Condemns the brutal crackdown of the Cuban Government on its people.
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.
Condemns the member states of the United Nations Economic and Social Council for renewing Cuba's membership on the United Nations Commission on Human Rights.
[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 208 Introduced in House (IH)]
108th CONGRESS
1st Session
H. RES. 208
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the
systematic human rights violations in Cuba committed by the Castro
regime and calling for the immediate removal of Cuba from the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
April 30, 2003
Mr. Foley (for himself, Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, Mr. Lincoln Diaz-Balart of
Florida, Mr. DeLay, Mr. Blunt, Mr. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida, Ms.
Pryce of Ohio, Mr. Crenshaw, Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite of Florida, Mr.
Feeney, Mr. Keller, Mr. Miller of Florida, Mr. Putnam, Mr. Deutsch, Mr.
Mica, Mr. Shimkus, Mr. Paul, Mr. Garrett of New Jersey, Mr. Moran of
Kansas, Mr. Nethercutt, Mr. Isakson, Mr. Reynolds, and Ms. Harris)
submitted the following resolution; which was referred to the Committee
on International Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
RESOLUTION
Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives regarding the
systematic human rights violations in Cuba committed by the Castro
regime and calling for the immediate removal of Cuba from the United
Nations Commission on Human Rights.
Whereas the Cuban Government remains one of the last bastions of hard-line
Communism in the world;
Whereas Fidel Castro and his government have engaged in deliberate and
systematic acts of torture and human rights violations since coming to
power in 1959;
Whereas since 1959 there have been countless human rights violations committed
by the Castro government;
Whereas on January 3, 2002, police arrested Milagros Zeneida Morales of the
Independent Workers Labor Union on charges of recruiting members for a
counterrevolutionary organization;
Whereas on January 30, 2002, the Havana Provincial Court sentenced activist
Carlos Oquendo Rodriguez to 2 years imprisonment for ``contempt for
authority'' and ``public disorder''; the provincial court confirmed the
sentence levied against Oquendo Rodriguez by a municipal court in 2001
and appealed by him to the provincial court; and prior to sentencing,
police officials offered to suspend Oquendo Rodriguez' sentence if he
recanted his political beliefs, but Oquendo Rodriguez refused;
Whereas on February 21, 2002, political prisoner Ariel Fleitas Gonzalez advised
relatives that prison authorities had placed a dangerous common criminal
in his cell in Canaleta prison to monitor his activities, and that
prisoner threatened Fleitas Gonzalez when the latter called upon
officials to respect prisoners' rights;
Whereas in late February 2002, police arrested at least 300 persons near the
Mexican Embassy after 21 asylum seekers used a bus to break through the
gates of the embassy; many of those arrested were reportedly bystanders
not involved in the embassy intrusion; rapid response brigades (RRBs)
summoned by the Government to the Mexican Embassy beat some bystanders;
most bystanders were interrogated and released, but on March 6th, Fidel
Castro indicated that 130 of them would be tried on charges related to
the embassy break-in; and, according to relatives, approximately 60
remained jailed at year's end and none had been tried;
Whereas on March 4, 2002, state security agents, police, and civilian members of
an RRB beat blind activist Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leyva, independent
journalist Carlos Brizuela Yera, and 8 other activists, who were at a
public hospital in Ciego de Avila protesting the earlier beating of
independent journalist Jesus Alvarez Castillo; police forcibly removed
the protesters from the hospital and arrested them; on August 21st, a
municipal court charged them with ``contempt for authority, public
disorder, disobedience, and resistance''; prosecutors requested a 6-year
sentence for Gonzalez Leyva; and Gonzalez Leyva protested his
imprisonment through a liquids-only fast, and at year's end weighed less
than 100 pounds;
Whereas on March 13, 2002, police arrested 7 human rights activists in Nueva
Gerona, Isle of Youth, as they conducted a public demonstration calling
for democratic reforms and the release of political prisoners;
Whereas on March 18, 2002, state security officials arrested 4 leaders of the
Brotherhood of Blind Cubans to prevent a demonstration against police
mistreatment of handicapped street vendors and calling for the release
of blind dissident Juan Carlos Gonzalez Leyva; police released the 4
after citing them with ``official warnings'';
Whereas on April 17, 2002, police arrested Barbaro Vela Coego and Armando
Dominguez Gonzalez, president and vice president, respectively, of the
January 6 Civic Movement, to prevent their attendance at a fast in honor
of political prisoners; they were held for 2 hours and released;
Whereas on April 21, 2002, members of an RRB beat Grisel Almaguer Rodriguez of
the Political Prisoners Association as she departed the home of human
rights activist Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz;
Whereas on April 22, 2002, police arrested Milka Pena Martinez of the Cuban Pro
Human Rights Party for protesting a police search of her home; police
also arrested Luis Ferrer Garcia of the Christian Liberation Movement,
who was present at the time, and Ramon Collazo Almaguer, who led a group
of dissidents to Pena Martinez' home to protest her arrest; Pena
Martinez was fined and all 3 were released;
Whereas on May 17, 2002, police went to the home of Pedro Veliz, president of
the Independent Medical School of Cuba, and instructed him to leave
Havana for the day to prevent his attendance at ceremonies marking the
founding of a pre-revolutionary political party; Veliz, along with his
wife and children, were forced to leave their home and were followed by
state security officials until they left the city;
Whereas on May 19, 2002, police arrested Nereida Cala Escalona and Evelio
Manteira Barban as they departed a meeting in Santiago de Cuba organized
by the Christian Liberation Movement; they were interrogated, threatened
with imprisonment, and released on May 20th;
Whereas on May 25, 2002, police beat and arrested 4 members of the Cuban Pro
Human Rights Party affiliated with the Andrei Sakharov Foundation who
were on their way to a mass in honor of a dissident figure; the 4 were
searched, threatened with imprisonment, fined, and released;
Whereas in early June 2002, common prisoner Hector Labrada Ruedas died of
internal bleeding after prison authorities refused his requests for
medical attention;
Whereas on June 1, 2002, police arrested 9 activists as they departed a human
rights course at the illegal NGO Culture and Democracy Institute in
Santiago de Cuba; they were interrogated and released on June 2nd;
Whereas on June 1, 2002, police in Havana province entered the neighborhood of
Buena Esperanza to remove persons from the eastern provinces living in
the area without authorization; an unknown number of men were removed in
trucks on that date, while women and children were given 72 hours to
depart;
Whereas on June 7, 2002, police arrested 3 members of the 30th of November Party
in Santiago de Cuba; they were interrogated and released on June 10th;
Whereas on June 7, 2002, police forcefully removed 17 persons from the home of
activist Migdalia Rosado Hernandez, where the group was commemorating
the second anniversary of the Tamarindo 34 hunger strike; the police
took 14 persons far from their homes and abandoned them by the roadside;
3 others were fined and released;
Whereas on June 14, 2002, state security officials beat and arrested independent
journalist Carlos Serpa Maceira while he was covering a march by human
rights activists in the Isle of Youth; he was briefly detained, fined
1,200 pesos, and then released;
Whereas on June 20, 2002, a guard at Las Ladrilleras prison in Holguin province
instructed a common prisoner to beat political prisoner Daniel Mesa;
Mesa reportedly suffered brain damage as a result of the attack;
Whereas on June 24, 2002, police blocked access to the home of activist
Francisco Moure Saladriga to prevent a meeting of members of the Cuban
Human Rights Party scheduled for that day;
Whereas in July 2002, prison officials in Ceramica Roja prison denied religious
visits to political prisoner Enrique Garcia Morejon of the Christian
Liberation Movement; Garcia Morejon twice requested visits by a Catholic
priest while the priest was visiting other prisoners;
Whereas in July 2002, state security officials arrested independent journalist
Yoel Blanco Garcia and took him to a local firehouse where he was
interrogated; the state security officials warned Blanco Garcia not to
visit the home of Martha Beatriz Roque, director of the Cuban Institute
of Independent Economists;
Whereas on July 24, 2002, police arrested human rights activist Adolfo Lazaro
Bosq at a vigil for political prisoners on charges of ``resistance and
contempt for the revolutionary process''; on August 2nd, a municipal
court sentenced him to 1 year and 9 months imprisonment;
Whereas on July 29, 2002, state security officials arrested Rogelio Menendez
Diaz, president of the Cuban Municipalities for Human Rights; he was
held for 35 days in Villa Marista prison, where guards transferred him
between chilled and heated cells; during interrogations, Menendez Diaz
was accused of organizing clandestine cells on behalf of exile groups
along with activists Angel Pablo Polanco and Marcel Valenzuela Salt, who
had also been detained; Menendez Diaz was charged with ``contempt
against the Commander in Chief'' and warned to cease opposition
activities; he was released on September 2nd, but rearrested on December
10th, apparently to prevent his participation in events commemorating
International 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
removed 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 receipt 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 privileges; 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 Yosvani Aguilar Camejo; Aguilar
Camejo is the national coordinator for the Fraternal Brothers for
Dignity Movement; he was arrested at the time of the Mexican Embassy
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 doctor's diagnosis that he did not meet criteria
for involuntary commitment; he was allegedly given shock therapy and
assaulted by another detainee, resulting in a head injury; on August
15th, he was transferred from the Guantanamo 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 improved prison conditions;
Whereas on September 17, 2002, plainclothes police beat 59-year-old Rafael
Madlum Payas of the Christian Liberation Movement as he approached a
police station to inquire about the cases of 7 activists being held at
the station;
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
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 Liberation 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 disrespect, allegedly creating a public disturbance, and
allegedly encouraging others to violate the law; the dictatorship
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 Bruzon, 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, Barbaro Leodan
Sevilla, and Jorge Luis Martinez) were executed after being convicted of
terrorism; 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 Commission on Human Rights.
<all>
Sponsor introductory remarks on measure. (CR H3411)
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Referred to the House Committee on International Relations.
Llama 3.2 · runs locally in your browser
Ask anything about this bill. The AI reads the full text to answer.
Enter to send · Shift+Enter for new line