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Remarks by Senator Menendez
in the U.S. Senate on the Recent Comments of the
Castro Brothers
April 30, 2009
Two weeks ago, the democratically-elected
leaders of the Western Hemisphere met for the
Summit of the Americas. The Castro regime in
Cuba was not invited, because it has violated
the democratic charter of the Organization of
American States for the last 5 decades.
At the same time as that meeting in Trinidad and
Tobago, Raul Castro gave a speech in Venezuela.
He said he would be willing to negotiate with
the United States, and put everything on the
table. Many considered this “news.”
Well let me tell you, those comments aren’t news
to anyone who has followed the rhetoric of the
regime over the decades. The Castros have made
promise after promise—and none o f their
promises have resulted in substantial change on
the island—
none of their promises have resulted in the
release of the labor leaders, journalists or
clergymen jailed for no crime other than
speaking their minds, the end of the network of
government spies on every block, or the granting
of basic human rights that we in the United
States take for granted. None of their promises
have resulted in economic freedom for the
millions of Cubans who try to get by on less
than a dollar a day.
And so it was hardly news that not long after
Raul Castro spoke, his older brother Fidel made
comments clarifying that nothing would change,
and blaming all conditions in Cuba on the United
States.
He said President Obama acted with
“autosuficiencia” y “superficialidad”—he called
him conceited and superficial.
I am surprised that Secretary Clinton would jump
so fast to consider that good news.
While Raul Castro spoke at a meeting in
Venezuela, there was another gathering going on
in Cuba. It was a gathering of state security
agents and secret police, outside the home of
Jorge Luis García Pérez, known as “Antúnez.”
With tremendous courage, Antúnez began a hunger
strike to protest the oppressive Castro regime.
In response, agents descended on the house last
March 17th. According to Amnesty International,
they have orders to use force against and arrest
anyone to prevent them from ent ering the house—including
anyone who could provide medical treatment.
Antúnez and three other Cubans have vowed to
continue their protest until the torture of
political prisoner Mario Alberto Perez Aguilera,
held at the Santa Clara Provincial Prison,
ceases immediately.
They will continue their protest until he is
taken out of a tiny solitary confinement cell,
until he is no longer beaten and forced to
starve, until the regime allows Antunez' sister
Caridad Garcia Perez to rebuild her home
destroyed by the hurricanes last year, which
they have not allowed as further punishment to
these activists.
From his house in Placetas, Cuba, Antúnez wrote
me a letter on April 13.
Here’s an excerpt, in Spanish: “Compatriotas a
nombre de nuestro pueblo cubano persistan en sus
nobles y sinceros esfuerzos, sepan que para los
cubanos la libertad, la dignidad y el respeto a
los derechos humanos tienen mucho más
permanencia e importancia que las ventajas
económicas que puedan traer los viajes de
turismo y las llegadas de insumos que
financiarían más que al pueblo a la cruel
tiranía que nos oprime.”
He said: “Those who continue their noble and
sincere efforts on behalf of the Cuban people,
please know, that for Cubans, liberty, dignity
and respect for human rights are much more
permanent and important than the economic
advantages that might come with visiting
tourists and the arrival of products—which wil l
benefit the cruel tyranny that oppresses us more
than the Cuban people.”
That’s the kind of courage that can break a
dictatorship. That’s the kind of courage we
should support. And that’s the kind of person
whose advice we should heed—the human rights
activist, the Cuban who sacrifices day and night
in a peaceful struggle for freedom—these are the
voices we should listen to when we’re making our
policy toward the Castro regime.
Some like to cling to a romantic notion of the
Castros, but we cannot lose sight of these
brutal facts. There is no indication that
political prisoners are being released, free
speech is being allowed or Cubans are being
granted basic liberties that we take for
granted.
For the Organization of American States to
readmit a regime that engages in this type of
systematic suppression of human rights, it would
have to rip up its Inter-American Democratic
Charter as a farce. It would have to ignore
Article 78 of the declaration of the summit in
Trinidad and Tobago, reaffirming, quote, “the
legitimacy of electoral processes and full
respect for human rights and fundamental
freedoms.” And it would be sending a clear
signal to other countries moving in the wrong
direction, away from democracy, that it is
perfectly okay to do so.
In respect to the very complicated choices we
have on Cuba policy, President Obama has proven
himself a man of action. I support his allowing
Cuban-Amer icans more opportunities to travel to
Cuba, because I think families should have the
chance to be reunited.
On the other hand, and although I support
finding ways to improve the financial situation
of the Cuban people—and let’s remember, through
individuals and aid groups, the United States is
the largest provider of humanitarian assistance
to the people of Cuba in the world—I think
allowing unlimited remittances was not the right
move, when the Castro regime still takes for
itself up to 30% of all the money sent.
The Administration also announced changes
regarding telecommunications policy. Let me be
clear: in spite of the fact that the regime has
rejected such gestures in the past, I hope that
it will now allow U.S. telecommunications
companies to increase the flow of information to
and from the island. That said, we need to be
sure to prevent a repeat of what happened in
China, where U.S. telecommunications firms
helped the Chinese government monitor internet
users and control content. U.S. companies cannot
and should not censor internet searches and
block websites at the request of the regime.
But mainly what we’ve learned from these
good-faith actions on the part of the United
States is that they have not resulted in any
change of behavior from the regime in Cuba.
We have traded concessions and gotten only
rhetoric in return. We have extended our hand,
while the Cuban regime maintains its iron-handed
clenched fist.
We cannot allow ourselves to start down a
slippery slope of relaxing restrictions, that
only winds up allowing the Castro regime to
strengthen the iron fist by which it rules.
The press is reporting that the State Department
is looking to hold talks on migration and
counternarcotics with the Castro regime.
These are serious issues. But without seeing any
progress whatsoever on the part of the regime,
it’s hard to see why we should be looking for
more opportunities to make additional
concessions.
It’s hard to see why we should believe whatever
promises the regime might make. And it’s hard to
see why we should cooperate on migration or
counternarcotics with a Cuban navy whose main
mission is patrolling for and sinking ships
carrying its own fleeing citizens.
If we open up discussions now, we are
essentially giving the regime a pass on progress
and taking the focus OFF of where President
Obama rightly put it – freedom on the island,
freedom for political prisoners, freedom from
seizures of a huge percentage of remittances
sent to the Cuban people.
So, this is exactly the wrong time to start
these conversations and starting them would be
in direct contradiction to the White House’s own
statements, as recently as April 17th, that put
the burden where it should be - on the Castro
regime.
After 50 years of brutality, we need actions,
not words, on the part of the Castro Regime.
Mere20words won't erase the lack of dignity that
Antúnez is protesting with a hunger strike.
Words won't stop people like Oscar Elías Biscet
from being thrown into prison for refusing to
give women a drug that caused abortions—
words won't finally allow Oswaldo Payá to see
the free elections he's worked for and marched
for and gone to jail for.
Last week I heard some of my colleagues speak
about human rights abuses in China. I think they
were absolutely right to highlight those abuses.
But I think we should be no less concerned with
prison camps in China than prison camps in Cuba,
no less concerned with Tiananmen Square than
with the Primavera Negra crackdown, no less
appalled at child labor in Beijing than in
Havana.
And by now we should be convinced that economic
interaction in the face of an authoritarian
government will not end Cuba’s human rights
abuses, just as it has not ended abuses in
China.
Another of one my colleagues pointed out the
peaceful revolutions that ended communism in
Eastern Europe, including in places like
Lithuania. I share my colleague’s deep respect
for those revolutions. And I think it’s worth
pointing out that when they took place, there
was international support and recognition not
primarily for the businesses who wanted to open
those countries up for financial gain, but for
the democracy activists within those countries
who risked their lives to bring change.
There is sim ply no excuse for the Cuban
regime’s behavior. Forgiving it and forgetting
it is not the answer.
If we want to change the way we conduct our
policy, there are many things we can do to
weaken the Castro regime, and hasten the day
when the Cuban people can be free.
Let us have the U.S. offer more visitor and
student visas for eligible Cubans to come to the
U.S., to see and live our way of life. Having
Americans travel to Cuba could never be as
powerful as having Cuban youth see the greatness
of our country, and its pluralistic, diverse,
representative democracy. That taste of freedom
would be infectious.
In return we simply seek a commitment from Cuba
to accept their citizens’ return, and to
guarantee the issuance of exit permits for all
qualified migrants.
Cuba is one of the few countries in the world
that will not permit its citizens to travel even
when they have a legitimate visa to do so. And,
when they give them license to leave, they must
pay the regime in order to do so. I find it
ironic that when people mention the U.S.
embargo, they fail to mention the Castros’
blockade on their own people—a blockade that
keeps Cubans not only from leaving Cuba, but
from moving freely within their own country.
If we want to facilitate the sales of food to
Cuba, let us insist that they be sold in open
markets, available to all Cubans, without it
being part of Castro's food rationing plan, a p
lan meant to further control the Cuban people.
In exchange for cooperation with Cuba on
narcotics trafficking, let them hand over the
200 fugitives the FBI knows are in Cuba,
including JoAnne Chesimard, the convicted killer
of New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster.
And in exchange for freeing commerce, let the
Castros free the political prisoners they hold
and allow them to speak freely, organize freely,
elect their own leadership and freely practice
their religion on Cuban soil. I hope we’re not
so blinded by the color of money that we forget
how important it is for the Castros to close
their dungeons and let the light of freedom
shine down on everyone who calls the island
home.
President Obama, who saw repression in Indonesia
when he was a child, promised us this: He said,
quote, “My policy toward Cuba will be guided by
one word: Libertad. And the road to freedom for
all Cubans must begin with justice for Cuba’s
political prisoners, the rights of free speech,
a free press and freedom of assembly; and it
must lead to elections that are free and
fair.”[1] End quote.
For 50 years, the regime has been a social,
economic and moral failure. It has succeeded
merely at staying in power. Today, after the
regime has offered few new words and fewer new
actions, we can choose to change how we feel
about the regime, or we can try to change the
way it oppresses its people. That’s our choice.
We can choose amnesia or we can choose justice.
We can choose strong words or we can choose
strong actions. We can choose giving in to the
commercial interests of a few, or we can choose
holding on to the moral interests that unite us
all.
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