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“FREEDOM FOR ALFREDO RODOLFO DOMINGUEZ BATISTA” mentioning the U.S. Dept of State was published in the Extensions of Remarks section on pages E48 on Jan. 20, 2005.
The publication is reproduced in full below:
FREEDOM FOR ALFREDO RODOLFO DOMINGUEZ BATISTA
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HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART
of florida
in the house of representatives
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about Alfredo Rodolfo Dominguez Batista, a political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba.
Mr. Dominguez Batista is a member of the Christian Liberation Movement and a peaceful pro-democracy activist attempting to liberate the people of Cuba. Because of his actions to bring freedom and democracy to Cuba, Mr. Dominguez Batista was targeted by the tyrant's machinery of repression. In March 2003, as part of the despicable crackdown on peaceful pro-democracy activists, he was arrested. In a sham trial, Mr. Dominguez Batista was sentenced to 14 years in the totalitarian gulag.
Despite the depraved conditions and the threat of confinement in punishment cells, described by the U.S. Department of State as ``semi-
dark all the time, had no water available in the cell, and had a hole for a toilet,'' Mr. Dominguez Batista has continued to fight for basic human rights. According to Amnesty International, he has bravely participated in multiple hunger strikes to protest the abhorrent conditions in the gulag and the depraved treatment of fellow political prisoners.
Today, January 20, 2005, marks another milestone in the peaceful continuation of representative democracy in the United States of America. President George W. Bush was elected in free and fair elections that were conducted with transparency and guided by the rule of law. On a day that celebrates the freedoms enshrined in our national documents and imbedded in the national character of the United States, we should never forget those brave men and women, like Mr. Dominguez Batista, who languish in hellish gulags because they believe in the same freedoms that we celebrate today.
Mr. Speaker, on this day of commemoration, let us not forget those who yearn to celebrate political and human rights in their own countries. My Colleagues, we must demand the immediate release of Alfredo Rodolfo Dominguez Batista and every prisoner of conscience languishing in the dungeons of tyrants.
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