[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 3327-3328]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                    PRESIDENT OBAMA'S VISIT TO CUBA

  (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, President Obama's trip to Cuba is ill-
conceived and premature. A fun trip, the President labeled it. The 
visit comes on the heels of declarations by the Communist Party that it 
will ``not give up a single inch in the defense of revolutionary and 
anti-imperialist ideals.''
  Harrumph. This translates to over 2,555 arbitrary detentions of 
peaceful

[[Page 3328]]

protesters between January and February of 2016 alone and over 8,000 
arrests just last year.
  The President's meeting with civil society is such a low benchmark, 
the official Cuban newspaper, Granma, stated that Obama's visit 
destroys the myth that Cuba violates human rights. The leader of the 
free world has chosen a legacy-shopping photo op enjoying a baseball 
game with a murderer and a thug.
  In these critical moments for democracy on the island, we must 
support peaceful demonstrations like the one scheduled in south Florida 
at 11 a.m. on Sunday in front of the Bay of Pigs monument on 8th 
Street.
  (English translation of the statement made in Spanish is as follows:)
  It will be led by Assembly of the Cuban Resistance from Exile, Forum 
for Democracy and Freedom in Cuba, and Organization for Foundation for 
the Judicial Rescue.
  It will be led by La Asamblea de la Resistencia Cubana desde el 
exilio, el Foro por los Derechos y Libertades desde Cuba, y la 
organizacion Fundacion Rescate Juridico.
  The exile community in Miami, who has welcomed many of Castro's 
former political prisoners, is painfully aware of the trampling of 
human rights still going on today. This is not a fun trip for peaceful 
dissidents.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentlewoman from Florida will provide 
the Clerk a translation of her remarks.

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