•HRES 208 IH 
vent his participation in events commemorating Inter-
national Human Rights Day; at year’s end, he had not 
been tried and remained jailed; 
Whereas on July 30, 2002, state security officials arrested 
independent journalist Angel Pablo Polanco and held him 
for 4 days in an unregistered house of detention; Polanco 
was 60 years old and moved with the aid of a walker; 
during a search of his home, state security agents re-
moved a fax machine and a telephone, which Polanco had 
purchased from a state company, $1,200 in cash, a tape 
recorder, books on Cuban history, and files related to his 
work as a journalist; the officials did not provide a re-
ceipt for the money or the items; Polanco was charged 
with inciting others to commit ‘‘contempt of authority’’ 
and ‘‘insulting the symbols of the State’’, apparently in 
connection with plans by opposition groups to mark the 
August 5th anniversary of riots in Havana that occurred 
in 1994; he was accused of organizing clandestine cells 
along with activists Manuel Menendez Diaz and Marcel 
Valenzuela Salt, who had been arrested on July 29th; 
Polanco was granted conditional release on August 3rd; 
at year’s end, Polanco had not been tried; 
Whereas in August 2002, 6 guards at Guamajal prison, Villa 
Clara province, beat common prisoner Pedro Rafael 
Perez Fuentes until he was unconscious; Perez Fuentes 
told his mother that the guards had beaten him because 
he had asked them why he had been denied exercise privi-
leges; the prison warden verbally abused Perez Fuentes’ 
mother when she informed him of her plans to report the 
assault; 
Whereas on August 6, 2002, prison officials, including the 
chief of political reeducation, beat political prisoner
•HRES 208 IH 
Yosvani Aguilar Camejo; Aguilar Camejo is the national 
coordinator for the Fraternal Brothers for Dignity Move-
ment; he was arrested at the time of the Mexican Em-
bassy break-in by asylum seekers in late February; 
Whereas on August 16, 2002, Juan Sanchez Picoto died in 
a psychiatric hospital in San Luis de Jagua, allegedly by 
suicide; according to family members, Sanchez Picoto had 
tried to emigrate 9 times since 1998, and after the last 
attempt the authorities forcibly removed him from his 
home and placed him in a psychiatric unit for alcoholics 
at a Guantanamo psychiatric hospital; he was held in a 
ward for violent and mentally ill offenders, despite a doc-
tor’s diagnosis that he did not meet criteria for involun-
tary commitment; he was allegedly given shock therapy 
and assaulted by another detainee, resulting in a head in-
jury; on August 15th, he was transferred from the Guan-
tanamo hospital to the San Luis de Jagua unit and died 
the next day; family members were not allowed to see the 
body; 
Whereas on September 11, 2002, police arrested Luis Milan 
of the Christian Liberation Movement for writing a letter 
to municipal officials in Santiago de Cuba calling for im-
proved prison conditions; 
Whereas on September 17, 2002, plainclothes police beat 59-
year-old Rafael Madlum Payas of the Christian Libera-
tion Movement as he approached a police station to in-
quire about the cases of 7 activists being held at the sta-
tion; 
Whereas on September 21, 2002, persons directed by state 
security officials threw stones and mud at the home of 
Jose Daniel Ferrer of the Christian Liberation Movement 
and beat Victor Rodriguez Vazquez and Yordanis
•HRES 208 IH 
Almenares Crespo, who were visiting Ferrer at the time 
of the attack; 
Whereas on September 24, 2002, police in Santiago province 
directed persons to beat 6 members of the Christian Lib-
eration Movement during an act of rapid repudiation; 
Whereas on December 6, 2002, police arrested Dr. Oscar 
Elias Biscet, a political prisoner who had been released 
on October 31st after serving 3 years for alleged dis-
respect, allegedly creating a public disturbance, and alleg-
edly encouraging others to violate the law; the dictator-
ship arrested Biscet and 16 others to prevent them from 
holding a seminar on nonviolent civil disobedience; the 
dictatorship later released 12 of the detainees, but 
charged Biscet, his associate Raul Arencibia Fajardo, 
and 2 others with public disorder; 
Whereas on December 7, 2002, Leonardo Bru´zon, President 
of the unofficial Movimiento Pro Derechos Humanos 24 
de Feberero (24 February Human Rights Movement), 
began a hunger strike; 4 days later, he was transferred 
to the Combinado del Este prison as punishment for this, 
despite his ill state of health; his family reports that he 
is currently being held in an isolation cell, 3 meters by 
3 meters; they claim his cell is continually wet due to 
leakage from a drainage pipe overhead; he has also been 
threatened with having his right to fresh air and family 
visits suspended; 
Whereas in recent weeks, the dictatorship has carried out its 
most brutal repression in decades; and 
Whereas on April 11, 2003, 3 hijackers (Lorenzo Enrique 
Copello, Ba´rbaro Leoda´n Sevilla, and Jorge Luis 
Martı´nez) were executed after being convicted of ter-
•HRES 208 IH 
rorism; another 4 hijackers received life sentences, while 
4 others received shorter prison terms: Now, therefore, be 
it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) condemns the brutal crackdown of the 
Cuban Government on its own men, women, and 
children; 
(2) calls on the United Nations Commission on 
Human Rights to recognize the resolution recently 
passed by the House of Representatives condemning 
Cuba for its human rights atrocities; and 
(3) condemns the member states of the United 
Nations Economic and Social Council for renewing 
Cuba’s membership on the United Nations Commis-
sion on Human Rights.
Æ