[House Hearing, 118 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
THE COMMUNIST CUBAN REGIMES DISREGARD
FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
=======================================================================
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL
HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZA-
TIONS
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
December 11, 2024
__________
Serial No. 118-138
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs
[GRAPHIC NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT
Available: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/, http://docs.house.gov,
or http://www.govinfo.gov
__________
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
63-408 PDF WASHINGTON : 2026
=======================================================================
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
MICHAEL T. McCAUL, Texas, Chairman
CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey GREGORY MEEKS, New York, Ranking
JOE WILSON, South Carolina Member
SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania BRAD SHERMAN, California
DARRELL ISSA, California GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia
ANN WAGNER, Missouri WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts
BRIAN MAST, Florida AMI BERA, California
TIM BURCHETT, Tennessee JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas
MARK E. GREEN, Tennessee DINA TITUS, Nevada
ANDY BARR, Kentucky TED LIEU, California
RONNY JACKSON, Texas SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania
YOUNG KIM, California DEAN PHILLIPS, Minnesota
MARIA ELVIRA SALAZAR, Florida COLIN ALLRED, Texas
BILL HUIZENGA, Michigan ANDY KIM, New Jersey
AUMUA AMATA COLEMAN RADEWAGEN, SARA JACOBS, California
American Samoa KATHY MANNING, North Carolina
FRENCH HILL, Arkansas SHEILA CHERFILUS-McCORMICK,
WARREN DAVIDSON, Ohio Florida
JIM BAIRD, Indiana GREG STANTON, Arizona
MICHAEL WALTZ, Florida MADELEINE DEAN, Pennsylvania
THOMAS KEAN, JR., New Jersey JARED MOSKOWITZ, Florida
MICHAEL LAWLER, New York JONATHAN JACKSON, Illinois
CORY MILLS, Florida SYDNEY KAMLAGER-DOVE, California
RICH McCORMICK, Georgia JIM COSTA, California
NATHANIEL MORAN, Texas JASON CROW, Colorado
JOHN JAMES, Michigan KWEISI MFUME, Maryland
KEITH SELF, Texas BRAD SCHNEIDER, Illinois
RYAN K. ZINKE, Montana
JAMES C. MOYLAN, Guam
Brendan Shields, Majority Staff Director
Sajit Gandhi, Minority Staff Director
------
SUBCOMMITTEE ON GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS AND INTERNATIONAL
ORGANIZATIONS
CHRISTOPHER SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman
MARIA SALAZAR, Florida SUSAN WILD, Pennsylvania, Ranking
AMATA RADEWAGEN, American Samoa Member
FRENCH HILL, Arkansas AMI BERA, California
RICH MCCORMICK, Georgia SARA JACOBS, California
JOHN JAMES, Michigan
C O N T E N T S
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REPRESENTATIVES
Page
Opening Statement of Subcommittee Chairman Christopher H. Smith.. 1
Opening Statement of Subcommittee Ranking Member Susan Wild...... 4
Opening Statement of Representative Amata Radewagen.............. 6
Opening Statement of Representative Kathy Manning................ 6
WITNESSES
Statement of Hon. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Former Chair, U.S. House
Foreign Affairs Committee...................................... 8
Prepared Statement............................................. 11
Statement of Maria C. Werlau, Co-Founder and Executive Director,
Free Society Project/Cuba Archive.............................. 16
Prepared Statement............................................. 18
Statement of Joseph F. Connor, Author and Advocate............... 26
Prepared Statement............................................. 30
Statement of Juan Pappier, Deputy Director, Americas, Human
Rights Watch................................................... 36
Prepared Statement............................................. 38
APPENDIX
Hearing Notice................................................... 58
Hearing Minutes.................................................. 60
Hearing Attendance............................................... 61
THE COMMUNIST CUBAN REGIMES DISREGARD FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
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Wednesday, December 11, 2024
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights,
and International Organizations,
Committee on Foreign Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:31 p.m., in
room 2200, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H.
Smith (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Mr. Smith. This hearing of the Subcommittee on Global
Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations
will come to order.
Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare a
recess at any point, and all Members will have 5 days to submit
statements, extraneous material, and questions for the record
subject to the length limitations in the rules.
I note the presence of a quorum, and I now recognize myself
for an opening statement.
OPENING STATEMENT OF CHAIRMAN CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH
I would like to just make an announcement. Remind audience
members that disruption of committee proceedings is against the
law. Holding up signs or making verbal outbursts during the
proceedings is a disruption, and will not be tolerated. Any
disruptions will result in suspension of the proceedings until
the Capitol Police can restore order.
Let me just begin with a very, very special welcome to the
distinguished former House Foreign Affairs Committee
chairwoman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, for her amazing leadership
over the course of 30 years as a Member of Congress, and as
chairwoman, as chair of the Africa Subcommittee, Western
Hemisphere--I mean, she did it all and did it with class.
I just want to thank her for her leadership, for her
insights, the wisdom that she has displayed for all of us to
follow over the years, especially in the struggle to protect
human rights and liberty throughout the world, including and
especially Cuba.
We are deeply honored, Madam Chair, to have you here
providing the Congress and the new administration with a path
forward. What do we do next? What steps need to be taken? So
again, I can't thank you enough. We will benefit, as we always
have, for everything that you have provided. So thank you.
And thank all of our other distinguished witnesses for
being here. This will become the basis for our next steps as a
committee, a subcommittee and for me and my colleagues. So I
want to thank you for that. Again, Ileana, it is a delight to
have you here.
You know, when he was appointed Ambassador--and that is
Armando Valladares--to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights,
President Ronald Reagan said, and I quote him, ``I have an
impossible mission for you. Try to convince the U.N. that there
are human rights violations in Cuba,'' close quote.
Well, I traveled with Mr. Valladares to Geneva for a week
to the U.N. Human Rights Commission. I was happy to carry his
bags. I was so in awe of this man who had suffered so much and
had done so with such grace. He got the U.N. Human Rights
Commission to investigate the cruelty of Castro's prisons.
Missions went there; people were interviewed. Even though there
was a statement made that there would be no retaliation, sadly,
there was.
But it was a breakthrough of a very significant way that he
was able to achieve that. I have read his book not once, but
twice, ``Against All Hope: A Memoir of Life in Castro's
Gulag,'' and I encourage people to read it. A brilliant expose
of what he and other political prisoners endured and did so
with extraordinary courage, faith, and perseverance.
Mr. Valladares said, however, and I quote him, ``I can tell
you that the saddest thing was to see the indifference of the
world toward the human rights violations in Cuba. That is, when
my fellow inmates died, were being tortured, were murdered,
disappeared, the world absolutely ignored it and didn't want to
listen.''
Well, we are here today to recommit ourselves to the noble
struggle by the Cuban people to stand behind them and finally
achieve freedom. For too long, the Cuban people have long
suffered under communism, and now continues that suffering
under the current president.
Ninety miles from American shores resides one of the most
repressive and brutal regimes in the world. Ninety miles from
the shores, the Communist Cuban regime remains ensconced in
power, terrorizing and abusing the Cuban people. Ninety miles
from our shores, the Communist Cuban regime remains a threat to
the American people and our national security, but especially
through their deepening partnerships with the Chinese Communist
Party and the People's Liberation Army.
Many still wish to speak of engagement without
acknowledging the plain reality of the threat Communist Cuba
poses to the United States, the world at large, and again, most
importantly, to the Cuban people themselves. They yearn for
freedom, and they are not free.
Today, too many people in the free world do not understand
the reality of life in Communist Cuba. In Cuba today, political
and economic freedoms do not exist. The Communist Party rules
through violence and fear and attempts to control not just the
economy, but all elements of society.
Civil society lives under heavy surveillance, harassment,
and repression. It criminalizes all forms of dissent. It
restricts what kind of jobs Cubans can take. It prohibits free
movement to and from the island.
It is also a Tier 3 country, designated so by the President
of the United States and through the Secretary of State and the
TIP adviser because of its egregious violations of both sex and
labor trafficking.
Today in Cuba, nearly 1,000 innocents are imprisoned for
the offense of thinking differently from the official Communist
Party line.
In Cuba, there is no private sector, doesn't exist. The
security State ultimately controls all forms of activity on the
island. Every dollar spent by a tourist ultimately benefits the
dictatorship.
Every instance of American companies or politicians taking
trips to Cuba to engage with State entities, such as healthcare
providers, legitimizes the Communist regime, furthers their
policies of human trafficking. Again, they are Tier 3. They are
egregious violators. They are among the worst of the world.
And, of course, terrorism and violent repression, delaying the
arrival of the day when the Cuban people shall be free. And
like--and like its close allies, Venezuela and Nicaragua, two
other dictatorships, Cuba does not even pretend to hold
elections.
This is the fifth hearing I have chaired on human rights in
particular in Cuba, although we brought it up in many, many
other hearings, as has our distinguished former Chief of the
Foreign Affairs Committee.
The years may change, but the song, sadly, remains the same
coming out of Cuba. It holds blatant disregard for the very
concept of human rights, and the United States requires from us
a firm policy. We need to do more, not less.
It is time that American politicians, including Members of
this House, stop signaling to the Communist regime in Cuba that
if they wait long enough, they will be able to redefine their
relationships with the U.S. without lifting their boots from
the throats of the Cuban people.
At one hearing I chaired in 2015, three human rights
activists exposed the true reality of life, and they were very,
very concerned about President Obama's so-called engagement.
Two months earlier, President Obama had announced his new
policy of engagement with Cuba after many months of secret
negotiations with the Communists.
Obama's push to normalize relations involved a series of
unilateral concessions. As the administration reopened the U.S.
embassy in Havana, relieved sanctions, restored tourist flights
from United States without stating any preconditions for
improving the regime's awful human rights record.
2016, President Obama even visited the island. The first
U.S. President to do so since the Communist revolution. In the
days before, during and after his visit, the regime--this was
their response--arrested hundreds of protestors. Human rights
groups on the island begged Obama not to let himself be
manipulated.
Instead, he infamously did the wave at a Havana baseball
game with dictator Raul Castro after a joint press conference
and welcoming ceremony alongside the Communist Party Politburo
under the portrait of Che Guevara.
Normalization legitimized Castro's brutal dictatorship and
made the human rights situation worse, not better. Active
religious persecution skyrocketed and other repression
increased. The year Obama visited the island, there were nearly
10,000 documented political arrests, 10,000.
I and many of my colleagues in Congress strongly oppose
this naive and dangerous policy. I visited with the Cuban
ambassador here in the District of Columbia. I said I wanted to
visit the prisons. He told me--and it was going good. I thought
it was a good conversation. He told me that the Cuban
Government, however, will decide who I can see and who I can't
see.
I asked whether other congressional delegations accepted
those terms and conditions. He said, yes. I never got the visa,
and I want to go still. I have asked over and over again, and I
will continue to ask to go.
I, along with Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, introduced H.R. 1782,
the Cuban Human Rights Act of 2015, to prevent a softening of
U.S.-Cuban relations without improvements to its human rights
record. It needs to be a quid pro quo.
Haven't we learned? You know, look at what we did with
China? We give them most favorite nation status. Bill Clinton
delinked it on May 26, 1994, a humans rights conditionality.
Delinked it, infamously. And they said all they care about is
profits, and China has been on a tear to destroy people and
their livelihoods, and their human rights have been horrible.
I plan on introducing the Cuban Human Rights Act again when
we begin, and I know I have been talking to our distinguished
former chair to get her inputs as to what--what provisions it
ought to contain. Instead of standing with the Cuban people and
demanding an end to their oppression, that outstretched hand to
their oppressors, there was a lost decade in the fight to
promote liberty and human rights in Cuba.
Upon taking office, however, President Trump reversed many
of these shortsighted policy which harmed the Cuban people, and
rightly so. The new administration has before it a fresh
opportunity to prioritize the recognitionof human rights and
the release of political prisoners in its dealings with the
Cuban regime.
Today, our expert witnesses will shed light on the regime's
human rights abuses. And, again, if you read the Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices, if you read the TIP report,
it flies off the page how oppressive they are, but the policy
has to match the actual record on the ground. And that is not
always the case.
So I want to just thank you again. I would like to yield to
my good friend and colleague, Congresswoman Wild, who is the
ranking member of our subcommittee.
OPENING STATEMENT OF RANKING MEMBER SUSAN WILD
Ms. Wild. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to our
witnesses. Thank you to our audience for being here.
I would like to begin on a personal note. At the last
hearing of this subcommittee, which I, unfortunately, was
unable to attend due to a meeting on the Ethics Committee, on
which I am also the ranking member, I submitted written remarks
for the record. In those remarks, I stated that in a few weeks,
I will no longer serve as a Member of this body.
But to reiterate, it has been the greatest honor of my life
to represent the people of Pennsylvania's greater Lehigh Valley
in Congress over the past 6 years, and it has been a particular
privilege to serve as a Member of the House Foreign Affairs
Committee and as ranking member of this subcommittee. And, Mr.
Chairman, I thank you for your many courtesies and kindnesses
in the time I have been here.
During my time in Congress, I sought to advance a vision of
a foreign policy that reflects the best of who we are as a
country and as a people; a vision centered on combating hunger,
inequity, and disease, both here at home and around the world;
a vision that defends universal rights and dignity; a vision
that stands with workers and the labor movement whenever they
come under attack; a vision that says that we can and must be a
voice for prisoners of conscience who languish in prison cells
the world over; a vision that says to all those whose rights
and dignity are trampled on, you are not forgotten, you are not
alone, we stand in solidarity with you.
That brings me to today's hearing and to the challenge we
face when it comes to shaping a U.S. policy toward Cuba that
vigorously defends human rights and human dignity in a way that
is strategic and effective in alleviating the suffering of the
Cuban people rather than contributing to it. Our approach to
Cuba, which has remained largely constant for more than six
decades now, with the exception of former President Obama's
second term, has not delivered for the Cuban people.
This hearing begs the question, What is the end goal of
U.S. policy toward Cuba, and what has our decades-old policy
actually accomplished for the United States, let alone the
Cuban people?
Today, the Cuban people, not the government, face a
devastating humanitarian crisis which has been exacerbated by
the U.S. embargo and other sanctions. The current U.S. policy
provides the Cuban government with a ready-made talking point
on which to blame every failure and crisis that occurs under
its leadership.
As Human Rights Watch noted in a 2023 report, the U.S.
embargo gives the Cuban government an excuse for problems, a
pretext for abuses, and sympathy from governments that might
otherwise condemn repressive practices. HRW has also noted that
the embargo has imposed indiscriminate hardship on the Cuban
population as a whole, and has done nothing to improve the
situation of human rights in Cuba.
Rather than strengthening people-to-people ties, cultural
exchanges, and commercial relations that could open a new
market for U.S. exports and benefit businesses in both of our
countries, our policy serves only to further distance Cuba from
the promise of a free society. Rather than providing relief for
the economic hardship facing the Cuban people, our policy only
deepens the hardship faced by everyday Cubans. Rather than
seeking to build a future rooted in diplomacy, a future in
which we secure the release of political prisoners and advance
our interests, as former President Obama began to do, the
status quo under administrations of both parties has succeeded
only in damaging the image of the United States throughout
Latin America and elsewhere around the world.
I am determined to see the United States act in defense of
human rights and dignity and seek justice for those like Mr.
Connor who have suffered irreparable damage. That is why we
must be at the table participating robustly in international
fora, advancing our interests and defending our people through
relentless engagement and tough, smart, and effective
diplomacy. It is why we cannot retreat into a shortsighted and
ultimately self-destructive unilateralism.
Let us stand with the Cuban people in engagement and
partisanship and let us shape a U.S. policy toward Cuba that
delivers results in advancing both our ideals and our
interests.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much. I would like to--we have
worked very closely together on so many issues, including
trafficking. So thank you for that service.
Ms. Wild. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. I would like to now yield to Ms. Radewagen as
much time as she would like to consume.
OPENING STATEMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE AMATA RADEWAGEN
Mrs. Radewagen. Good afternoon. Talofa. Thank you, Chairman
Smith and Ranking Member Wild, for holding this hearing on the
human rights abuses of the Cuban Government. Human rights are
something I care deeply about. They are universal, and all
people should be treated with dignity. All people should have
the right to freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom to
elect their leaders and hold them accountable.
I have fought for these freedoms for my entire career. I
look forward to hearing from each of you as we examine the
Cuban regime's attack on these fundamental human rights.
I yield back, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much. Ms. Manning.
OPENING STATEMENT OF REPRESENTATIVE KATHY MANNING
Ms. Manning. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. I, too, will
be leaving this Congress at the end of this term, regretfully,
because of the extreme gerrymandering in North Carolina.
Chairman Smith, I have enjoyed working with you greatly on
this committee. I consider you a wonderful colleague and a
friend. I have also enjoyed co-chairing the House Bipartisan
Task Force to Combat Anti-Semitism with you. We have worked
closely on that committee as well and introduced very important
legislation. I appreciate all your hard work to combat human
rights abuses and discrimination against vulnerable people on
this committee, on our bipartisan task force, and on the full
Foreign Affairs Committee.
Let me also say for Ranking Member Susan wild, I consider
you a dear friend, and we will figure out together how to
continue our important work from a different vantage point, not
in Congress, but we will not give up our determination to fight
for people who need our help around the world.
So thank you--thank you both. Thank you to the witnesses
today.
And with that, I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you so much, Kathy. It has been great
working with you on so many issues, including combating
trafficking issues.
I would like to introduce our panel.
Ms. Wild. Mr. Chairman, may I just correct one thing that I
said. I have been told that the record should be corrected.
Apparently, I said--I meant to say, let us stand with the
Cuban people in engagement and partnership and mistakenly said
partisanship, which is definitely not what I intended to say.
So the correct statement is, let us stand with the Cuban
people in engagement and partnership. Thank you.
Mr. Smith. Thank you. I would like to introduce our
witnesses, beginning with Dr. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, who served
with distinction here in this body for 30 years as chairwoman
on the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, as I mentioned a
moment ago. But previous to that, the Subcommittee on the
Middle East in North Africa and Africa and just did a wonderful
job in each of those roles. She passed many foreign policy
issues, legislation that continue to enlighten and make a
difference in today's world.
I want to thank her for that leadership, and again, we have
become good friends over the years, and I can't thank her
enough for her leadership and look forward to her testimony.
We will then have Maria Werlau, who is the co-founder and
executive director of the Free Society Project, a nonprofit
organization to advance human rights through research and
scholarship. Its leading initiative, Cuba Archive Truth and
Memory Project, focuses on transitional justice issues and
human exploitation.
Ms. Werlau is a former second vice president of the Chase
Manhattan Bank, and a long-time independent consultant
specializing in advisories on Cuban affairs and other
international issues. Her extensive publications on Cuba cover
a wide range of topics, including international law, foreign
investment, and economic issues.
She has served as--task forces on the U.S.-Cuba relations
for the Council on Foreign Relations and the American
Enterprise Institute.
Then we will hear from Joseph Connor, who is an author and
advocate whose father, Frank Connor, was killed in a terrorist
attack by the Armed Forces of the National Liberation, FALN, in
1975.
Mr. Connor has testified before the Senate Foreign
Relations Committee, Senate Judiciary Committee. His writings
have appeared in The Wall Street Journal, New York Post, L.A.
Times, and The Washington Times.
And, again, a full--your full resumes will be made a part
of the record.
And then we will hear from Juan Pappier, who is the
Americas Deputy Director of Human Rights Watch. He supervises
the organization's research and advocacy efforts, particularly
for Latin America and the Caribbean. He has a decade of
experience documenting and reporting human rights violations,
including political repression and abuses related to armed
conflicts, security policies, and attacks on the rule of law.
He has worked as a consultant for Chile's National Human
Rights Institute, and we welcome him as well and look forward
to all of your testimoneys.
Mr. Smith. Dr. Ros-Lehtinen.
STATEMENT OF ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much, Chairman Smith, and I
thank you for the undeserved but lovely words bestowed upon me
in my almost 30 years of service to the Congress. I am so proud
to have worked alongside you on issues related to freedom,
human rights throughout the world. So thank you so much for
those words.
And Ranking Member Wild and Mrs. Manning, the House will be
a poorer place without your strong voices in favor of freedom
and human rights as well. So we wish you much success in your
future ventures.
I have been a good friend of Mrs. Radewagen for the years
that her service and my service coincided, and she has always
been a strong voice for the freedom of the Cuban people. I am
glad to say that--I am glad to hear that that voice has not
diminished at all.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I will talk today about the need
for international solidarity in support of the struggle of the
Cuban people for freedom. Apparently, being for freedom is
hard; hard for the people who are struggling against the
oppressive authoritarian regimes of their own countries, of
course. But apparently, it is hard for other countries to take
notice, to care, or to overcome their own country's political
or economic self-interest. Being for freedom seems to be hard.
But being for authoritarian regimes seems to be easy.
Standing for values is hard. Ignoring values is easy.
Authoritarian countries want to reinforce their authoritarian
standards, so they seek no moral compass.
Democratic regimes, on the other hand, are based on certain
moral concepts. Nevertheless, democratic countries seem to
always have trouble finding their true north of their moral
compass.
You have never found it difficult to get the true north of
your moral compass, Mr. Chairman, and I am so glad that you
mentioned the Cuban Human Rights Act of 2015. I congratulate
you for introducing it at that time when it was difficult with
that administration and power.
And when I served in Congress, I was proud to introduce,
alongside you, that important bill because it sent a strong
message that the U.S. would never ignore the Cuban regime's
human rights violations.
Sadly, these years later, we are still at this same place,
and I am quite pleased to hear that you will reintroduce this
important legislation in the next Congress. We will stand
alongside you, Mr. Chairman.
We all know about Cuba's oppressive regime. Our witnesses
will speak about that. But we will never know precisely how
many people longing for freedom and seeking a glimpse of
humanity have died in their unsuccessful journeys in
unseaworthy vessels in the Florida Straits filled with hope and
terror and ending in tragic death. We will never know that
number.
We understand the goals and the cruel motives of regime
thugs in exploiting the Cuban population for their own selfish
purposes. The lust for power, the greed for material dominance
over others, this has resulted in political dictatorships and
exploitation of the masses for time immemorial.
Likewise, the passive tolerance of, and resulting
legitimization of such regimes has led to their acceptance by
others and the woeful habit of ignoring that oppression. This,
the acceptance of oppressive regimes by nonoppressive regimes,
is more difficult to understand than the motives and purpose of
the oppressors themselves.
The motivation and the dictatorial nature of oppressive
states to support other similar State regimes is obvious. They
share dictatorial values, they have in common a self-interest
in protecting their regimes. But why do democratic states
tolerate and even aid oppressive dictatorial states in which
abuses and persecution of dissidents is clear, and the risks
which people take to escape those regimes is so high?
The U.S. Government, fortunately, has expressed its
dissatisfaction and condemnation of the Cuban regime over the
years through our sanctions, but the U.S. Government has, on
occasion, exhibited weakness in its condemnation of the Cuban
regime.
The failure to respond to the shootdown of the Brothers to
the Rescue planes in 1996 in international airspace involving
the deaths of three U.S. citizens and one U.S. resident was a
regrettable sign of weakness by the Clinton administration.
Likewise, President Obama, as you alluded to in your
opening statement, Mr. Chairman, doing the wave and eating ice
cream cones with Raul Castro in Cuba at a baseball game,
engaging in friendly conversation was lamentable fraternization
which ignored the immorality of the Cuban regime and worked
against the U.S. message of illegitimacy of the Cuban regime.
It also undermined the dissident movements on the island,
such as the Ladies in White. While the Ladies in White risked
jail and savage beatings on the streets of Havana, President
Obama hobnobbed with their oppressors.
Just last week, as the International Republican Institute
noted, another democracy activist in Cuba was killed in prison
in Cuba, supposedly labeled a suicide--false--marking the
fourth verified death of the July 11, 2021, protesters in State
custody according to the watchdog group Justicia 11J, and the
72d documented prison death since 2023 according to the Cuban
prisons documentation center.
Why have other democratic states tolerated and even
embraced oppressive regimes? There is an idea of
noninterference in internal affairs of another State serves as
an excuse. Noninvolvement in internal affairs of other states
is articulated, sadly, in the United Nations Charter. The
Charter provides that ``States shall not intervene''--this is a
quote--``in matters that are essentially within the domestic
jurisdiction of any State,'' Article 2, Section 7.''
And I use the word excuse because the noninvolvement
concept does not override other principles of international
law, especially those espoused in the Nuremberg War Crimes
Trials after World War II. Countries which do not wish to
condemn another country's dishonorable or immoral treatment of
its resident turn to the noninterference idea as an excuse. Not
my job, they essentially say.
Another relevant characteristic of the international system
is that a State acts based on its own interest, thus, the
oppression of others does not affect my interest. Think Rwanda
genocide or the Cambodian genocide or, indeed, even the
Holocaust.
Of course, this myopic definition of interest and the
perception of threats ignores the dangers of the spread of
oppressive doctrine. Such expansion of oppressive doctrine is a
threat and should be perceived as involving another state's
interest. But such perception requires leadership. It requires
vision, and they are often in short supply.
We need such understanding about the threats posed by
legitimizing oppression. Appeasement of oppression carries the
same danger as appeasement of military aggression. But many
democratic states see no benefit in taking a principled stand
against oppression, at least they do not see the benefit
sufficient to justify the reduction in trade, the loss of
tourism. Those are opportunities for their own residents as
visitors, whose trips are partly conducted on the backs of
those who are oppressed.
Perhaps the greatest insight in this regard, Mr. Chairman,
is that recognizing oppression and exploitation of people is
psychologically distressing. We want to think that the world is
better than it really is. And seeing the reality causes
cognitive dissonance.
It is easier to be a Pangloss in Voltaire's ``Candide,''
who always sees the world with incurable, excessive, and
unrealistic optimism in this best of all possible worlds. But
Pangloss's foolhardy optimism is unwarranted in this most
dangerous of all possible worlds.
Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman and Members. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Ros-Lehtinen follows:]
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Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much, Chairwoman, for that
powerful testimony.
I would like to now recognize Ms. Werlau.
STATEMENT OF MARIA C. WERLAU
Ms. Werlau. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and distinguished
members of the committee for the opportunity and for caring.
My written statement focused on some of the Cuban regime's
worst crimes, although it violates essentially all rights in
the universal declaration of human rights. The human cost of
the hemisphere's longest dictatorship ever, at least in post-
colonial times, has impacted citizens of many countries aside
from Cuba, including ours.
Comparisons pale with a regime that kills even defenseless
children, and keeps its own version, almost identical, of the
Berlin Wall at Guantanamo, lasting twice as long without
receiving any attention, much less international outcry. It is
impossible to do justice to so money horrors and its victims.
Today, Cuba's totalitarian military rulers, Communists only
in name and Stalinist ways, hold on to power by sheer terror.
They became apartheid capitalists in post-Soviet times,
enhancing their usual monarchic privileges, but continuing to
impose failed socialist central planning on the masses to
preserve absolute control.
As a result, Cuba is a beggar State, a country of
widespread ruin in a perennial State of crisis, its people in
despair. The system is ideologically, morally, politically, and
economically bankrupt, and its only foreseeable future is
continuing decline.
The dictatorship, bent on remaining in power at all costs,
allocates meager resources to building luxury hotels, setting
the stage for a Russia-style transition. It hyper-funds a huge
secret police for internal repression and a gigantic diplomatic
intelligence and propaganda apparatus for international
influence.
It expands its revolutionary model in neighboring
Venezuela, Nicaragua, and beyond, has strong alliances with our
enemies, such as Iran, North Korea, Russia, and China, and with
criminal terrorist cartels. It infiltrates governments,
including ours and around the world. It subverts democracies
and even attacks our diplomats.
The international community offers the regime impunity,
engagement, even support, appeasement at best. But the United
States is exceptionally positioned to curtail its main sources
of revenues. One, it's modern slavery; a state-run business
exporting doctors, teachers, sailors, construction workers, and
many others as commodities. Just the medical brigades raked in
around $31 billion in 2018 to 2022.
And two, aid from a growing U.S.-based diaspora, in
remittances, merchandise, travel, telecom, and more, abetted by
the loosened sanctions by executive order. Estimated at $52
billion in the 11 years to 2019, this can only have grown with
over 640,000 Cubans who poured through the border in 2022 to
2024 and around 100,000 granted humanitarian parole.
Enforcing the legally mandated sanctions in the Helms-
Burton law and implementing additional measures under the
Trafficking and Persons Victim Act and the State sponsors of
terrorism designation would probably push the terminal patient
to face its certain death.
Cuba's rulers could be forced to negotiate the peaceful
transfer of power for a transition to democracy or flee the
country counting on their large overseas assets, plundered
systematically for decades. Otherwise, a protracted unraveling
will likely lead to a worsening human rights humanitarian
crisis with a growing potential for widespread turmoil and
violence.
Measures that could be implemented very quickly are the
travel and remittance sanctions of Helms-Burton; to combat the
trafficking, sanctioning ministers of health of Cuba's
partners, conditioning funding to PAHO, the Pan American Health
Organization, and declaring Mexico in violation of the U.S.-
Mexico-Canada Agreement; denying visa waivers to all travelers
to Cuba, including Canadians; forbidding most technical,
scientific exchanges and funding to all Cuban State
institutions. There are many more. We are just not--out of
time.
At the very least, these would combat exploitation and
other nefarious activities, reinforcing Cuba's structural
socioeconomic deformities and deny resources to the military
monopoly. Anyhow, enforcement of our laws is essential to our
democracy.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Werlau follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much. Mr. Connor?
STATEMENT OF JOSEPH F. CONNOR
Mr. Connor. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, committee
members, fellow witnesses, and everyone watching.
My name is Joe Connor. Since the Communist revolution, the
Cuban government has been an abuser of human rights,
domestically in Cuba and in the United States. Article 3 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights recognizes that everyone
has the right to life, liberty, and security of person.
Cuba violated the Connor family's human rights,
specifically the rights of our father, Frank Connor, and other
Americans to live. Our father, 33-year-old Frank Connor, and
three other innocent men, Alejandro Berger, Jim Gezork, and Hal
Sherburne, were murdered while scores were injured and maimed
on January 24, 1975, 50 years ago next month when the Marxist
Cuban-fueled Puerto Rican terrorist group Armed Forces for
National Liberation, FALN, blew up New York's historic Fraunces
Tavern during a lunchtime crowd--a crowded lunchtime.
The FALN appointed themselves my father's judge, jury, and
executioner profiling, targeting, and savagely murdering
reactionary executives, as they put it, in their Communique No.
3 that day. The Connor family had planned to celebrate my 9th
and my brother's 11th birthdays that very night.
Fraunces Tavern was targeted by the FALN, who paid lip
service to Puerto Rican independence, but, in reality, sought
to impose a Cuban-style socialist regime in Puerto Rico. They
chose it for its proximity to Wall Street, and for its storied
reputation as the birthplace of American liberty. Alexander
Hamilton and the Sons of Liberty met there. General George
Washington bade farewell to his officers at the end of the
revolutionary war at Fraunces Tavern.
Between 1974 and 1983, the FALN claimed responsibility for
over 130 bombs in U.S. and Puerto Rico, including another
deadly bombing on August 3, 1977, when Charles Steinberg was
murdered at the Mobil Oil Building in New York. Incredibly, I
worked in that building four decades later.
That same day in 1977, an FALN bomb threat caused the first
evacuation of the World Trade Center. That is how serious these
guys were. Though never prosecuted specifically for the
Fraunces bombing, the unrepentant terrorists served only 18
years of prison sentences ranging from 55 to 70 years. As
Hillary Clinton geared up for her 2000 Senate run and was
looking to connect with New York Hispanic community, Bill
Clinton granted clemency to the FALN, a blatant political
gesture orchestrated by then-Attorney General, Eric Holder.
One of the FALN leaders, Oscar Lopez Rivera was so
dedicated to his Marxist cause and his comrades that he refused
the 1999 Clinton clemency. Although in 2017, he accepted an
unprecedented second Presidential clemency from Obama-Biden in
their last days in office.
Shortly after his release on May 18, 2017, Cuban President
Raul Castro released a message to Lopez Rivera congratulating
the terrorists with all the honors and affection you deserve.
William Morales, chief bomb maker, was not offered clemency by
Obama or Clinton.
Morales likely built the deadly device used at Fraunces and
Mobil Oil. On July 12, 1978, which would have been my dad's
37th birthday, Morales blew off part of his face and nine of
his fingers when the bomb he was crafting exploded in his
Queens bomb factory. The apartment contained explosives,
incendiary devices, mixtures, tools, FALN communiques, and even
the copy machine used to make those communiques, including the
January 4one.
Morales was captured, tried, convicted, and sentenced in
1979 to up to 99 years, 10 Federal, 89 in New York State in
prison, but escaped from Bellevue Hospital in May 1977 with the
assistance of other radicals who called themselves the
Revolutionary Armed Task Force.
During the State trial, Morales boasted, No jail is going
to hold me forever. They can put a thousand of us in jail, they
are not going to hold us forever. That is what I have to say.
Morales was right.
Through an FALN investigation run by the Chicago Terrorist
Task Force, Morales was located in Puebla, Mexico, in 1983.
When the Mexican police closed in, he and an accomplice killed
the Mexican police officer. Morales was arrested, charged with
being accessory to murder and imprisoned in Mexico.
In 1988, defying President Reagan's extradition demands,
the sympathetic Mexican government allowed Morales safe-haven
to Cuba, where he remains a guest of the regime, along with
scores of murderous, felonious fugitives, such as Victor Gerena
and Black Liberation Army cop killer Joanne Chesimard.
On May 2, 1973, Chesimard and two accomplices opened fire
on two New Jersey State troopers during a motor vehicle stop.
Chesimard and her accomplice wounded one State trooper and
executed Werner Foerster at point-blank range. After a 6-week
trial in March 1977, Chesimard was found guilty of first-degree
murder and sentenced to life in prison.
On November 2, 1979, Chesimard, aided by armed individuals
posing as visitors, like Morales, escaped from what is now the
Edna Mahan Correctional Facility for Women, and fled to Cuba
where she has been a guest of the Communist regime.
Soon after Morales's flight to Cuba in the early 1990's, I
began my campaign to have Morales and Chesimard returned to
American justice, writing letters to the Justice Department,
making contacts with the NYPD, State Department, Joint
Terrorist Task Force. Meeting only frustration, I persisted,
expanding with communications to Presidents George W. Bush--
George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton, New Jersey State Senate--
Jersey Senator Bill Bradley, New York's Cardinal O'Connor, and
Mayor Giuliani. During this campaign, I quickly realized how
closely Cuba and the FALN are connected.
For the sake of brevity in my testimony, I will only
provide certain highlights. Details are in my written
testimony, and for additional information, please see retired
FBI agent Rick Hahn's definitive history of the FALN,
``Terror's Dawn,'' and my book with Jeff Ingber, ``Shattered
Lives,'' both sent to the committee previously.
And just a couple of examples, President Castro met with--
from ``Shattered Lives'' in our book, President Castro--Fidel
Castro met with Puerto Rican-born Cuban intelligence officer
Filiberto Ojeda and encouraged him to form a Puerto Rican armed
resistance, which Cuba would help train.
In 1974, Ojeda was in the U.S., and he began--he
established the FALN, along with former MIRA members, and
supported logistically by the Cuban intelligence services.
In October 19---October 27, 1975, communique left at the
site of the FALN's bombing of the Standard Oil Building in
Chicago read: The FALN welcomes the support given the Puerto
Rican National Liberation struggle at the solidarity conference
in Cuba. We especially acknowledge the moral support given to
our organization by the Cuban people and government in a speech
made by Prime Minister Fidel Castro. But the history of Cuba
supporting Puerto Rico through Marxist, through terrorism goes
back decades before the FALN, and the Weather Underground, who
was also involved.
In September 1979, President Carter, as a significant
humanitarian gesture, commuted the sentences of four imprisoned
Puerto Rican nationalists who were convicted of a 1954 armed
assault on the Capitol Building that left five Congressmen shot
and wounded.
After their release, the freed prisoners jointly embarked
on a victory tour, appearing in Chicago, New York, and Puerto
Rico. They claimed they had no remorse and could not rule out
future violence in the name of Puerto Rican independence. Not
long after, they returned to Havana as honored guests of Fidel
Castro.
In 1983, a $7 million Wells Fargo robbery in Hartford,
Connecticut, was another demonstration of the ongoing links
between Puerto Rican Marxist and Cuba. Some of these $7 million
went to purchase of a motor home used for sneaking FALN
terrorist Victor Gerena into Mexico. Masetti, one of the people
involved, waited at the border and helped disguise Gerena,
handed him a Cuban passport, and arranged his flight from
Mexico City to Havana. Cuba kept about half the stolen money
according to conversations the FBI intercepted among Los
Macheteros members.
Despite my efforts and Cuba's sponsoring of terrorists, the
Obama administration removed Cuba from the State Sponsor of
Terror list. On July 1st, 2015, President Obama announced the
establishment of formal relations with Cuba before actually
visiting the Marxist State in March 2016.
As Obama announced the Cuba visit, I immediately began
receiving texts, calls, and emails from reporters who knew our
family's long-standing fight for justice. Ironically, I
answered those requests from Joint Base Guantanamo Bay. You
see, I am a 9/11 family member, too. My cousin Steve Schlag was
murdered on 9/11 as I saw the planes hit. He was my dad's
Godson. And I was in Guantanamo Bay at that time witnessing the
pretrial hearings of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the other
terrorists.
Our family has continued to fight through this endless
injustices directed at my dad. Along with fighting the
reprehensible clemencies ending Oscar Lopez Rivera's 2011
parole bid by facing him at the Federal prison in Terre Haute,
Indiana, we also successfully forced the City University of New
York in 2013 to close down the disgusting Guillermo Morales/
Assata Shakur Student Center on campus. CUNY had a student
center named for two convicted terrorists, one of whom was
complicit in my father's murder, and my father went to CCNY.
Incredibly but not surprisingly, in November 2017, only 10
months after his second Presidential clemency, Lopez was
received as a honored guest in Havana where he paid tribute to
the late commander in chief, Fidel Castro, and Che Guevara, was
decorated with the order of solidarity.
Our families fought for Morales's extradition to the U.S.
for decades to hold Cuba responsible for their role in our
father's death and in protecting members of the terrorist group
who murdered him.
In 2024, following lobbying by our family, the Frank Connor
Werner Foerster Justice Act was introduced by Senator Marco
Rubio, co-sponsored by Senator Rick Scott. The Walter Patterson
and Werner Foerster Justice and Extradition Act was introduced
in the House of Representatives in 2023. We currently have a
documentary film on these issues.
The Connor and Patterson Acts both call out Cuba for
stomping on American's human rights for supporting and
sponsoring terrorists. They demand the return of Morales,
Chesimard, Gerena and others to face justice and to keep Cuba,
human rights violator, on the State Sponsor of Terror list.
We call on President Biden and President-Elect Trump to
secure the return of Morales and the other terrorists and
guarantee Cuba ends its systemic human rights violations so
Frank Connor's life will be remembered for justice. Cuba must
first end their sponsorship of terrorists by returning Morales,
Chesimard, Gerena and all before the U.S. considers their
removal from the State Sponsor of Terror list.
Thank you, Joe Connor.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Connor follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Smith. Thank you so very much, Mr. Connor. Juan?
STATEMENT OF JUAN PAPPIER
Mr. Pappier. Mr. Chair, ranking members, Members of the
subcommittee, thank you for the invitation to appear before you
today.
Let me start by expressing my solidarity with the Cuban
people, with the victims of repression there, and with Joseph
Connor whose family has been seeking justice for 50 years. The
Cuban Government continues to repress and punish virtually all
forms of dissent and public criticism in Cuba.
Prisoners Defenders, a rights group, reports that 919
political prisoners remain behind bars in Cuba, and 229 others
are under house arrest or other restrictions on liberty.
According to Colectivo 11J, over 500 people who were arrested
in connection with the landmark July 11, 2021, demonstrations
remain in prison.
Human Rights Watch interviewed more than 170 people
involved in those protests, including victims, their relatives
and lawyers. We also reviewed case files, verified videos and
photos and obtained forensic evidence. Detainees arbitrarily
have been held incommunicado for weeks and sometimes months.
Some were beaten, tortured, and subject to other forms of
treatment.
Prosecutors in Cuba continue to frame peaceful actions as
criminal behavior. Many protesters have been prosecuted for
sedition and sentenced to disproportionate prison terms of up
to 25 years in prison. People are convicted on unreliable and
uncorroborated evidence, such as statements solely from police
officers or alleged odor traces found in rocks, allegedly odor
from the defendants.
I would like to draw this subcommittee's attention to some
specific cases.
Jose Daniel Ferrer, the leader of the unrecognized
political opposition party UNPACU, who remains in prison since
July 11, 2021. His family has reported he suffers severe health
problems and has reportedly been beaten. He has announced he is
on a hunger strike for 7 days now.
Artists Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara and Maykel Castillo,
who remain in jail since July and May 2021, respectively. They
have been sentenced for participating in protests and
publishing a meme, among other alleged crimes.
32-year-old Luis Robles, who was sentenced to 5 years in
prison for protesting with a sign saying, ``Freedom. No more
repression.'' He is being held in La Lima prison in Havana.
Cuban authorities have also passed legislation to dismantle
the limited civic space that allowed the 2021 protest to occur.
This includes a new criminal code and abusive legislation on
telecommunications and social communication.
In addition to political repression, Cubans endure a severe
economic crisis. The country has faced three nationwide
electricity blackouts in the last 2 months, and people suffer
frequent blackouts in some places for up to 20 hours a day.
The Cuban Government acknowledged in July that they only
have regular stock of 30 percent of the basic medicines in the
country. A recent survey of 1,100 people by the Cuban
Observatory of Human Rights found that seven out of 10 Cubans
interviewed skipped one meal per day, and 61 percent struggled
to buy essential elements to survive.
As a result of increased poverty and political repression,
Cubans are leaving the country in unprecedented numbers. The
Cuban Government acknowledges that the country lost 9 percent
of the population between 2020 and 2023 to immigration, and
independent reports indicate a total figure may be much higher.
Mr. Chair, let me be clear about this. The human rights
situation in Cuban is dismal, and the Cuban Government is
solely responsible for the abuses it commits. At the same time,
the long-standing U.S. policy of isolation has done nothing to
improve this. Rather, the U.S. policy has been
counterproductive.
We continue to believe that the embargo--and may I add the
State Sponsor of Terrorism determination--have provided the
Cuban government with an alleged excuse for its problems, a
supposed pretext for its abuses, and a way to garner sympathy
abroad with governments that might otherwise have been willing
to condemn the country's repressive practices more vocally.
Any additional general sanctions on Cuba are likely to harm
the population, which is already suffering severe deprivations,
and to drive even larger migration flows.
Instead, we urge this Congress to take steps toward a new
approach on Cuba, one that progressively replaces the embargo
with targeted sanctions against officials responsible for human
rights violations; one that focuses on garnering support from
governments in Latin America and Europe to push, to press
multilaterally in a coordinated and strategic manner for human
rights, democracy, and the rule of law in Cuba; and one that
prioritizes empowering Cuban civil society.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Peppier follows:]
[GRAPHICS NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Mr. Smith. Thank you very much for that testimony, all four
of our very fine witnesses. I do have a few questions, and then
I will yield to my colleagues, then I have some additional
questions hopefully before we have any votes.
The situation is dire, and I think it is getting worse. You
know, we have had hearings here on Nicaragua and what they are
doing to the church and what they are doing to Daniel Ortega
is--I met him in 1984. He has only gotten worse. I met him in
Nicaragua in 1984 when he was commandant, and his repression is
just without--without end in terms of what they do to innocent
and excellent people in their own country.
Now, let me just ask you--before I go any further, Frank
Calzon is here. I want to thank Frank for his many years of
great work.
I was at the U.N. Human Rights Commission 1 year, and he
was there as well, and we were working with the diplomats on a
Cuba resolution. And he had brought fresh information about
child sex trafficking and how horrific that is. You know, we
know that in this country, you get up to life imprisonment
under the Trafficking Victims Protection Act if you sex traffic
a child. And I am the author of that bill, so I believe very
strongly in its implementation.
Well, Frank was working that information around, and a van
pulled up, some thugs from the government got out, and they
attacked him. I mean, this is in Geneva now. This isn't in
Havana. This is in Geneva. So there is a--there is an ability
to extend their long reach of hate toward people outside the
island, and I think we have to be very much aware of that.
On trafficking as well, you know, Ileana and I worked very
hard to get Liu Xiaobo in 2010 named as the Nobel Peace Prize
winner, the great Chinese human rights activist. And I remember
so vividly, we had dinner with a number of the parliamentarians
that actually make the choice who is going to be the Nobel
Peace Prize winner.
So I spent the--much of my time literally about Liu Xiaobo,
but he already got it, about Cuba. And I asked him about--and
three of them that were at our table told me these are the
people who actually pick the Nobel Laureate. They said, Well,
they have got great healthcare, and they send all of their
workers overseas, thousands of them, to do work in other
countries.
Well, the TIP report this year--and I said, you know, they
coerce them. It is labor trafficking. We knew it then, we know
it now. Well, the TIP report for this year says that there is
22,000 such workers, 75--let me get the right--75 to 95 percent
of their salary is taken by the Communist dictatorship. So they
are working basically for free under threat of coercion and
retaliation against their own families.
So, hopefully, this myth that somehow they are doing
wonderful humanitarian work abroad is exploded. If anyone wants
to speak to that, I just--you know, that is this year's TIP
report that points that out. It is ongoing. But it is 75 to 95
percent of that.
And then there is a lot of children who are left behind
with that. Child sex trafficking continues to be a real
problem. And in every category, protection, prosecution and
prevention, this year Cuba got worse. And that is right from
the U.S. Department of State Trafficking in Persons office.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman. You are
so correct, and Michael Moore popularized this idea of this
great healthcare system in Cuba in his documentary, Sicko,
which is a complete farce. And people in Cuba are so desperate
to come to the U.S. to finally get the cures and the operations
and the surgeries that they need, but it is a great myth.
The regime has been wonderful in making sure that they can
promote this, this myth. It is a lie. And they make a pretty
penny on trafficking, on trafficking with people, and their
doctor's program is a prime example of that as you point out.
The first thing that they do is that they separate the
families. If you are a doctor and you go to wherever,
Venezuela, you will go, but your family has to stay behind in
Cuba. As soon as you get to the country, Venezuela, they take
your passport. So you are not free to leave. There is no--no
opportunity for you to seek asylum. Then they garnish your
wages.
I mean, we have words for that, indentured servitude,
slavery. But for some reason, the regime has been able to get
away with glamorizing this and making it seem as if that is a
humanitarian mission.
And Venezuela--I am just using that as an example--pays the
regime for every one of those workers. Now, that doctor doesn't
get the majority of the funds. It gets very little of those
funds. So the regime makes money for every medical professional
that they send abroad.
And for a while, one of our previous administrations, they
had a great program that allowed these Cuban doctors and nurses
to seek asylum in various embassies. And by doing so, then they
were able to come to the U.S. That was taken away, but it was a
very successful program because these folks know--these
doctors, these medical professionals, they know that they are
being trafficked, they know that they are being exploited. That
is what you have to do in a dictatorship.
There is no freedom. This concept of--that you have freedom
in a dictatorship, you know, they control where you live, where
you work, where you study, everything. And we have got to
remember that above it all is a one-party system. You cannot
have a political party other than the Communist Party. There is
no such thing as freedom of choice.
They don't even bother having elections because it is--you
know, at least Maduro goes through the charade and then the
opposition wins, and Maduro says, no, that was not a legitimate
election. In Castro's Cuba, they just--they do away with that.
No election. They will have--you know, you have the choice of
one person, one party, and that does not an election make.
But, yes, indentured servitude with their medical program
is one of those myths that they have. They do it for
humanitarian reasons, and that it is--that the Cuban people are
happy with their healthcare program. Nothing could be further
from the truth. But that is part of the myth that they have
been able to successfully promote internationally.
And, no, those--that Nobel Prize committee, would they ever
recognize a true freedom fighter, of which there are many who
are sacrificing what little they have, their very lives, to
speak for freedom.
And, you know, I referenced the July 11movement. It was a
massive protest throughout Cuba. Many of them have lost their
lives, many of them were killed, the rest were jailed, and
others are exiled, as Ortega has done in Nicaragua when he
threw out 200 of--of priests and human rights activists. They
just get rid of the opposition.
And that is one of the perks of being--living in a--being a
dictator in a dictatorship. You get to do whatever you want,
and people will just turn a blind eye. They don't see it. They
don't see what they don't want to see.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Smith. No, I thank you.
Yes.
Mr. Pappier. Mr. Chair, with Human Rights Watch, we have
produced an entire report about the abuses against these
doctors in medical missions in Cuba, and the Cuban economy gets
$6 billion to $8 billion a year through these medical doctors.
This is the highest source of income of foreign currency to
Cuba, higher than remittances or tourism. And I have personally
interviewed some of these doctors who fled Venezuela. And
because they are not allowed to take their own passport with
them, they are given an official passport, which only takes
them so far.
They are forced, when they come to the United States, to
come through Darien Gap and risk their lives in that very
dangerous jungle. I interviewed them there. And they told me
about the abusive regulations they are subject to when they are
on medical mission. These regulations establish who they can
talk to, what kind of things they can say, what they cannot
say, who they are allowed to meet during their mission. And as
you mentioned, they pocket their money on average 85 percent,
in some cases more.
Mr. Smith. Just very briefly, I was the sponsor of the
Global Magnitsky Act, and it really was derived from the
Belarus Democracy Act, which I wrote in the year 2004,
sanctioned individuals and sanctioned so they can't get a visa
and they can't do business here. There are only three Cubans
that are on the Global Magnitsky--I mean Cuban leaders. There
should be a large number of abusers that are on that list, so
we have got a call for that as well. And I think that is what
you were getting at in terms of more targeted, so that is
something for the new administration.
I have other questions, but I will yield to Ms. Wild.
Ms. Wild. Thank you so much, Mr. Chairman.
I would like to ask you, Mr. Pappier, to comment on the
impact of sanctions on the Cuban population. I know that we are
alone--not alone, but we are isolated in terms of our position
in the United States on this embargo. I think the only other
country that voted with the United States on this was Israel.
And I would like to know, from your perspective--and then I
am going to ask Ileana Ros-Lehtinen also to comment on the
same--how you believe that it unnecessarily hurts everyday
Cubans.
Mr. Pappier. Thank you for your question, Ranking Member.
First, let me say, I agree with you that the United States is
isolated on this issue. The policy of isolation toward Cuba has
isolated the United States. It has not isolated Cuba. And I
think the votes in the U.N. General Assembly are very clear on
this. Since 1992, the General Assembly has voted condemning the
U.S. embargo every year. And by promoting this policy, you have
been given a platform for the Cuban Government to present
itself as a victim instead of allowing the world to see that
they are perpetrators of gross----
Ms. Wild. OK. I am just going to ask you to direct your
answer--I don't want to hear about what the U.N. General
Assembly has done. I am aware of it, and I have read about it.
I would like to hear from your--what you know about the impact
of the embargo on citizens on an everyday basis.
Mr. Pappier. Absolutely. Let me draw your attention to
the--there is a report by the U.N. Secretary General on
November 1, 2023, where every agency of the United Nations
analyzing the impact that the embargo and the sponsor of
terrorism determination has both on the Cuban economy as a
whole and on their own capacity to provide humanitarian
assistance.
So in that report, for example, UNICEF, the U.N. agency in
charge of children; World Food Program, in charge of food, they
all mention that they have limitations in their capacity to
provide humanitarian assistance because of the embargo and
because of the State sponsor of terrorism determination.
I would say that the social economic catastrophe that we
have today in Cuba is not exclusively because of the embargo.
There are other factors, including the severe mismanagement of
the economy by the Cuban regime, and external factors, such as
the collapse of the Venezuelan economy and the COVID-19
pandemic, but it is definitely exacerbated by the embargo and
the State sponsor of terrorism determination.
Ms. Wild. Would you care to comment on that?
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Yes. I would say, point No. 1 is that the
real embargo that is taking place in Cuba is the embargo that
the regime imposes upon its people where they don't have
freedom of press, they don't have political parties, they don't
have election, they don't have--they are not free to dissent
from the government. It is a one-party system.
When it comes to the embargo that the Cuban people feel is
being imposed unfairly by the United States, the Cuban people
are voting by coming here to the United States in every way
possible. They have been fed a diet of anti-U.S. rhetoric since
the day that they were born. Those are their official books
that they have in school saying the American people and the
American government hate you, wants to keep you hungry, wants
to keep you sick, and it is all the cause--the root cause is
the embargo.
And they will nod, but they will try to do--you know, this
table would last 2 minutes in Cuba because it would be a raft
trying to come to the United States. They----
Ms. Wild. Well, just help me understand----
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Sure.
Ms. Wild [continuing]. Then how the decades of U.S. policy,
other than that second term that I mentioned of President
Obama, has advanced the cause of the Cuban people. How has it
helped them?
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Well, because doing the right thing, even
if you are by yourself, even if no one else is imposing an
embargo, even if it is just us, it is still the right thing to
do. And to reward a regime that is able to get everything that
it wants from 200 countries throughout the world, and yet there
is only the United States that is causing this great pain for
the Cuban people, you can get everything that the Cuban people
want from all of the other countries that have incredible trade
without any restrictions.
So if there is lack of food in Cuba--and there is--it is
not because of the United States; it is let's have all of these
wonderful countries contribute more food. You know where it
goes? To the regime. And what does the regime do? It sells it
to other countries.
And you will often find, all of these great foodstuffs from
Canada, let's say, one of the greatest trading partners and
tourism partners of the Castro regime, their goods will be sold
on the--in the markets.
Ms. Wild. The other thing I would point out, you mentioned
before the number of Cubans that want to come to the United
States, and obviously there is a limit on the number of Cubans
who will be able to come to the United States. I am not sure
that any administration would welcome people who, by your
words, have learned to despise the United States, and I think
future chances of coming here are even less than they have had.
So, you know, if--as a subcommittee that cares deeply about
both global health and human rights, I am struggling with this
issue. And I understand what--the right is right answer, but at
the same time, it has been many decades and it hasn't
accomplished anything that I can see. Do you want to comment
further?
And then I am going to yield, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Pappier. I think if the U.S. continues to do the same
thing, it will produce the same results, and the results are
more oppression, more poverty, and more migration. That is what
the situation in Cuba is right now and will continue to be as
long as this policy continues.
Ms. Wild. I guess the problem I have is that, as you
stated, all these other countries are providing goods and so
forth. So how effective is our embargo? Is it just, we are
doing it from--to use your words, because right is right or
because we actually think we can accomplish something with it?
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. We wish that there were more
international solidarity, so what we are asking is for other
countries to join us, not for us to say, oh, we are doing this
all by ourselves. Let me join the folks who are keeping the
regime in power.
Ms. Wild. But wouldn't that just hurt the Cuban people
more?
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. It doesn't hurt--the Cuban regime has
everything--gets everything it needs from all of the countries
in the world. Everybody is trading with Cuba. There is an
abundance. They have it, and they can provide it to the Cuban
people. They choose to do other things with the food and the
medicine that they get. There is no embargo on food. There is
no embargo on medicine. You can collect them in your
neighborhood and ship it to Cuba tomorrow.
There is no problem whatsoever. You fill out a little card
like this--and I am not even exaggerating--saying, this is
foodstuff and medicine, and I am sending it to the people of
Cuba. And you can fill a whole bin and send it over there. The
problem is, it won't get to the Cuban people. It will get to
the regime, they will sell it, they will give it away, and they
pay no price for it. But the Cuban people are not fooled. They
know we are a generous country.
Ms. Wild. OK. I do just want to ask one more, if I may, Mr.
Chairman.
Again, back to you, Mr. Pappier, what programs and
initiatives, if any, have been the most effective in promoting
human rights and civil liberties in Cuba?
Mr. Pappier. I don't think there has been much success
because, as you mentioned, the policy for 60 years has been
pretty much the same except for the 2 and a half years under
the Obama administration. And I would say, the limited results
in that policy, the fact that the 2--in 2 and a half years the
policy did not produce a political reform in Cuba is not a fact
to go--is not a reason to go back to a policy that has failed
for decades.
What is needed as a policy is multilateral support. And the
reason why there is no multilateral support, the reason why
other countries join the United States in condemning Venezuela,
join the United States in condemning Nicaragua, but do not join
the United States in condemning Cuba is the embargo. The
embargo creates a distraction and impedes them with the lateral
efforts that are necessary to press for a democratic transition
in Cuba.
Ms. Wild. Thank you. I yield.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Mrs. Radewagen?
Mrs. Radewagen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
It is so good to see you, Madam Chairwoman. We have
discussed Cuban political prisoners today, but the regime also
holds Americans in prison. Many of you know the case of Alina
Lopez, an American who was unjustly and arbitrarily arrested in
Cuba in 2017. She remains trapped in Cuba today under house
arrest and unable to leave the island. Her mother in Miami just
recently passed away. I mean, it is a heartbreaking and cruel
case. Congress strongly calls on Cuba to release Alina. Are you
familiar with this case? Why is Cuba detaining innocent
Americans? How can we get her home?
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you. I thank you, Mrs. Radewagen,
for bringing this important case up. And like most
authoritarian regimes or terrorist organizations, they
understand the value that Americans place in a human life. And
so the fact that she--that an American or a Cuban American is
being held unjustly in jail, they want to get something in
return for her, just as the terrorists in--that we have seen in
the Middle East have done so. They hold hostages under false
claims of accusations, and they want to see how can we bargain,
when can we get for this life.
They place no value on human life, and this is just another
sad example. There is so many people who are languishing in
Cuban jails and whose names won't--we will never know. But
anyone who speaks out or dares to threaten the regime in any
way is thrown in jail, and then they will see what they can get
for it.
Mrs. Radewagen. Thank you.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you.
Mrs. Radewagen. Ms. Werlau, please describe your
organization's Truth in Memory Project in further detail. Why
is it so important to record and commemorate the names and
faces of those killed or disappeared by the regime in Havana?
Ms. Werlau. Thank you for the opportunity. The Truth in
Memory Project records the loss in lives attributed to the
Cuban revolution. It starts with the Batista dictatorship up
until now, and it covers the loss of life on all sides of the
political spectrum.
We have around 11,500 individual records of victims, and it
is important because, of course, this tells a story of a very
undercounted horror, because as you mentioned, the Balseros
will never know. Death in prisons, you know, are very
undercounted, extrajudicial killings. But it personalizes the
suffering of the Cuban people and others who have paid the
price of this terrible saga that Cuba is living under.
We also have two other projects, one is based on the export
of the Cuban labor, the medical missions that started in 2010.
We started publishing reports. There is many reports on what
was described here that is even worse than what is reported
sometimes. I have interviewed dozens of doctors. Just 3 weeks
ago, a doctor who was sent to Guinea-Bissau told me that they
had found out Cuba was paying $10,000 a month for her service,
and she was getting $250. So that is technically like 97
percent of the salary.
Our third project is based on Cuba's interventions, how
Cuba has spread its model, infiltrated governments. And I
think, if you allow me the opportunity to tie in what was
discussed here before about why the embargo has not worked, I
would say the opposite: Engagement has not worked. The whole
world has engaged Cuba. There is a revolving doors, Presidents,
kings, kings-to-be, ministers, human rights activists for over
six decades trying to convince the Cuban regime to dialog about
human rights, to bring about reforms. That hasn't worked
either, because those totalitarian regimes do not succumb to
dialog or to end treaties.
And what we have is a United Nations system that is morally
bankrupt, that has abandoned the Cuban people with a cheap shot
at the United States with an annual declaration against the
embargo that says nothing. But in terms Cuba, the dictatorship
of Cuba sits in the U.N. Human Rights Council, is elected to
the executive body of numerous United Nations entities. And
nowhere have I seen any resolutions against any human rights
violations of Cuba, much less what the United Nations is going
to do with its responsibility to protect the oppressed people
of Cuba.
So I think what explains what we are seeing,
Congresswoman--and we have multiple reports on this--is a Cuban
regime that expends its resources on 126 embassies in the
world, more than Spain, more than Canada. They each have an
intelligence center. Cuba has almost 1,700 solidarity groups
around the world that it funds, parliamentary friendship
groups. This is a totalitarian bankrupt nation of Cuba. How do
you explain that? That is what explains that they buy,
influence, sway opinions, manipulate perceptions so that people
think that it is because of the U.S. embargo that there is a
totalitarian criminal regime for 60-something years oppressing
the Cuban people.
Mrs. Radewagen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Ms. Manning?
Ms. Manning. Thank you, Chairman Smith, for organizing this
hearing.
And thank you to our witnesses for being here, especially
our former colleague, Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen. We are so glad
that you are here with us, and thank you for all the work you
have done in the past and continue to do.
I want to commend Chairman Smith, and I want to echo your
demand that Cuba should return Joanne Chesimard, a fugitive who
murdered a New Jersey State trooper in 1973.
I also want to acknowledge a constituent and good friend in
my district, Bobby Mendez in Chastogee (ph), whose family
suffered terribly under the Castro regime.
After the revolution, Bobby's father was thrown in jail as
a political prisoner. He watched his neighbor's children being
shot and killed in front of him on their front lawn. And he and
his mother, who is a journalist, were forced to flee the
country.
After many years, Bobby's mother was told that her husband
had died in prison. She was devastated, but she subsequently
remarried and tried to build a new family for Bobby. Imagine
her heartbreak when years later her first husband was released
and searched for his wife and son. And what should have been a
joyful family reunion was a cruel blow to all with a
devastating and long-lasting impact that Bobby still talks
about today, as the entire family was broken.
It is hard to believe that all these years later the
cruelty of the Castro--and now the Daz-Canel--regime replete
with its human rights violations continues. And my heart goes
out to all the Cuban families who have suffered and continue to
suffer under the cruel Cuban regime.
And, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen, as you know, my dear
friend--our dear friend and colleague, Debbie Wasserman
Schultz, has made valiant efforts to help free Cuban political
prisoners Maykel Castillo Perez and Luis Manuel Otero Alcntara,
and they have been unjustly imprisoned since the Cuban regime's
crackdown on the July 11, 2021, pro-democracy movement.
And like my good friend, I urge both President Biden and
President-elect Trump to continue to seek freedom for these
political prisoners, along with hundreds of other political
prisoners illegally jailed by Cuba's secret police. How can we
do more to prioritize their plight?
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much, Congresswoman, and
thank you for your years of service. We will miss you. And I
know that you have been very active, especially in the Jewish
community and the federations to build that solidarity, and
many of your mission groups go to Cuba and help the----
Ms. Manning. Yes, they do.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen [continuing]. Families there, so we thank
you for that.
Debbie Wasserman Schultz, an amazing champion for the cause
of a free and democratic Cuba, as is Frederica Wilson, as is
Lois Frankel, and before--Ted Deutch is now the head of the
AJC. We have been blessed in our Florida delegation to have
such incredible bipartisan support in favor of freedom, human
rights, and all the goodness that we enjoy here in this
beautiful country. May all the enslaved people in the world
have it, and especially my native homeland of Cuba.
I think that there is more that we can do, and each one of
us can be that Ambassador of truth and hope. We can do whatever
little thing that we can in our own communities and in our own
way to shed light, to give--in your vaulted position, to give a
1-minute speech on these Cuban prisoners who are not known.
There is some who are very, very well known, and there is some
who just languish in jail and they think that no one hears
them.
To be able to write a letter to the editor, to your local
paper, to be active in your church and synagogue and bring up
their case and help them in Cuba; there is just a lot that
every person can be that beacon of hope. And I never
underestimate the power of an individual in making that amazing
change.
So we are blessed to have that kind of bipartisan
delegation in Florida, and New Jersey has it as well, and many
other places.
But everyone can do more. Each day we should rise up and
say, ``How can I make this a better place in my neighborhood,
in my school, in my community, and for oppressed people
elsewhere?'' Because we are all one island, and we are all
interconnected.
Ms. Manning. Thank you.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. And what happens elsewhere impacts us
all.
Ms. Manning. Thank you so much.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you.
Ms. Manning. Let me move to the other end of the table for
my second question, because I want to get one more in before we
have to go for votes.
And as I said, I strongly oppose the tyrannical regime, the
Castro regime now the Daz-Canel regime. And I share the
frustration that my good friend and colleague Representative
Wild was expressing, and I think many Americans feel the same
way. We are just concerned that the many, many years of the
embargo just has not brought about the political and economic
reforms that the Cuban people deserve.
So, Mr. Pappier, let me just ask you, what else can
Congress and the administration do to bring about the change
and also to help improve the daily conditions for the Cuban
people?
Mr. Pappier. Thank you for that question. To bring about a
reform change in Cuba you need, broadly speaking, two things:
One, you need multilateral support; and, second, you need an
empowered civil society in correlation of force with the Cuban
Government. The embargo, sadly, has impeded both. It has
impeded multilateral efforts, and it has imposed this criminal
hardship on the Cuban people.
We need to end this policy of isolation, think afresh--
start afresh on Cuban policy, start working with Latin American
governments and European governments to press strategically,
multilaterally the Cuban Government, and replacing these
general sanctions with targeted sanctions against the specific
individuals and the specific companies, I may add, who are
responsible for the atrocities that are being committed in
Cuba.
Ms. Manning. So that is unlikely to happen in the next
administration. Are there any other steps that we could take?
Mr. Pappier. Sadly, I think the efforts of the United
States on Cuba are very much undermined by the policy of the
embargo. There are other efforts you can take, but the embargo
undermines your capacity to produce change, undermines your
capacity to find allies to push for these reforms to happen. I
would be happy and encouraged for targeted sanctions against
those people responsible.
I would encourage you to give more civility to specific
individual cases of political prisoners, including some of the
ones I mentioned, and to work multilaterally with other
governments. But I fear that the embargo creates a whole
destruction and makes it very difficult to create this
multilateral coalition for democracy and human rights in Cuba.
Ms. Manning. So I suspect we could go back and forth from
one end of the table to the other end of the table. We could
agree on the goal that we want; we just simply can't agree on
how we can get there. So with that, I will thank you all for
being here today, and I yield back.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
Just a couple final thoughts and questions.
Oh, did you want to--please, Maria.
Ms. Werlau. She is prodding me to answer you.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Yes.
Ms. Werlau. So I think, with all respect to my colleague,
and I think we share the same goal, that is wishful thinking.
Yes, the embargo is a distraction. Look at how we are talking
about this. But to blame the embargo for a totalitarian regime
that commits egregious crimes against humanity for six decades
is wanting to be blind about a situation. This is not about
individuals; this is a whole system of way of life, and it is a
dynasty, it is their successors.
Yes, I believe, of course, multilateral sanctions would be
best, but the world ignores Cuba. And it is too late. The Cuban
system is imploding. The main sources of revenue from Cuba are
in our hands to cut to get that regime to recognize, face the
reality, and allow for a transition to democracy. Nowhere in
those propositions to sit in dialog with Cuba or find a
multilateral position is there any solution to this. None of
these countries are presenting this. It is too easy to push it
on to the United States and to forget the Cuban people. I think
we have the obligation to finally see this through.
What we have not done is applied the sanctions, the so-
called embargo has been diluted by executive mandate for many,
many years. And the border is porous. This is constantly
allowing an inflow of people who are sending money to Cuba,
traveling back to Cuba, having claimed a legitimate fear of
persecution, calling, sending aid. The embargo has not been
enforced, and right now it is at the tipping point.
So that is what I believe. Maybe there will be more
suffering. There should be a humanitarian assistance
multilateral program to aid the Cuban people, but feeding the
regime and its conglomerate is only going to prolong the failed
system that oppresses the people that there is no way out of
this economic crisis, because it is a parasitic, bankrupt
economy. Thank you.
Ms. Manning. Well, one thing we have learned in the past 2
weeks is that you never know what is going to bring down an
oppressive, horrific regime, so maybe we can all hope that in
the new year we are surprised in Cuba, just like we have been
surprised in Syria.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Yes.
Ms. Manning. With that, I really do yield back.
Mr. Smith. Let me just ask a couple final questions. I am
all for multilateral sanctions, but as the distinguished
chairwoman said, if we have to go it alone, we ought to. I
supported apartheid sanctions. There were many people who
thought that that would be injurious to the people of South
Africa, but I thought the horrendous apartheid system needed to
be confronted, and thankfully over time that did jettison that
off the face of the Earth.
We need allies. I am shocked when I talk to other diplomats
and other Members of Congress and parliaments what a naive view
they have about Cuba, especially as it relates to the--for the
foreign--the people that they deploy elsewhere for medical
reasons. You know, you tell them 75 to 95 percent of that money
is going to a dictatorship. That is--that is trafficking, and
that is what the TIP report says. It is trafficking, indentured
servitude, as you said, Ileana.
One of the things that grabbed me when I read Armando
Valladares' book, and then talking to people who have been
imprisoned in Cuba, we have had Dr. Biscet, we've had so many
people come and testify over the years, and it was that torture
is given in those prisons. One of the things that Armando
Valladares talked about was they took the prisoners, put them
into human waste, submerged them; it went through their ears,
their nose, their eyes. They all got infections. It was totally
degrading. I mean, what evil dictatorship does that? And it was
so bad that when Armando Valladares' wife gave birth to their
children, he couldn't change the diapers. He had PTSD on that.
Now, I have written four laws on combatting the problem of
torture. They are called the Tortured Victims Relief Act. And
it is all about the PTSD. We have got hundreds of thousands of
Americans, or people in America, who come from all over the
world, who have been in prisons all over the world and have
been tortured. They need help. What do you say to a
dictatorship that is doing this every day, as we meet here,
they are being tortured so horrifically?
Valladares talked about the Ho Chi Minh polls. They made
sure that you didn't sleep. They would go in there and start
hitting you, and they called them Ho Chi Minh polls. And that
is just one of many. China, maybe more than anyone else, has
perfected the cruel art of torture. I have had many hearings on
that. I chair the China Commission.
So what did we do there? We delinked human rights from
trade on May 26, 1994. That was Bill Clinton. I joined, with
Nancy Pelosi, in deploring that, because we just gave away the
store. And look what they have done ever since.
They are callosus when it comes to military capability,
threatening not just Taiwan but hegemony throughout that
region, but even us. I mean, China really is very strong these
days. And we did it. It wasn't the Europeans; we did it,
through a false sense that if you just trade more and lift the
sanctions and the linkage to human rights, they will
matriculate from dictatorship to a democracy. Nothing--I will
sell you the Brooklyn Bridge if you really believe that, and I
don't think any of you believe that.
The International Red Cross has not been there since 1988.
Why aren't they there talking to people, chronicling what is
going in terms of the use of torture. So to lift the embargo,
we need to get more allies, make a new effort to get others to
join us. First it was the Soviets and then it was European
Union and others who just continually offer life lines to this
cruel dictatorship.
So I think the next administration ought to try very hard
to get others to say--you know, and it goes for places like
China as well. We have learned that lesson. I can't tell you
how many people have told me they wish they had voted--because
we had votes on it, on PNTR, permanent normal charity
relations--don't--they wish they could have that vote back,
because they realize it didn't work out. It has gotten worse in
terms of genocide against the Uyghurs and everything else.
Nobody there from ICRC since 1989. I mean, what does that tell
you?
So with all due respect to my good friends and colleagues,
and to you, Juan, I don't believe that lifting the sanctions--I
think we need to double down on that, get other countries to
join us. So I would ask that we, you know, look at that very
seriously.
I believe in targeted sanctions, but I also believe, like I
did with apartheid, I was, you know, criticized for that by
some. You are going to hurt the South Africans. Yes, but they
need to be free of that racial prejudice that is being levied
against them.
So anyone want to comment on that?
But we have got to renew our efforts to expose this
cruelty. This hearing is the beginning of a new effort. And,
again, having the distinguished chairwoman, Ileana Ros-
Lehtinen, here, who is--nobody speaks stronger or better about
it.
And just let me say one other thing. The enablers of this
country, I had a Reverend Walker come when Elian Gonzalez was
abducted from his home--and Marisleysis, and the others,
couldn't believe it when people with guns came in and extracted
him. Well, I had a hearing on it. And we had a Reverend Walker
from my own State, and he goes, you know, I want to tell you,
my favorite scripture is Matthew 25. When I was in prison, did
you visit me? And he goes, I visited the people in the prisons.
So I said, OK. Do you visit political prisoners? And I had a
whole list of people that--and he said--he hesitated.
Lincoln Diaz-Balart, he had joined us on the panel. He
goes, will the gentleman yield? I said, of course. He said,
name them. Name one political prisoner that you visited. He
didn't have anybody. Next thing you know, he was walking out
the door to catch a plane. He did not want to--I mean, stop
enabling. I am not saying that to you guys. I am saying it to
those who just look the other way.
Torture is the cruellest thing. I don't know how anybody
overcomes that, you know, and we know from the PTSD that they
suffer. And this regime gets A-plus for their horrible use of
torture. I mean, they do it very well, as do the Chinese
Communist Party. So double down on sanctions.
Yes?
Mr. Pappier. Mr. Chair, thank you. Just to--first of all,
to clarify to Maria's comments with all due respect, I made
very clear in my statement that the Cuban Government is solely
responsible for the atrocities for it commits. It is solely
responsible for those atrocities.
I share your concerns about torture in Cuba. We have
documented them extensively. Here are reports of torture that
we have documented of people that day on July 11
demonstrations. And I have also in preparation for this hearing
listened to some of the hearings on Cuba in the past 10, 15
years. And I have always listened to something along the lines
of what you just mentioned, Mr. Chair, with all due respect. If
only we wait a little bit more, if only we pressure a little
bit more, we post a little bit more of sanctions maybe that
will produce results. It hasn't produced results for 60 years.
Mr. Smith. But with all due respect----
Mr. Pappier. We need to try something different.
Mr. Smith [continuing]. We thought that with China. When
delinking occurred under Bill Clinton, May 26, 1994,
Republicans and Democrats alike said, this is going to lead to,
you know, improvements. It only got worse, and it got
significantly worse.
So I think we need to realize it only makes them stronger,
more effective, and richer. The bad guys become richer. And it
doesn't help the average person, and it certainly doesn't cause
a change in politics, because for them, you know, make sure
Colonel So-and-So is running this business over there and
making money hand over fist.
Maria, did you want to----
Ms. Werlau. Mr. Chairman, can I share a story with you for
the record. Randall Robinson, the architect of South Africa
sanctions, I heard him speak at Columbia University in the
early 2000's and then I went over to talk to him. There was the
journalist, the reporter for Radio and TV Marti was recording
this.
So I asked him, so, if you are so--he was talking about how
sanctions had been so important, how they were right even when
they weren't effective and then they were.
So I said, so why is your stance on Cuba so different?
Because it is notable that many human rights defenders have the
opposite stance with respect to sanctions on Cuba that they
would have on the Pinochet regime, the South Africa regime, et
cetera. Well, you know what he said? He said, oh, no, because
there are no human rights violations in Cuba.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Wow.
Mr. Smith. Yes.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. That takes my breath away.
Mr. Smith. That is astonishing.
Mr. Connor, just if I could ask you, you wrote Secretary
Blinken earlier this year requesting that your father's killer,
Willy Morales, be extradited to the U.S. Did you get a
response?
Mr. Connor. No. I contacted Secretary Blinken, Jake
Sullivan, my New Jersey Senators and got no response from
anybody.
Mr. Smith. And one last question to you. I know you are
trying to get the city, University of New York, to take down
the naming of the center.
Mr. Connor. Yes.
Mr. Smith. I mean, they are naming it after Joanne
Chesimard and Morales, and it is just absurd.
Mr. Connor. They named the student center called the
William Morales Assata Shakur student center, and this had been
reported years ago, and I went up there----
Oh. Yes, they had a student center called William Morales
Assata Shakur at City College of New York, and it had been
supposedly taken down in the early 2000's. And on a hunch,
which I have had over the years, I called them years later and,
sure enough, it was open. So I went up there by myself with my
phone and camera and I started taking pictures. I have sent
them to some of the guys on the committee here.
And then I called the school and said, you know, I am going
to go public with this, that you have a student center named
for terrorists. And my father went to CCNY, and I didn't see
anything there in his honor. So they fought me a bit, which I
was a little shocked. And then they said, well, yes, it is this
freedom of speech thing, but we are going to compromise. We are
going to take it down, and we are going to say that it is
because, you know, we need that space for the--for education.
So when they went to do it, a near riot broke out, and cops
were called in. And it was basically filled with like these
guys from like the 1960's who were still living their 60's and
70's weather underground crap and had infiltrated there, and
were using that--they weren't even students, most of them.
They were using that center for their own--you know, these
guys, my age type. They are old. And they cleared them out. And
to my knowledge, it has not been reopened, but it was really a
slap in the face that they would do something like that, but
not a surprise. This is what goes on in academia. Well, what
passes for academia.
Mr. Smith. Chairwoman, would you like to close us?
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. No, it really is shocking, the amount of
ignorance and willful ignorance. Even when you point it out to
them, you are glorifying a terrorist. And still, they are--the
hold that the Cuban regime, the mystique of Che Guevara and the
revolution and that was all in favor of the downtrodden, that
it still permeates in so many of the college campuses. It is
sickening. But as we saw----
Mr. Connor. Yes.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Look at the anti-Semitism that was alive
and well in all of these Ivy leagues. It is sickening, but----
Mr. Connor. Well, Columbia University has hired terrorists
over the years.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Yes. Terrorists, yes. Yes.
Mr. Connor. And look what you get when you hire terrorists;
you get students who start believing that stuff.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. And to disguise this as freedom of speech
is just ludicrous.
Mr. Connor. Yes, it is ludicrous.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
I want to thank our great panel. Sorry we started late.
That is because of the Blinken hearing. We were precluded
from----
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Who does he think he is?
Mr. Smith. And we can't have a hearing simultaneous with
that. So thank you so much and----
Mr. Connor. You are welcome. Thanks for having us.
Mr. Smith [continuing]. Appreciate all of information. Even
when we disagree, we do it civilly and respectfully.
Mr. Pappier. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Mr. Smith. Thank you.
[Whereupon, at 4:11 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.]
APPENDIX
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Material Submitted for the Hearing Record
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