For Immediate Release:
January 16, 2012

Miami, FL - Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) released the following statement honoring the life of Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., and all prisoners of conscience who are denied their basic human rights. Diaz-Balart comments:

"On the day that we honor the life of visionary civil rights leader Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., we must be reminded of all prisoners of conscience who continue to languish in prison for exercising their God-given right of expression.

"Today, such a courageous activist -- Wilman Villar Mendoza of the Patriotic Union of Cuba -- is near death in the Juan Bruno Zayas hospital in Santiago de Cuba.  After his arrest on November 14, 2011 in Contramaestra, Santiago de Cuba for protesting the dictatorship's increased violent repression, Villar Mendoza began a hunger strike that lasted more than 50 days.  When the regime's thugs demanded that his wife Maritza Pelegrino Cabrales abandon the Ladies in White, she bravely refused and repeated her husband's declaration, "Either dead, or in freedom."

"In solidarity with Wilman Villar Mendoza, other pro-democracy activists in Cuba prayed for him and declared, "We cannot allow another Orlando Zapata Tamayo."  I join them in praying for the health and strength of Villar Mendoza, for his wife and young daughters, and for the activists who have suffered arrests and brutal beatings for supporting them.  Any harm that these activists suffer is the direct result of the depraved Castro dictatorship, which already has the blood of heroes on its hands.

"The day is drawing closer when Cuba's real criminals will be held accountable for their atrocities.  Until then, we must condemn this outrageous injustice and demand that Cuba's pro-democracy activists are not threatened with death for the simple act of expressing their beliefs.  Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. said, "The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy."  By that measure, members of Cuba's pro-democracy movement like Wilman Villar Mendoza are true heroes."