracy, and urged the United States to do more to support 
the cause of freedom for my native homeland, the island nation of Cuba.
  In tow would be posters just like the one I have here today, 
depicting images of the real Cuba, the Cuba in which opposition to the 
Castro regime is met with violence and harassment, extrajudicial 
punishment and confinement in one of the many Cuban gulags built by 
Fidel Castro. These images would show what the regime under Fidel 
Castro would do to the Ladies in White depicted here. These women, clad 
in white, carrying flowers, march peacefully to mass at a Catholic 
church every Sunday, praying for their loved ones wrongfully imprisoned 
by the regime, only to be harassed and beaten by Castro's thugs.
  I came to this floor to offer my support for these brave women; like 
Laura Pollan, who was mysteriously killed, no doubt by the regime, and 
Berta Soler, pictured here.
  Mr. Speaker, I have come to this very floor denouncing the Castro 
regime's treatment of opposition leaders like Jorge Luis Garcia 
``Antunez'' Perez, who was imprisoned for 17 years by Castro for 
speaking out against communism and refusing the regime's communist 
reeducation program.
  I spoke out in support of Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, who was sentenced 
to 25 years in Castro's prisons for crimes committed against Cuban 
sovereignty, which, in Cuba, is code for calling for reforms; and he 
was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by George W. Bush.
  I stood here for Coco Farinas, right over here. Coco Farinas went on 
a 50-day hunger strike just recently to bring attention to the plight 
of the Cuban people.
  I also spoke in favor of Cuban rapper El Sexto, pictured here, who 
was jailed just last week, again, when the regime announced the 
tyrant's death.
  I stood here in solidarity with Cubans, freedom fighters like Antonio 
Rodiles, pictured here, who was arrested hours before President Obama 
landed in Cuba earlier this year. Round up the usual suspects.
  I have come to this well time and time again to call attention to the 
abuses being committed by Fidel Castro against the Cuban people, the 
people of the homeland that I was forced to flee along with my family 
when I was a little girl, and to the people who have had everything 
taken away from them and could not speak for themselves.
  And I have come repeatedly to this very podium to call my colleagues' 
attention to the threat that Fidel Castro and his regime pose to the 
U.S. and our national security. This thug, Fidel Castro, who attempted 
to infiltrate every level of our government through his intelligence 
service, like convicted spy Ana Belen Montes, who is currently still 
serving her prison sentence in a Texas jail.
  This despot, who aligned himself with the greatest threats to the 
U.S., like Iran and Russia, and allowed Russia to put up a facility in 
Cuba in order to spy on our Nation; this autocrat, who told the 
Ayatollah in Iran that both Iran and Cuba would bring the U.S. to its 
knees, and who tried to bring the world to nuclear war during the Cuban 
Missile Crisis.
  Yet, this is a man who some world leaders and media want to 
romanticize. They whitewash his horrific crimes and claim that he was a 
legendary folk hero.
  The truth is, Mr. Speaker, Fidel Castro was a sadistic murderer, a 
tyrant, and a hypocrite. He was a thug who took control over all 
industries and Cuba and decried capitalism. Yet, somehow, he was likely 
worth about $1 billion when he died.
  When 11 million Cubans are barely struggling to get by under his 
Communist regime, this is a tyrant who died with more wealth than the 
entire island nation.
  Mr. Speaker, Fidel Castro is dead, and Cuba and the world are better 
for it. Now we have an opportunity to move forward by reversing some of 
this administration's concessions to the Castro regime and press for 
reforms.
  It is time for the Cuban people to have the opportunity to achieve 
freedom and democracy for which they

[[Page 14787]]

have been yearning. We must pressure the regime in the island of Cuba.
  We must not relent until there are free and fair elections, until all 
political prisoners are freed, and until the people's basic and 
fundamental human rights are restored. Is that too much to ask for the 
enslaved and oppressed people of Cuba?
  Let that be how we honor the countless Cubans who have lost their 
lives or who have suffered under the terrible dictatorship of Fidel 
Castro. That is some legacy.

                          ____________________