Date: 2009-03-23
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

This last Friday. I had the honor of being able to speak by telephone with five brave human rights activists. prodemocracy leaders. inside the totalitarian nightmare that is Castros Cuba. One of the great heroes of the prodemocracy movement inside the Cuban totalitarian nightmare is Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez. A black man now in his 40s. Antunez was first imprisoned while he was in high school because of his support for democracy and his opposition to totalitarianism. For 17 years. Antunez was regularly beaten as a political prisoner in Castros gulag. He never gave in. He was released from the gulag last year. but since he never surrenders. he doesnt stop denouncing the thugs and pirates who have destroyed. impoverished and oppressed the Cuban people for 50 years. Antunez has been routinely detained. dozens of times. thrown into a dungeon and subsequently released. since his release from the gulag. Some days ago. Antunez began a hunger strike in his city of Placetas. in Sancti Spiritus province. Cuba. calling for the end of the death threats being leveled against Cuban political prisoner Mario Alberto Perez Aguilera. an end to the physical and psychological torture of all Cuban political prisoners. and the cruel and cynical prohibition by the dictatorship against Antunezs sister. Caridad Garcia Perez. being able to rebuild her own house. They dont allow her to rebuild her own house. which was destroyed by one of the devastating hurricanes that passed by Cuba. Accompanying the hero Antunez when I was able to contact him by telephone on Friday. March 19. was his wife. the prodemocracy leader. Iris Perez Aguilera. whose brother. Mario Alberto Perez Aguilera. is a political prisoner receiving death threats. Im sure one of many. but the one specified by Antunez. receiving death threats by his jailers. And I also spoke to prodemocracy leaders. Carlos Michael Morales Rodriguez. Alejandro Tur Valladares and Ernesto Mederos. It was my honor to speak with all of them. Antunezs house was surrounded by state security thugs while we spoke. And he and his colleagues knew very well that our telephone conversation was being monitored by the thugregime. The courage of these prodemocracy leaders is simply aweinspiring. They all explained their human rights work and reiterated their commitment to freedom. I told Antunez that I would be speaking in the U.S. Congress this week about him. about his hunger strike. about his heroic struggle for freedom and the heroic struggle of the other prodemocracy leaders I spoke to. and about all of Cubas political prisoners. Fidel Castro and his brother. who now has some titles because of the dictators intestinal illness. constitute the historical revenge of the brutal. racist European colonialism that the Cubans fought to overthrow for almost a century. But they ultimately prevailed. Antunez. Biscet and the other prodemocracy leaders who continue to fight the Castros dyarchy represent todays version of Maceo. Banderas. Moncada and all the freedom fighters who ultimately obtained freedom for Cuba. Now one of the disgusting realities of today is that the fight of the unarmed Cuban people doesnt exist for the international media and the press. with very dignified exceptions. Why are the Cubans nonpersons for so much of the media? Their racial discrimination is as shameful as it is condemnable. But Antunez. Biscet and the other Cuban freedom fighters will prevail. They are the future leaders of free Cuba. Antunezs last words to me on Friday said it all. "Tell your colleagues. the representative of the American people. Antunez ni se rinde. ni se Va." "Antunez neither surrenders.- nor leaves." Some are advocating that the new administration agree to the expulsion from Cuba to the U.S. of Biscet. Antunez and other future leaders of Cuba in exchange for some Castro spies currently in U.S. Federal prisons. serving time for conspiring to murder U.S. citizens. That would be a condemnable act that would violate international law as well as the elemental human rights of Cubas future leaders. From the floor of the U.S. Congress. I reiterate my admiration for those leaders who confront the totalitarian monster from within Cuba today and who will lead free Cuba tomorrow.