Freedom for Jorge Luis Garcia Perez

FREEDOM FOR JORGE LUIS GARCIA PEREZ -- (Extensions of Remarks - February 01, 2006)

SPEECH OF
HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART
OF FLORIDA
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 1, 2006

* Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to remind my colleagues about Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, better known as Antunez, a long suffering and heroic political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.

* Antunez, Mr. Speaker, is the face of the real Cuba.

* Antunez has been locked in the totalitarian gulag since 1990. In a sham trial, he was sentenced to 6 years in prison for ``oral enemy propaganda.'' In May 1993, he was tried in a second sham trial, and sentenced to an additional 15 years to be served from that moment. In total, Antunez has been sentenced to 18 years in Castro's grotesque, inhuman gulag.

* Despite being locked up in the tyrant's gulag, Antunez has bravely carried out heroic activism in Cuban jails, writing reports on prison conditions and carrying out numerous protests and hunger strikes to demand more humane treatment for prisoners. He has never wavered in his commitment to human rights and democracy for the Cuban people. Antunez has never given in to the beatings, the punishment cells and the instruments of torture inflicted on him by the Castro regime. Antunez always rises up and calls out, demanding human rights and freedom for Cuba.

* After over 15 years in the gulag, Antunez is still feared and relentlessly attacked by the dictatorship. According to the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2004, ``on July 6, family members of political prisoner Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, reported being beaten along with Garcia during a prison visit. Authorities handcuffed and beat Garcia and later punched his sister and kicked his girlfriend's 9 year old son after the visitors protested the harsh treatment.''

* No matter how intense the repression, no matter how horrifically brutal the consequences to him and his family, Antunez will not waiver in his conviction that Cuba should be and will be free. He is a symbol of dignity and heroic resistance to tyranny.

* Mr. Speaker, this courageous man has been in Castro's gulag since 1990, for failing to keep silent about the nightmare that is the Castro regime. My Colleagues, it is a profound embarrassment for mankind that the world stands by in silence and acquiescence while political prisoners are systematically tortured because of their belief in freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law. We should never forget those who are locked in gulags because of their desire to be free. We must demand the immediate and unconditional release of Jorge Luis Garcia Perez and every prisoner of conscience in totalitarian Cuba.

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