[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 5] [Extensions of Remarks] [Page 6788] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]FREEDOM FOR VICTOR YUNIER FERNANDEZ MARTINEZ ______ HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of florida in the house of representatives Wednesday, April 23, 2008 Mr. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART of Florida. Madam Speaker, I rise today to speak on behalf of Victor Yunier Fernandez Martinez, a prisoner of conscience in totalitarian Cuba. Mr. Fernandez Martinez, a young man of only 24 years of age and a member of the Popular Republican Party, was not even charged with committing any crime, even by the Orwellian standards and whims that make up the ``legal system'' in that enslaved island. Instead, he was hauled away to the gulag simply under the pretext of being a ``pre- criminal social danger.'' Agents of the tyranny's secret police said that they suspected Mr. Fernandez Martinez was involved in a graffiti campaign in Havana to promote freedom of expression. In fact, there was no link between Mr. Fernandez Martinez and these actions, but that did not stop the oppressive forces from detaining him and testing him for paint residue, which they did not find. This incident was cited 2 years later when he was sentenced to 3 years in the gulag because of the paranoiac perception of the dictatorship that Mr. Fernandez Martinez, a peaceful dissident, is a ``dangerous man.'' Madam Speaker, Mr. Fernandez Martinez's mother has visited him in prison and has reported that even though conscious of the profound injustice of his incarceration he was in good spirits, a true testament of the spirit and drive of the heroes who are confined in the Cuban totalitarian gulag. It is unconscionable that the world simply stands by, in the 21st century, and silently acquiesces to the torture, oppression and denigration of a noble people only 90 miles from the United States of America. Madam Speaker, Victor Fernandez represents the best of the new generation in Cuba; a generation that has known only oppression and misery but that will play a central role in the transformation of Cuba from a totalitarian nightmare to a representative democracy with the rule of law for all of its citizens. We must demand the release of all those who are persecuted for their democratic ideals. My colleagues, we must demand the immediate and unconditional release of Victor Yunier Fernandez Martinez and every political prisoner in totalitarian Cuba. ____________________