At last night's U2 concert, surrounded by Amnesty International candles, Bono told the crowd of the struggles of Dr. Oscar Biscet, doing 25 years time in a Cuban prison for human-rights work. Background here. Bono has been personally lobbied on the Biscet's cause by Miami Rep. Mario Diaz Balart, who met with the rock star last week and last year to raise awareness of human-rights issues, Biscet and Orlando Zapata, another jailed activist who died in 2010 after staging a hunger strike on the island. Diaz-Balart's brother, former Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, has also met with Bono (who paid a visit last week to Sen. Marco Rubio in D.C.).
After the shoutout, Republican fundraiser Ana Navarro told Rep. Diaz-Balart about it via email.
Navarro says Bono didn't limit his song to Cuban political prisoners. He also highlighted the plight of Myanmar's jailed moral leader, Aung San Suu Kyi.
"He also dedicated, It's Beautiful Day to Gabby Giffords and featured a video from Mark Kelly which was recorded when he was on space shuttle, some weeks ago, where he sent a message of optimism to the world and a special message of love to his wife. It was quite moving," Navarro said in an email.
Giffords is one of the few survivors in the Tucson shooting rampage earlier this year.
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