![]() ![]() ![]() It was reported on March 14 th that ‘yesterday the Castro regime arrested Carlos Amel Oliva, head of the youth wing of the Cuban Patriotic Union, a major dissident organization. "Or how about the young Cuban dissident who met with Ben Rhodes and was arrested in Havana. Aliuska was then handcuffed and thrown on the cell’s floor, naked, and left alone for forty-five minutes.’ After they had taken away all of my belongings, she said, they told me to strip naked, and I refused so they threw me down on the floor and took off all of my clothing, right in front of two men, and they dragged me completely naked into a jail cell. Aliuska…related how she was taken to a police station in Mariano where she was forcibly undressed by several uniformed female officers in plain view of some males. ![]() Many of us were dragged and beaten,” she added pointing out that this has taken place only one week before President Obama’s visit. In an article in Diario de Cuba she told her story: ‘ We were subjected to a lot of violence today, said Aliuska Gomez. “He could learn of the story of Aliuska Gomez, one of the Ladies in White who was arrested this past Sunday for marching peacefully. “The President should witness their bravery, listen to their stories, feel their despair, see the fear under which they live – and stand-up with them and for them. ![]() “To leave a truly honorable mark in history, this would mean the President leaving the Castro's cordoned-off-tourist-zone and seeing Berta Soler and her Ladies in White at their headquarters in the Lawton neighborhood of Havana, where poverty – Castro style - not opportunity, not freedom, not democracy – but poverty – created by a Stalinist state, is the umbrella under which they live. Only then will the message that the United States will not give-in or give-up on our commitment to a free and democratic Cuba be clear to the world and to the Cuban people. “And he should meet with Berta Soler, at her home, in her neighborhood With the Ladies in White, with dissidents and democracy advocates in Havana – and then that will be the front-page photograph we see next week. Oscar Elias Biscet the European Union's Sakharov prize recipients, Guillermo Farinas and Rosa Maria Paya in respect for her murdered father Oswaldo Paya who was leading the Varela Project advocating civil liberties, collecting thousands of signatures petitioning the Castro regime for democratic change as permitted under the Cuban constitution – so threatening was his peaceful petition drive that he was assassinated by Castro’s security agents. Presidential Medal of Freedom winner, Dr. “At the very least the President’s first stops should be meetings with internationally-recognized dissidents: U.S. “Unless the Castros are compelled to change the way they govern the island and the way they exploit its people, the answer to this won’t be any different: The Castro Regime will be the beneficiary. “The President has negotiated a deal with the Castros, and I understand his desire to make this his legacy issue, but there is still a fundamental issue of freedom and democracy at stake that goes to the underlying atmosphere in Cuba and whether or not the Cuban people – still repressed and still imprisoned – will benefit from the President’s legacy, or will it be the Castro Regime that reaps the benefits. “Instead of having the free world’s leader honor Latin America’s only dictatorship with a visit, he could have visited one of the 150 countries which he has not visited, including several in Latin America that are democracies. “But that is obviously not the case, which is why the Boston Globe’s headline on February 25 th says it all: Obama Breaks Pledge – Will Visit Cuba Despite Worsening Human Rights. If we’re going backwards, then there’s not much reason for me to be there.’ It is that freedom I had hoped President Obama was referencing when he said: ‘What I’ve said to the Cuban government is – if we’re seeing more progress in the liberty and freedom and possibilities of ordinary Cubans, I’d love to use a visit as a way of highlighting that progress. “I rise in memory of all Cuban dissidents who have given their lives in the hope of Cuba, one day, being free from the yoke of the Castro regime. Below are his remarks as prepared for delivery: Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ), senior member of the Senator Foreign Relations committee, delivered the following remarks on the Senate Floor ahead of President Obama’s visit to Cuba and provided a progress report on democracy and human rights on the island. On need to meet with Cuban Human Rights and Democracy defenders: “The President should witness their bravery, listen to their stories, feel their despair, see the fear under which they live – and stand-up with them and for them.” ![]()
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