; Whereas by the early 1960’s Fidel Castro held as many as 60,000 political prisoners; Whereas killings ordered by Fidel Castro are estimated to be as high as 17,000; Whereas over 1,000,000 Cubans were forced to flee their homeland and risked their lives to escape the Castro dictatorship; Whereas prior to the Castro regime, from 1953 to 1958, according to professor emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Cuba’s infant mortality rate was the lowest in the region; Whereas a State Department report, Zenith and Eclipse: A Comparative Look at Socio-Economic Conditions in Pre-Castro and Present Day Cuba , indicated that in 1957 Cuba had an infant mortality rate of 32 per 1,000 births, the lowest in Latin America and the 13th lowest in the world; Whereas prior to Castro’s Communists seizing power, Cuba led virtually all countries in Latin America in the category of life expectancy in 1959; Whereas prior to the Castro regime, in 1957, Cuba had lower infant mortality than France, Belgium, West Germany, Israel, Japan, Austria, Italy, Spain, and Portugal; Whereas the Cuban dictatorship today under Raul Castro and his puppet, Miguel Diaz-Canel, continues to stifle dissent through violence and harassment and violate the basic human rights of the Cuban people; Whereas the Communist regime in Cuba continues to export its Communist, anti-American, and authoritarian ideology throughout the Western Hemisphere and bolsters authoritarian regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua; and Whereas Communism has claimed at least 100,000,000 victims, and has led to financial ruin and brutal oppression in Asia, Europe, and the Western Hemisphere: Now, therefore, be it