Vice Chairman of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Marco Rubio (R-FL) delivered opening remarks and questioned witnesses at a hearing on countering China’s influence in the United States. Watch Rubio’s opening remarks here as well as Part I and Part II of...
News
Latest News
Rubio-led Resolution to Raise Awareness for Spinal Cord Injuries Passes Senate
Approximately 302,000 Americans live with spinal cord injuries. To help these people achieve a better quality of life, there is a need to increase education and invest in research. U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Tammy Baldwin (D-WI) successfully led a bipartisan...
Rubio, Warnock Reintroduce Protecting Sensitive Personal Data Act
Foreign investment is one of the legal means that adversaries, like China, can use to collect Americans’ data, exasperating both privacy and national security risks. To counter this, U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Raphael Warnock (D-GA) reintroduced the...
ICYMI: Rubio Joins Special Report
U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) joined Special Report with Bret Baier to discuss the impending government shutdown, the possibility of a Saudi-Israeli normalization deal, and the indictment of Senator Bob Menendez (D-NJ). See below for highlights and watch the full...
Rubio on DHS’ Continued Minimal Steps to Implement UFLPA
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced three additions to the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act (UFLPA) Entity List. These are the first additions by the Biden Administration since June. U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL), author of the bipartisan...
ICYMI: Rubio: Congress Should Think Before It Regulates AI
Congress should think before it regulates AI U.S. Senator Marco Rubio (R-FL) September 26, 2023 Washington Times To prevent next-generation computer programs from wreaking havoc on American society, [some members of Congress want] to enact comprehensive regulation at...
Rubio, Menendez, Nelson, Cruz Introduce Resolution Honoring Ladies in White for 2018 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty
Washington, D.C. – U.S. Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Bill Nelson (D-FL), and Ted Cruz (R-TX) today introduced a resolution honoring the Cuban dissident group Las Damas de Blanco (Ladies in White) for receiving the Cato Institute’s 2018 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty. The dissident group, which routinely faces brutal beatings and imprisonment from the Cuban regime, peacefully gathers and marches in white clothes every Sunday in Havana carrying a picture of their loved ones in one hand and a white gladiolus in the other. A continuación del texto de la resolución, la traducción en Español.
The full text of the resolution is below:
Whereas Las Damas de Blanco (also known as the “Ladies in White”) is a group composed of wives and female relatives of imprisoned political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, and peaceful dissidents in Cuba;
Whereas, in April 2003, during the wave of repression known as the “Black Spring”, a group of strong and courageous women formed Las Damas de Blanco in response to the wrongful imprisonment of their family members by the Cuban regime;
Whereas, since the inception of the group, the members of Las Damas de Blanco have attended Sunday mass in the Church of Santa Rita in Havana, Cuba, and then marched peacefully through the streets of Havana holding photos of their jailed relatives and white gladioluses;
Whereas members of Las Damas de Blanco regularly march to advocate for the release of all political prisoners and the freedom of the Cuban people from Cuba’s repressive regime;
Whereas, despite leading peaceful protests, members of Las Damas de Blanco are regularly attacked by Cuban regime security forces and prevented from exercising their fundamental rights of the freedoms of expression and assembly;
Whereas, according to Amnesty International—
(1) Las Damas de Blanco “remain[s] one of the primary targets of repression by Cuban [G]overnment authorities”; and
(2) members of Las Damas de Blanco are frequently detained and “often beaten by law enforcement officials and state security agents dressed as civilians” while in detention;
Whereas, according to the Human Rights Watch 2018 World Report, “detention is often used preemptively to prevent people from participating in peaceful marches or meetings to discuss politics, and detainees are often beaten, threatened, and held incommunicado for hours or days”;
Whereas the Human Rights Watch 2018 World Report noted that, “Cuban Police or state security agents continue to routinely harass, rough up, and detain members of Las Damas de Blanco before or after they attend Sunday mass”;
Whereas, in 2005, Las Damas de Blanco was selected to receive the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought, but the Cuban regime did not allow the members of the group to leave the island to accept the award;
Whereas Laura Inés Pollán Toledo, the founder of Las Damas de Blanco, left a legacy of a peaceful protest against human and civil rights abuses in Cuba;
Whereas Laura Ine1s Pollán Toledo died on October 14, 2011, and while her death garnered widespread international attention, the Cuban regime remained silent;
Whereas, according to Freedom House, in December 2013, Las Damas de Blanco “took to the streets to demonstrate against human rights abuses on International Human Rights Day, but were detained before the protest could begin”;
Whereas, in February 2015, 30 members of Las Damas de Blanco were arrested in an attempt by Cuban officials to bar the women from participating in the #TodosMarchamos march, which sought to advocate for the freedom of political prisoners in Cuba;
Whereas, on March 20, 2016, a few hours before President Barack Obama landed in Cuba for his first visit to the communist country, Cuban authorities arrested more than 50 dissidents protesting the deteriorating state of human rights in Cuba and directly targeted Las Damas de Blanco;
Whereas, while Raul Castro is no longer the head of state of Cuba, grave human rights abuses continue under the newly selected President of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel;
Whereas Las Damas de Blanco has appealed to the United States and other foreign governments in order to bring international attention to the repression of dissent by the Cuban regime and the plight of political prisoners, who are routinely jailed unjustly and without due process;
Whereas, on May 17, 2018, Las Damas de Blanco will receive the prestigious 2018 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty for the bravery of the group and the continuing efforts of the group to fight for individual freedom in Cuba;
Whereas the Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty acknowledges those who have advocated and contributed to advancing human liberty; and
Whereas Berta de los Ángeles Soler Fernández and Leticia Ramos Herrería, members of Las Damas de Blanco, have been prohibited by the government of Díaz-Canel from leaving Cuba to accept the 2018 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty in the United States: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the Senate—
(1) congratulates Las Damas de Blanco on receiving the prestigious 2018 Milton Friedman Prize for Advancing Liberty;
(2) honors the members of Las Damas de Blanco for their courageous efforts to stand up to the Cuban regime and defend human rights and fundamental freedoms, as expressed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights;
(3) recognizes all of the valiant leaders of Las Damas de Blanco, including those members who died before being able to see a free Cuba;
(4) expresses solidarity and commitment to the democratic aspirations of the Cuban people; and
(5) calls on the Cuban regime to allow members of Las Damas de Blanco to travel freely both domestically and internationally.
###