HR 9157 2003
1	House Resolution
2	A resolution condemning the recent upsurge of repressive
3	measures against freedom-seeking citizens in Cuba.
4
5	WHEREAS, on March 17, 2003, the Cuban government launched a
6	repressive onslaught on members of Cuba’s pro-democracy
7	movement, as over 80 dissidents, including pro-democracy
8	activists, independent journalists, and independent librarians,
9	were unjustly incarcerated in what is considered the biggest
10	internal crackdown in the country since the 1960's, and
11	WHEREAS, the government arbitrarily searched the homes and
12	confiscated personal belongings of pro-democracy activists;
13	raided the homes of independent librarians, removing and
14	destroying their publications; engaged in massive arrests and
15	carried out summary trials to expeditiously sentence leaders and
16	participants in such movements as the Assembly to Promote Civil
17	Society and the popular Varela Project, which calls for a
18	nationwide vote concerning democratic reforms; and incarcerated
19	independent journalists and librarians, and
20	WHEREAS, as recently as April 11, three men accused of
21	seizing a ferry in an attempt to escape to the United States
22	were executed before a firing squad within a week after they
23	were arrested and convicted and their sentences were upheld, and
24	WHEREAS, the Castro regime continues to violently oppose
25	the quest by Cuban citizens to gain such universally recognized
26	rights as the freedoms of speech, assembly, association,
27	movement, and the press and the right to due process, all while
28	Cuba is a member of the United Nations Commission on Human
29	Rights, and
30	WHEREAS, the Commission on Human Rights recently passed a
31	resolution requesting that Cuba allow a representative of the
32	commission to visit the country in order to investigate the
33	human rights situation and issue a report thereon, and
34	WHEREAS, the Cuban government has repeatedly violated the
35	rights espoused by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and
36	the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights and has violated
37	the mandates issued by the United Nations Commission on Human
38	Rights, NOW, THEREFORE,
39
40	Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of
41	Florida:
42
43	That the House of Representatives vehemently condemns the
44	brutal repression by the Cuban Government of its citizens'
45	efforts to gain internationally recognized human rights and
46	fervently supports the right of the Cuban people to exercise
47	fundamental political and civil liberties.