The House International Relations Committee today held a rare recess hearing calling on Cuban President Fidel Castro to free scores of human rights activists recently sentenced to draconian jail terms because of their pro-democracy views.

    “We simply could not wait to investigate this crisis,” said Congressman Chris Smith, Vice Chairman of the Committee, who presided over the proceedings. “With the world’s attention riveted on Iraq, the Castro dictatorship has moved with sickening speed to arrest, try, convict, and sentence to draconian jail terms approximately 80 of Cuba’s bravest and brightest democracy advocates.”

    Smith called for the hearing so Congress could obtain first-hand accounts from several dissidents who have been victimized by Castro’s regime and to assess the situation from top State Department officials. Among the 80 activists who received prison sentences ranging from 15-25 years were 28 independent journalists, 6 doctors, trade unionists, and 40 democracy advocates who participated in the Varela Project which had petitioned the Cuban Government for human rights and election law reform.

    “Despite decades of credible reports of widespread egregious violations of human rights including the pervasive use of torture and vicious beatings of political prisoners by the Cuban government, some people have clung to indefensibly foolish illusions of Castro’s revolution,” Smith said.

    “This love affair – this illusion – finally, at long last, crashed and burned, I hope, with the onset of the current crackdown on dissidents,” Smith said.

    “The truth is that Fidel Castro is a brutal dictator who has committed grotesque crimes against humanity, suppressed any efforts to bring even an ounce of freedom to the island, and has retained his grip on power for more than 40 years by having his opponents arrested, jailed, and tortured.”

    Witnesses testifying today included several top-level State Department officials including Assistant Secretaries of State Lorne Craner and Kim Holmes and several dissidents who experienced the oppression of Castro first-hand. The dissidents include Ramon Atunez, the leader of the Christian Liberation Movement, Ramon Colas of the Free Library movement, and Eudel Cepero.

    Also testifying were representatives from several organizations concerned with the crisis in Cuba including Human Rights Watch, the Center for a Free Cuba, and the Committee to Protect Journalists.