Diaz-Balart Remembers Orlando Zapata Tamayo

Washington, D.C. –Congressman Mario Diaz-Balart (R-FL) released the following statement in remembrance of the third anniversary of the death of pro-democracy activist Orlando Zapata Tamayo.

“Saturday, February 23 marked the third anniversary of the death of pro-democracy activist Orlando Zapata Tamayo, one of freedom’s greatest heroes. Orlando Zapata Tamayo was a member of the pro-democracy organizations Movimiento Alternativa Republicana and the Consejo Nacional de Resistencia Cívica.

“The brutal Castro regime imprisoned Zapata Tamayo on March 20, 2003 during Cuba’s notorious “Black Spring.” He began a hunger strike on December 3, 2009 to protest the cruelty in Castro's prisons and arbitrary extensions of his sentence. Zapata Tamayo died on February 23, 2010 after he was denied water and forced to lay naked under an air conditioner until he developed pneumonia.

“While we mourn the loss of this great hero, his mission on behalf of the Cuban people continues. Shortly after his death, other pro-democracy activists, including Jorge Luis Garcia Perez ‘Antunez’, established the ‘Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Front for Civic Resistance and Civil Disobedience’ in his honor.

“Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s hope for Cuba has been kept alive by Cuba’s pro-democracy activists who refuse to let his sacrifice be in vain. Over the weekend, more than fifty Ladies in White were brutally arrested by Castro’s thugs for commemorating his death. Despite the regime’s efforts to silence him, Orlando Zapata Tamayo’s legacy of courageously opposing oppression and demanding essential liberties for the Cuban people has only grown stronger in the three years since his death.”