Date: 2003-11-20
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. I try to come to this floor every week to highlight the existence of the individual cases of political prisoners on an island only 90 miles away from the United States. thousands of political prisoners. thousands upon thousands. Tonight. I speak of perhaps the most. or certainly one of the most respected of the political prisoners in the enslaved island of Cuba. Dr. Oscar Elias Bisect. Dr. Biscet. prisoner of conscience. declared a prisoner of conscience by Amnesty International. is an extraordinary man. He maintains a philosophy of nonviolence. and yet his nonviolence has been responded to continuously by the violence of what is without any doubt a gangster regime run by the gangster in chief. the totalitarian tyrant of Cuba. Now. Dr. Biscet was sentenced to 3 years in the Cuban gulag. He was sentenced in 1998 to 3 years in a Cuban gulag. When he was released last October. October of 2002. he was out of prison only a few weeks when he was rounded up again and sentenced this time for "association with enemies of the State." and he was sentenced. along with over 75 other peaceful dissidents and independent journalists. to 25 years in the Cuban gulag. A few weeks ago. they told Dr. Biscet that he was going to be placed with a serial killer. someone who was a common criminal and who had murdered many. many people. He objected to that. As a consequence of his objection. Dr. Bis6et has been placed in what is called the tomb. He is underground in solitary confinement. in a punishment cell. And so that he fully understood the dimension of his punishment. a serial killer was placed along with him in the tomb. So Dr. Biscet is at this moment in a tomb in the Cuban gulag because he believes in freedom and democracy. and he has espoused support for Mahatma Gandhi and for Martin Luther King and the peaceful methods to achieve the change that those great leaders represent. The question I ask this evening. the one question which begs to be asked of our colleagues. is how can they come here time and time again to this floor and in the other House to ask for measures that would provide additional revenue to that dictatorship. some of them after having received one of the 8hour or 10hour banquets that the Cuban dictator likes to offer to his friends. they have come here and been zealous advocates for someone who they consider so charming. so admirable. so intelligent? In fact. one of our colleagues was so impressed with the Cuban tyrant when Castro told him that his shoes were dirty. that he should shine his shoes. that he melted in admiration before the charming tyrant. who has such interesting comments. this tyrant who maintains thousands of men and women in the gulag because of their support of men and women believing in freedom and democracy. Another question is begged. Mr. Speaker: Where is the free press that we enjoy in this country and in the international community and in the community of democracies? Where are the reporters. the members of the media who are talking about what is happening to Dr. Biscet? Is there not an elemental. an elemental duty and responsibility to talk about these facts by the free press? There is. They know it. and they are failing in that elemental duty.