4138 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS March 16, 1988 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS A VICTORY FOR THE U.S. AND The following speech paints a graphic and thousand days struggling to show that I was HUMAN RIGHTS tragic picture of life in Castro's prisons. It is still a human being. Eight thousand days mute testimony to man's inhumanity to man. I trying to prove that my spirit could triumph urge my colleagues to read it and think about over the exhaustion and the pain. Eight thousand days of testing for my religious HON. WM. S. BROOMFIELD the blessings of freedom and justice that we OF MICHIGAN convictions, my faith, of struggling not to enjoy in this great country. allow the hatred that my atheist guards IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES STATEMENT BY AMBASSADOR ARMANDO sought to sow with their bayonets to flower Wednesday, March 16, 1988 VALLADARES in my heart. Eight thousand days of fight­ Mr. Chairman: I am not a career diplomat ing not to become like them, not to think of Mr. BROOMFIELD. Mr. Speaker, I want to nor am I an expert on the technical aspects torture as a weapon, of trying to forgive, of share with my colleagues a very moving of this Commission. I will not, therefore, trying never to think of vengeance, of retal­ speech on human rights abuses in Cuba. It make a detailed presentation on the reports iation, and of cruelty. was given in February by Ambassador Ar­ and subjects that are considered under item And when cruelty is extended to one's rel­ mando Valladares, the U.S. Representative to 10. We will listen to other interventions on atives, is that not a form of torture? My those important subjects. father is an elderly man. He is very ill. He the 44th session of the U.N.'s Commission on Mr. Chairman, I would like to talk today Human Rights in Geneva. I believe that the also served time in political prisons. Because about torture, of what it means for a human he is my father he is not allowed to leave Ambassador's persuasiveness and his memo­ being to be tortured, humiliated, and, what the country. Over the past two years the au­ rable address contributed in a major way to is almost worse, of what it means to watch a thorities have been tormenting him-re­ the U.N. Commission's recent decision to dis­ friend or a companion or a relative being venge for my activities. They do not beat patch a special team to Cuba to investigate tortured. him, but they call and tell him that he may charges of human rights violations there. As many of you know, I spent twenty-two leave the following day. My father makes Last week, the U.N.'s Commission on years in prison for political reasons. Per­ the long trip to the capital full of hope. And Human Rights was scheduled to vote on an haps I am the only delegate in this Commis­ when he is almost on board the airplane, sion that has spent such a long time in they tell him that there was a bureaucratic important U.S.-sponsored resolution calling for prison, although I do know that some of you a review of human rights violations in Cuba. error, that he has to return to his town. here know in your own flesh what torture They do this to him every four or five As might be expected, Cuba and some of means. I do not care what your political ide­ weeks. They are torturing him in the same Fidel's followers in Geneva opposed the reso­ ology might be; human beings are more im­ way that they tormented my sister, who lution. The proposal would have put the Com­ portant than any ideology-! offer you my now finds herself under psychiatric care. mission on record voicing concern about the solidarity, that one tortured person to an­ The world of those who suffer and endure reported human rights violations in Cuba. other. pain often has certain poetic characteristics. I had many friends in prison. One of I think it was in a book by Victor Frankel, a Thanks to the good efforts of Ambassador them, Roberto Lopez Chavez, was practical­ Valladares and extensive consultations with ly a child. He went on a hunger strike to survivor of the Nazi extermination camps, our friends in that organization, the Commis­ protest abuses. The guards denied him where I read that in the midst of their total sion accepted a Latin proposal and the U.S. water. Roberto, on the floor of his punish­ despair, the camp inmates were kept alive delegation withdrew the U.S.-sponsored reso­ ment cell, delerious and in agony, asked by a violinist-a companion in misery who only for water • • • water. The guards en­ every afternoon played a piece of classical lution. In some respects, the Latin American music. Everyone in the concentration camp resolution is stronger than the one proposed tered his cell and asked: You want water? They urinated into his mouth and onto his would suddenly become quiet to hear him. by our delegation to the Commission. That violin, with its musical notes scraped The adopted resolution requires that a U.N. face. He died the following day. We had been cellmates. When he died, I felt some­ out in the midst of so much pain, was a ray Commission on Human Rights inspection thing wither inside me. of hope. team visit Cuba. The investigative team will in­ I remember when they had me in a pun­ Bertold Brecht, the German playwright, clude the head of the U.N. Human Rights ishment cell, naked, my leg fractured in sev­ tells a similar tale about a young Jewish Commission and representatives from West­ eral places-fractures that were never treat­ couple imprisoned in a labor camp and sepa­ ern Europe, Eastern Europe, Africa, Asia and ed and eventually fused into a mass of de­ rated by a fence. They had never talked, but had seen each other and loved one another. Latin America. formed bones. Through the wire mesh that covered the cell, the guards would pour over On the wall that separated them both left a Having recently participated in the Commis­ daily testimony of their love: a little flower sion's session in Geneva, along with Chair­ me buckets of urine and excrement that they had collected earlier. picked from the fields. One day, her flower man DANTE FASCELL, I am pleased that a fa­ Mr. Chairman, I know the taste of other was missing. The next day his would not be vorable compromise was arrived at which puts men's urine and excrement • • • that form there either. Despair killed them. Fidel Castro's little police state under close of torture leaves no physical trace. What Totalitarians treat their adversaries like U.N. scrutiny. In the final analysis, I hope that does leave traces are the beatings with animals. They bind them, lock them up, the cause of human rights will be well served metal bars or bayonets. My head is covered beat them with no explanations. The ty­ by this planned investigative visit. with still detectable scars and wounds. But rant's arbitrariness reduces victims to what is more harmful to human dignity? beasts. It dehumanizes them. At times, Ambassador Valladares is to be commend­ when one is treated like a beast, the only ed for the success of our efforts in Geneva. Buckets of urine and excrement thrown in one's face or blows from a bayonet? Under thing that saves him from humiliation, that He has personally experienced Castro's bru­ which item should we discuss this question? keeps him strong is knowing that some­ tality. The Ambassador spent nearly 23 years Under which technical point should this be where, someone loves him, respects him, in Castro's prisons before being released in discussed? Under what mass of numbers, hy­ fights to return to him his dignity. I was 1982. He was imprisoned for having casually phens, or strokes should we include this lucky, Mr. President: I had someone to fight expressed his concerns to his coworkers trampling of human dignity? for my freedom; I had my wife, who trav­ about the direction that the government of For me and for so many others around the elled the world knocking on doors and on Fidel Castro was taking in the 1960's. During world, human rights violations were not a the consciences of peoples and governments, pressuring them to demand my freedom. his time in seven Cuban prisons and work matter of reports, negotiated resolutions, and elegant and diplomatic rhetoric. For us, But the majority of those that suffer viola­ camps, he was tortured, regularly beaten and it meant daily sorrow. For me, it meant tions of human rights have only the hope subjected to degrading and inhuman treat­ eight thousand days of hunger, systematic that the international community, against ment. He spent a total of 7 years in solitary beatings, forced labor, solitary confinement, all hope, will think about them. You are confinement. sealed punishment cells, solitude. Eight their only hope. e This "bullet" symbol identifies statements or insertions which are not spoken by a Member of the Senate on the floor. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. March 16, 1988 EXTENSIONS OF REMARKS 4139 About these painful matters, unfortunate­ But it was not to be. Fate has dealt a cruel Cancer Courage Award given by the American ly, I have some personal knowledge.