[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 100 (Wednesday, July 27, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[Congressional Record: July 27, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]
MORE ON ATROCITIES IN CUBA
______
speech of
HON. LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART
of florida
in the house of representatives
Tuesday, July 26, 1994
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
February 11, 1994, and June 10, 1994, the gentleman from Florida [Mr.
Diaz-Balart] is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the
minority leader.
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Madam Speaker, Members, first, it is my
understanding that 12 Cuban-Americans were arrested earlier today
during a protest in front of the Cuban Mission here in Washington, DC.
The names of those arrested that I have at this time for apparently an
accusation of civil disobedience are former U.S. Ambassador to the
United Nations Human Rights Commission Armando Valladares and his wife
Marta; Mr. Jay Fernandez, distinguished member of this community; Mr.
Luis Haza of the National Symphony Orchestra; and Mr. Jesus Permuy, a
distinguished member of the community that I am honored to represent in
this Congress.
There are others. I do not have their names as of yet. I also do not
know yet the details of what occurred today, but I certainly share the
deep anger at the brutality of the Cuban dictatorship that motivated
the Cuban-Americans who were today arrested here in Washington, DC.
Madam Speaker, I spoke on this floor twice last week on a brutal
massacre perpetrated by the Cuban dictatorship less than 2 weeks ago,
and spoke about the details as I knew them then concerning that
massacre. I have more details today.
I also spoke last week about the fact that I really do not understand
the reasons for the lack of attention given by much of the national and
international media to the massacre of July 13 and really to similar
incidents which occur all too often in that country only 90 miles away
from the shores of the United States.
We read often about horrendous, unacceptable conduct taking place
elsewhere in our hemisphere. For example, just few days ago I was
reading the New York Times and Washington Post and some of the wire
services, also the Miami Herald, which I read, and I was told that the
Today Show, one of the morning network news programs, mentioned a
massacre that had taken place at a similar time frame to the massacre
of July 13, and the massacre of those 12 people in Haiti was, as I
said, covered by the media that I have just referred to.
I say recently in the New York Times and in other newspapers coverage
of some deaths that occurred by accident in Panama, unfortunately. I
also saw coverage of the horrendous tragedy in much media, both written
and television and radio, of the unacceptable and brutal tragedy that
occurred in Argentina. I was told that again the morning news program
on television, the Today Show on NBC News, had substantial coverage of
that tragedy, and other media.
But with regard to Cuba, I must say, and I would assume that the
American people who are watching on C-SPAN would agree, that you do not
hear much about what happens in Cuba. It is as though massacres can
occur and unarmed citizens can be shot down, can be cut down with
bullets, and yet you do not hear about it in much of our national
media.
For example, not just the July 13 massacre, but last summer, a year
ago, our State Department issued a statement denouncing and condemning
the practice of the Cuban dictatorship of throwing hand grenades and
firing upon swimmers who try to reach the Guantanamo base, the U.S.
naval base in Guantanamo, in the eastern part of Cuba. And the fact
that there were eyewitnesses to numerous instances of hand
grenades having been thrown at swimmers, and the swimmers' lifeless
bodies being subsequently picked up and put on the boats, the Cuban
vessels, government vessels, with fishhooks.
Yet I ask the American people watching on C-SPAN, where was the
national and international coverage of that event? Could you imagine if
the Haitian dictatorship would throw hand grenades at citizens trying
to flee Haiti and who were actually swimming, and then would pick them
up with fishhooks, would we not be seeing that in the national media?
Also last summer, in two towns in Cuba, there were armed attacks by
the thugs of the dictatorship upon the unarmed people of Cuba that we
found out about, and yet I did not see, and I ask, who saw covered on
our national media, those attacks by the Cuban dictatorship?
In recent months, within the last 6 weeks, two vessels full of
refugees, despite having been shot at by the thugs of the Cuban
dictatorship, managed to arrive on the shores of Florida. I ask what
coverage did those incidents receive?
And had those incidents been not from Cuba, but from, again, Haiti or
other dictatorships outside of this hemisphere, would we not have heard
about them? That is the question that I ask tonight.
This spring, more than 100 people burst into the Belgium Embassy in
Havana. As I recall, there were more than 30 children among them. And,
again, the lack of coverage of that incident and of the fact that in
the German Embassy and in the Chilean Consulate similar incidents
occurred just weeks ago, I ask, again, why is it that those events are
not given the proper coverage?
If they were simply isolated events, if they were insignificant
events, I would perhaps try to understand why there is no coverage. I
do not think it would be acceptable, but I think I would try to
understand why there is no coverage.
If the events were from 10,000 miles away, it would be unacceptable
not to cover them. Yet, perhaps one could say, well, they are 10,000
miles away, they are so far from our shores, there might be a rationale
to not covering the tragedies such as the ones I have mentioned. it
would be unacceptable not to cover them if they were 10,000 miles away.
But they are not 10,000 miles away. They are 90 miles from the shores
of the United States of America.
If they were isolated in that they occurred just in these instances
that I mentioned and never before nor after, well, perhaps it could be
said that they were so isolated that that is why they did not receive
coverage. It would be unacceptable not to cover those incidents, even
if they were extraordinarily isolated. But that could be perhaps some
sort of rationale. But those incidents are typical ones that commonly
occur.
I remember on this floor seeing a young boy, speaking to a young boy,
who was here as a guest of my colleague, the gentlewoman from Florida
[Ms. Ros-Lehtinen], and the boy was 10 years old and told me that he
had come in a little boat from Cuba, and for hours in the night while
the boat was seeking to reach the shores of freedom, a helicopter of
the Cuban armed forces was looking out for the boat to sink it, this
little boy would tell me, with large bags full of sand that this
helicopter would throw at the boat in order to sink it. The little boy
said that since it was nighttime, they did not see us, they did not
sink us.
``They saw our wake,'' I remember he told me. But they did not see
us, and we managed to make it. So it happens all the time. The
genocidal conduct of this brutal dictatorship just 90 miles from our
shores occurs all the time. And the lack of coverage of that genocidal
conduct by our national press and media occurs all the time. And yet it
seems as though the only time that Cuba is mentioned by much of our
national media is to say: TV Marti is jammed.
I am sure many of the folks listening, watching tonight on C-SPAN
have seen those reports. I have read editorials in many newspapers and
have seen many stories in the networks on the fact that Castro jams
Television Marti and thus editorializing much of that media and
newspapers say: We should get rid of that effort to inform with news
and information, to send news and information to the Cuban people,
because Castro seems to be able to jam much of the time Television
Marti. That I have seen covered.
Oh, yes, we hear about Television Marti in editorialized versions of
the story. We hear that TV Marti should not continue because Castro
seems to jam TV Marti, instead of, if we are going to hear
editorializing on that story, TV Marti seems to be jammed so we have
even more of a reason to make it better and to get through the jamming.
TV Marti seems to be jammed often so we have an obligation to listen to
the report of that independent panel that this Congress set up just 1
year ago, in a totally unbiased and detached manner, which went through
in a detailed fashion, studied this issue, studied what Radio and TV
Marti do and came out with a report saying that not only should they be
continued but to improve the technological ability. And we can improve
within the existing budget the technological ability of Television
Marti to get through Castro's jamming and to reach the Cuban people,
because a substantial amount of the population of Cuba is extremely
desirous to receive Television Marti, like over 70 or even 80 percent
of the Cuban people listen on a daily basis to Radio Marti.
But that is not the editorializing that we hear about in the coverage
on TV Marti. Inevitably the editorializing on Television Marti is
because a foreign dictator seems to be jamming our broadcasts of
Television Marti, that thus we should end those broadcasts.
Imagine during the cold war, when the Russians sought to jam Radio
Free Europe and sought to jam Radio Liberty, if the media, if much of
the media in a systematic fashion would tell the American people, we
should end our broadcasts because the Russians seem to be jamming or
want to jam our broadcasts. That is not what would have been proper, as
it is not proper now to try to editorialize with regard to that program
which is so important for the our mission of getting news and
information to the people of Cuba and for facilitating a transition to
democracy in Cuba.
And there are other things that we read about Cuba, because Cuba is
reported. For example, efforts to try to incite and encourage illegal
tourism to Cuba by the American people.
There is a ban on tourist travel to Cuba as there is a ban on tourist
travel to Libya, and there is a ban on tourist travel to Iraq, and
there is ban on tourist travel to North Korea. Those are terrorist
states. And for a very good reason, we have established a policy that
we do not want to see our tourists and our tourists dollars go to help
those terrorist regimes. But it is not uncommon to see, for example,
look at this, I read this in the Washington Post, July 20, 1 week after
the massacre, by the way, of July 13, this article on food, food in
Cuba, entitled ``Cuba, a Slow Reawakening.''
When I first saw this, I thought, good, there is coverage now. I saw
a story on Cuba a week after the massacre, and, I thought, it has taken
them a week but finally they will have a story on the massacre,
finally. I see, no, a slow reawakening of tastes. If you ever want to
see a ``let them eat cake'' story, the ultimate ``let them eat cake''
story, look at this food section in the Washington local newspaper,
Washington Post of the 20th of July.
This writer who wrote this story on the food in Cuba states, ``the
crumbling edges of pastel buildings were softened by the night. I felt
like Sara Brown in `Guys and Dolls,' down for a lark with Sky
Masterson.''
And then this writer goes on talking about the food that only the
tourists and the Communist hierarchy can go and have, by the way,
describing these wonderful restaurants in Havana. ``But in old Havana
there are hopes that things will get better as tourists are attracted
to the city as they were in the past. The government is betting its
money on it.''
Listen to this:
The amount of fat in the Cuban diet has been reduced in
recent years, and there is greater emphasis on fruits and
vegetables, by necessity as well as by choice.
The Floridita restaurant a few blocks away was a favorite
Hemingway hangout. While you sip, strolling musicians
serenade with songs from the 1950s and before. The
Floridita's grilled tarragon chicken with French fries was
delicious. The lobster bisque was fine.
This writer continues to go on describing the food in the restaurants
of Havana. ``There was something about Errol Flynn and Ava Gardner in
the restaurant. I mopped up every drop of the juice of my meat,'' this
writer continues.
Later, in the well-appointed grill room of the Hotel
Sevilla, I sipped a Cuba Libre and snacked on fried
plantains. The student waiter served my camarones al ajillo,
soft music played.
Now, in here, in this wonderful review of Havana restaurants, there
is absolutely no mention of the fact that the Cuba people cannot enter
these restaurants, that only tourists and Communist hierarchy, with
dollars, can enter these restaurants. The ultimate example of lack of
sensitivity, as I called it before, the ultimate ``let them eat cake''
example of journalism about a country that due to the destruction
brought upon it by a regime that does not permit its people to enter
those restaurants, that imposes a tourism apartheid, wants to attract
American tourism, and articles like this, articles like this are
seeking simply to evade, to encourage American citizens to break our
law and to go to these restaurants that the Cuban people are not able
to to go to.
That we read about Cuba, but we do not hear about those things that I
mentioned before, the tragedy after tragedy, after tragedy.
I yield to the gentleman from California [Mr. Dornan].
Mr. DORNAN. I raced over here the other night to join you last week
at the back-to-back 5 minutes and just missed joining you on the floor,
because I am amazed that not through conspiracy but through like-minded
thinking, journalists who would otherwise claim that their credo is
fairness and openness, seeing to the self-censoring of themselves from
talking about the ongoing history of atrocities in Cuba. The date that
you were the first one to bring to my attention, because I could not
find it anywhere in the printed media, July 13, this old tugboat that
was escaping, followed by Castro's navy so to speak.
They waited until it was outside the 7-mile limit, and then they
circled it, creating a maelstrom and use high-powered fire hoses to
blow women and children off the decks, 40 dead. And you got up and
updated it all, coming from south Florida, on the death toll. And what
has happened to the 30 or so survivors and is that an accurate figure?
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. I have gotten updates on facts with regard to what
occurred. Nothing of what you referred to last week is untrue. It is
all true. There are more facts coming out.
And what is really shocking, not only, of course, is the brutal
conduct that you just referred to, but, for example, after, in Miami,
before boarding Air Force One, after having been asked about the
massacre that had occurred just a few days before, the President of the
United States, and I will read, condemns the massacre as an example of
Cuban brutality and he states, ``I deplore it as an example of Cuban
brutality, another example of the brutal nature of the Cuban regime.''
The President of the United States says this, and it is still not
covered. It is still not covered. And then the Pope issues his
condolences, expresses his condolences to the survivors of the
massacre, for, obviously, the loss of their family and friends, and I
have not seen that in the major networks or media.
Then last Friday, after, by the way, another attempt to kill TV
Marti, something that is covered, that we do hear, to kill TV Marti,
because of jamming, not because the program is not good, not because it
is biased; no, no, independent report after independent report says
that it is good programming, that it is fair programming, that it is
programming that cannot be condemned. Yet, time after time, we hear it
should be killed.
However, based on an amendment in the Senate to do just that, there
was such an uproar among the Senators with regard to this massacre and
the lack of sensitivity of the timing, just 1 week after the massacre,
trying to do something that in effect would help Castro, because if
Castro spends tons of oil to jam Television Marti, obviously it is not
in his interest. TV Marti is not in his interest. He does not like TV
Marti.
The Senate, pursuant to that total lack of sensitivity, especially of
timing, 1 week after the massacre, passes overwhelmingly an amendment
by Senators Mac, Dole, Graham, and others condemning the tragedy of
July 13, requesting that the President instruct our permanent
representative to the United Nations to seek a condemnation of the
massacre by the Security Council of the United Nations, and also to
seek an international investigation of the massacre. This is by the
Senate of the United States. I also did not see a report anywhere.
Mr. DORNAN. Madam Speaker, if the gentleman will continue to yield, I
would ask him if he will see if he concurs with me in making a
suggestion to the media. They know this lesson well, but maybe if
somebody brings it up on the floor of this distinguished legislative
Chamber they will see a way to get back into the story.
A few days before the at-sea massacre by Castro's people there was a
massacre of 12 males in Haiti. We sent people from the Embassy out to
photograph the bodies. They were all dumped together. Twelve certainly
constitutes a massacre. There were seven people massacred on St.
Valentine's Day in 1929, and that was called, properly, a massacre. It
was headlines for months, the St. Valentine's Day massacre. Twelve is a
massacre.
Forty, involving women and children being blown into the sea to
drown, that is a massacre. Here is what the media can do, the title of
a reprise story: ``The Story of Two Massacres: What Happens When the
Visual Media Does Not Have Film,'' and then show that when film is
available, as it was in Haiti, of the 12 bodies of the young men who
were brutally killed, but there is no film of this atrocity at sea, you
do a comparison of ``Is a story a story unless someone photographs
it?''
We do not have photographs of the mass starvation in Sudan, where
Moslems and Christians were killing one another in south Sudan, but now
that the refugees flee from Rwanda into Zaire, and we have horrible
film from Goma, suddenly it is a massive story. We were told over and
over that until the BBC filmed the starvation in Ethiopia 9 years ago,
that that was not a story.
Here is my suggestion to the sight, sound, and motion television
networks and CNN. They could easily do what they do when they set their
mind to it: show a map of Cuba, put a little dotted line going out to a
7-mile limit, then show a picture, ``This is the type of boat that was
escaping, and on this boat there were about 75 people,'' and these
facts will all start to come out more and more over the next few months
as some of the women get out clandestine word to people in your
district and in your community in southern Florida, say ``And here is
what took place.''
You do it with animation. You show a larger boat and say, ``Here is a
satellite photograph of one of the Cuban-type fire boats, and here is
what these fire hoses can do,'' and if they wanted to they can set up a
simulation.
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. They do not need to do that. Let me tell you why: We
have photographs of the two dozen children.
Mr. DORNAN. Oh, my gosh, their bodies?
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. We have family pictures. No, not after they died.
They are at the bottom of the water. They have refused to go get the
bodies and they have refused to get those bodies so their family can
give them a burial.
No, they refused that, but the families, those ladies whose taped
voices I heard, and who have willingly spoken on video to foreign
journalists in Cuba, they have the family pictures of the two dozen
children that died. So we can show, if we want, the family pictures.
Mr. DORNAN. Let us write a letter to Rick Caplan, charter FOB, Friend
of Bill's. Let us write a letter to him. He does the evening news at
ABC, used to be a producer of Prime Time. Let us write a letter to
Peter Jennings. Let us write a letter to Sam Donaldson. More than
anything, let us write a letter to Ted Koppel. They brag they reach
more people than any other news outlet in American history.
Madam Speaker, the gentleman and I and our colleague, the gentleman
from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez], on the other side of the aisle, let us
pick this as a massacre that we will not let die, because of the
children and women involved.
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. We will not, we will not let it die.
Mr. DORNAN. How horrible it is to drown at sea, and for all we know
they suffered shark attack; these are shark-infested waters, let us
keep this alive. Let us each week one of us at least do a 5-minute, and
one of those who have interests in Florida, and let us contact one of
the networks, and I will personally call Ted Koppel, ask him, let us do
an analysis of two massacres, and ask if there is a Rwanda factor here
now: That unless people die in the tens of thousands, it is no longer a
story. Thank you again for bringing the truth out.
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman from California
for his concern, and for the fact that he has already spoken, and I
have seen him speak on this floor, with regard to this massacre.
I reiterate, as I have in the past, that this I will not let die,
because they have gone too far. They started the first of January of
1959, they started killing people that same day, to terrorize the
population, but this massacre of over two dozen small children in the
dead of night at 3 a.m. in the morning, and by the way, more facts, as
I stated before, have come out.
Mr. DORNAN. May I put in one footnote, if the gentleman will yield
further?
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Yes.
Mr. DORNAN. The media is obsessed with following the line of those
doves in this House who finally have found a conflict that they are
looking forward to: Military force in Haiti. I want to reiterate what I
have said on this House floor before: That there are thugs in Haiti who
have serial killer first-degree murder backgrounds, from Tons-Tons
Macoutes, former types who are now sergeants, all the way up to the
Prime Minister; good evidence of drug running and killing, but not
general Cedras. I am not making a case for him, but all of our
intelligence agencies are on record as saying there is no
circumstantial, let alone hard-core, evidence tying him to any murders,
any torture murders, or any people who survived torture. There is
nothing tying him to drug running.
Now maybe he should go. He is obviously an obstinate man, and he has
people like the chief of police, Francois Michel, who do have ugly
backgrounds, but not Cedras. But Castro, and I think I told you this
once, he is now gone to the great embassy in the sky, but the U.S.
Ambassador to Cuba who was there when Castro was a senior in law
school, running for the student body president, told me that he
personally executed his opponent who was running ahead of him for, like
some American colleges, it was not for student body president, it was
for presidency of the student union, that he executed him when he was
brought out a side exit of a movie theater, gunned him down between two
automobiles.
I went over to the State Department after I heard that, I learned
that at John Fisher's American Security Council seminar, the summer of
1974. I went to the State Department and said, ``Is this true,'' once I
became a Congressman 2 years later. ``Oh, everybody in the State
Department believes that is probably a true story.''
Here is the story that I have gone over with you, you have confirmed
it to me because I said it on the House floor before you and Ileana
came here to give us your own personal experience.
That Castro, in the 1960's, in the 1970's and the 1980's would say,
to pick a name of someone who made it out, ``How is Armando Valladares
doing?'' This is a man whose name had not passed his lips in maybe 5
years. The man is now in, say, his 20th year of imprisonment.
``Oh, not too well, we don't expect him to survive the year. He's
stark naked, in a blackened-out cell, his own fecal material is still
in the cell most of the time. Yeah, he's really doing poorly.''
And Castro would say, ``Good. Keep it up.'' And maybe bring up this
man's name, not just men, women, 5 years later. The man is diabolical.
To see Diane Sawyer, it is too harsh to say she was fawning over him,
and plenty of male journalists have done this, too, just to get some
exclusive interview with him. To see journalists acting like this man
is anything but a first-degree murderer, a serial killer and a thug who
personally gave orders to torture people and kept them in prison for a
quarter of a century, revisiting their cases occasionally, so he could
feel their pain, it reminds me of Adolf Hitler killing 5,000 people
after the plot 50 years ago on July 20, then having film taken, still
and motion picture film, of them hanging, some of them, naked from
piano wire on meat hooks, then for some sadistic reason that normal
people cannot understand, laughing while he watches them hung over and
over again.
Where is the line between Adolph Hitler, except by degree of numbers
murdered, and Castro who would let people be tortured for years, live
in total darkness naked like animals and revisit their cases
occasionally? That is why thugs under him would feel that they have
some right of power to blow women and children off the deck of a ship
in the dead of night to drown in the ocean. So keep it up, Lincoln.
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. It was a direct order.
Mr. DORNAN. A direct order. Let me get beyond the 7-mile, kill and
bring back a few survivors to make an example?
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. It was a direct order, and we have the names.
There was a tip to the Minister of the Interior, General Colome
Ibarra, that 70-plus refugees were planning to leave that morning,
within a few days, the morning of the 13th of July. Castro personally
ordered to his Interior Ministry that an example be made of this group
because things were getting out of hand.
``So don't use the Navy'' was the order. ``Use those three new Dutch
fire-fighting vessels that we have with those very potent hoses. Blow
them off the deck, then ram the boat and sink it. But after they're out
of the bay,'' where there are no witnesses.
Colome Ibarra, the Minister of the Interior now states that Castro
personally gave the order, which is very interesting, as though Colome
Ibarra is thinking of a potential trial in the future because there
cannot be a statute of limitations for this. Colome Ibarra perhaps
thinking about that trial in the future says that the order was
personally given by the commander in chief.
The three Dutch fire-fighting vessels were named Polargo, the Polargo
2, which had a Ministry of the Interior official on it giving orders,
named David. The Polargo 3, whose Ministry of the Interior official was
Aristides, we do not have a last name. And the Polargo 5.
Mr. DORNAN. Does Polargo mean anything in English?
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Just names. Vessels 2, 3, and 5. The Polargo 5 was
under instructions of the man in charge of the mission. Jesus Martinez,
known as Jesusito. Jesus Martinez was very frustrated, because just a
few weeks before when a vessel full of refugees reached Florida, they
had tied up an Interior Ministry official who was on board, and that
was Jesusito. So imagine how full of vengeance this man was and how
happy he was to have an opportunity to comply with the order to make an
example given by his commander in chief.
This man Jesus Martinez was on the Polargo 5, that Dutch vessel, the
largest and most potent of the fire-fighting vessels that rammed the
old tugboat until it managed to break it in half, crack its hull, and
it sank to the depths.
This information in a very, very well-researched article was brought
to our attention by a Cuban writer and journalist who has been
described time and time again by the media as a moderate. Very
interesting. This is a ``moderate'' Cuban exile leader who lives in
Spain, Carlos Alberto Montaner, who with his many contacts within Cuba
has been able to confirm the facts as I relayed them.
I want to commend at this point a county commissioner from my county,
from Dade County, Mr. Pedro Reboredo, who published in yesterday's
Washington Post an ad, because obviously he found out that there is no
other way of getting this news. ``Let me tell you about an ongoing
tragedy.'' That is in the Washington Post of yesterday, with the facts
of the massacre. This was paid for by county commissioner Pedro
Reboredo.
Mr. DORNAN. Put that in the record, Lincoln.
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. I will.
Mr. DORNAN. Did you also have, because I heard you mention
restaurants when I came in the Chamber.
Did you put in this article on Castro's entrepreneurial blockade
about closing down successful restaurants?
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. I will put that in, certainly.
I want to state just a few days before Commissioner Reboredo's
article, advertisement that was paid for in the Washington Post, the
Washington Post on page A22 ran under the headline, and this is the
size that it ran it in, page A22, ``For the Record,'' reprinting, and
this is the size of the headline ``Murder at Sea,'' a July 19 editorial
from the Miami Herald. Interestingly enough, for the record, for some
reason the Washington Post wanted to be on the record that it has
published something with regard to this massacre.
To my knowledge, all that has been published in the Washington Post
is this ``For the Record,'' July 22, a reprinting of an editorial of
the Miami Herald with regard to the barbarism of the crime of July 13.
As I stated, facts are coming out continuously about the massacre.
But there are many other stories that need to be talked about, many
other facts that need to be reported about Castro's Cuba that we do not
hear about.
There is a fugitive from justice who is the de facto minister of
finance in Cuba, Mr. Robert Vesco. Ever since 1972, Robert Vesco has
been a fugitive from American justice under indictment. He is, as I
have stated, a de facto minister of finance and crime for Castro. But
we do not see that often reported, even though I think it should be.
How about the fact that those restaurants which we saw critiqued in
that food section, what I call the let-them-eat-cake section, we do not
hear about the fact that those restaurants are dollar-only restaurants
that the Cuban people do not have access to. I read, for example, a
recent cable, that the President-elect of Panama has stated that it is
a shame that Castro has not been invited by President Clinton to the
hemispheric summit in December in the United States of democratically
elected Presidents. I think it is, by the way, commendable of President
Clinton that he has not asked either Cedras nor Castro to his summit
that he has convened of democratically elected leaders here in the
United States in December.
The President-elect of Panama, who was just here a few days ago,
said, however, that that was incorrect, that he should have been
invited, that Castro should have been invited. But we do not hear
perhaps why the President-elect of Panama is saying that. We do not
hear about Gerardo Gonzalez, for example, a top official in the
President-elect's party. His son is another fugitive. This Gerardo
Gonzalez' son killed an American GI in Panama. And where is he today?
In Cuba, as another, like Robert Vesco, fugitive from American law.
Castro's Cuba is not only a haven for fugitives from American law, it
is a money-laundering haven, a tax-evasion haven, a drug-trafficking
haven, and perhaps that is why corrupt leaders in Mexico and Spain and
Colombia and other places seem to go out of their way, bend over
backwards to please Castro. Just a few days after the massacre of July
13, he was invited once again to Colombia to a meeting of Caribbean
nations.
The reality of the matter is that not even a massacre like July 13,
perhaps because of the fact that it is such a convenient haven for the
kinds of things we were talking about, not even a massacre like that
prevents Castro from being reinvited to forums like that that took
place in Colombia.
But the gentleman from California talked about, for example, drug
trafficking. It has been reported widely that the Haitian regime,
members of the Haitian dictatorship have engaged in drug trafficking. A
draft indictment of the U.S. Attorney for the southern district of
Florida was leaked to the press some months ago implicating Raul Castro
and other members of the dictatorship directly in drug trafficking.
What happened to that draft indictment? Why is the press not asking
about what the status is of the draft indictment? Why has this draft
indictment simply evaporated into space?
What is amazing to me is that despite this undeclared censorship with
regard to the tragedy of Cuba and the horrors of Castro's Cuba and the
anti-American dedication of Castro's dictatorship, despite that,
despite the fact that we do not hear about that in the press, we only
seem to hear about TV Marti being jammed, that is the only time Cuba
seems to be covered by the national media, the American people in poll
after poll after poll by a more than 2 to 1 margin continue to support
sanctions against Castro. They perceive, they feel that he is an anti-
American thug, murderer, drug trafficker. The American people know. The
American people have an extraordinary sense of perception and an
extraordinarily sense of justice, and they know who our enemies are,
and they know that the United States, the people of the United States
and freedom loving people everywhere in the world have no more
dedicated enemy than the tyrant who is only 90 miles away from our
shares.
But that support for sanctions against Castro, as I say, is due to
extraordinary perception and an innate sense of justice of the American
people. How much more could be done and would be demanded by the
American people if they were informed of what is going on continuously
in Castro's Cuba?
Just recently, for example, and there are constant examples of lack
of sensitivity with regard to the tragedy of Cuba, the Canadian
Government, for example, just announced recently a resumption of aid to
the Castro dictatorship. I wrote a letter to the Prime Minister. It was
a strong letter. I did not mean it to be insulting. I do not think it
was, but I said what I thought. The Ambassador to the United States
from Canada answered my letter, and he answered it very respectfully,
and I will answer his letter.
I thank the distinguished Ambassador for his letter. But let me give
an example of why it is so important and I am going to continue
speaking about what I consider the lack of responsibility of much of
the national press and media with regard to what is happening just 90
miles from our shores. The Canadian Ambassador answers me on behalf of
the Prime Minister and he tells me, explains to me from his vantage
point about what the Canadian Government is doing with regard to Cuba,
and then he states in this letter from the Canadian Ambassador to the
United States, ``The Cuban government does not have a record of such
practices as forced disappearances, and extrajudicial killings.'' This
is a letter from the distinguished Canadian Ambassador to the United
States.
The extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances began on January
1, 1959. In that month of January 1959, three third cousins of mine,
and their names are Torcuato, Domingo, and Miguel Olea Gros, those are
their last names, were shot without trial by Raul Castro. Like the Olea
Gros brothers there have been thousands and thousands and thousands of
victims of this dictatorship 90 miles from our shores. Those refugees
seeking freedom on July 13, I would ask the distinguished Ambassador
from Canada, what trial did they receive before they were brought to
their deaths at 7 miles from the coast of Havana, including two dozen
or so children? How were those deaths judicial?
I am certain that the Ambassador from Canada, as I have stated, is a
distinguished gentleman who means well, and that is why I make so much
emphasis on the need for information, because even the Ambassador to
the United States from Canada, after 35 years of daily crimes by the
regime, states in writing, in justifying his government's resumption of
aid to the Cuban dictatorship, that there are no extrajudicial killings
in Cuba. So there is a grave responsibility on the shoulders of those
whose mission it is to inform the international community about what is
happening, and they are failing in that responsibility.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. I yield to the gentleman from Indiana.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Madam Speaker, I would just like to point out
that one of my heroes, and a good friend of yours, and a good friend of
mine, Armando Valladares, who spent 25 years-plus in a Cuban prison,
and who was tortured, and I think Representative Dornan alluded to it a
few minutes ago, was arrested today because he was protesting before
the Cuban mission about the horrible atrocity that took place, to which
you have been alluding. I think it is really unforgivable that this
country would put a man of that caliber, who was our U.N. Ambassador to
the Human Rights Commission in Geneva, put him in jail for showing his
outrage at what Castro's Cuba has been doing.
In addition, I would like to make one brief comment, and I do not
want to interrupt your train of thought because you are doing such a
fine job, but that is we hear a lot about Haiti, and there are a lot of
problems with Haiti. There is even talk of invasion. Yet we have had
problems, as you said, for 35 years that have been going on in Cuba,
and we have let them go on and on, the atrocities go on year in and
year out, and a real animal and a tyrant is down there. And many times
we look the other way.
So I would just like to say to my colleague, as long as he is and I
am in the Congress, I think the vast majority of our constituents will
be made aware of these horrible things, and we will try to do
everything we can to stop this from going on.
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. I thank the gentleman from Indiana, who is one of
the great leaders in this Congress in favor of human rights everywhere
in the world, and who has made his voice be heard often with regard to
the tragedy 90 miles away from our shores. I thank the gentleman once
again.
I think it is important to focus in on what needs to be done with
regard to the tragedy of July 13. The U.S. Senate spoke very clearly
last Friday and requested formally and officially that President
Clinton instruct our permanent representative to the United Nations to
seek a condemnation of the massacre of July 13, of those over 40
innocent refugees and two dozen children, and to seek an international
investigation exactly of the details of that massacre, and also to
request of the Cuban dictatorship to cease its harassment of the
survivors of the massacre, the men which are in detention or in prison
in Cuba for the crime of trying to leave their country.
Madam Speaker, today is one of the darkest days in the history of
Cuba. It is July 26. This was the day that Castro sought to make a name
for himself in 1953 by attacking the second largest military barracks
in the country.
There is an extraordinarily good article today in the Spanish-
language version of the Miami Herald from a Cuban, perhaps, certainly
one of the best known, if not the most brilliant of the Cuban poets,
Gaston Baquero, who is a black man, has suffered racial discrimination
and written about it, and who I admire extraordinarily, not only for
his talent, but for above all else his humanity. Baquero published an
article today sizing up this date, July 26. He says, ``Forty-one years
gives one a perspective that is sufficient to judge a historical
event.'' He says, ``It's very dangerous when a society at some point
applauds an attack on a military barracks. When a society applauds an
attack on a military barracks it becomes a suicidal society,'' he says,
``because that military barracks is part of the guarantee of private
property, and order and all of the other things that are required for
liberty.''
One of the so-called heroes he talks about, perhaps the most famous
of the women who accompanied Castro in his so-called revolutionary
feat, was Haydee Santamaria. He identifies, Baquero identifies Haydee
Santamaria as the image, mother, sister, matriarch of the so-called
revolution of Castro.
Back on a similar date such as this 26 July, in 1980, after having
seen what Castro was doing to those who were seeking to leave by the
well-known Mariel port, that so-called acts of repudiation which he had
already managed to perfect by then, get mobs to go to people's homes
and spit on the people who are leaving or they have signed a document
or dissented in some way, get the children, classmates of many of the
children at that home, to spit on their classmates, insult the family
and classmates.
When Haydee Santamaria, again, the mother, sister, matriarch image of
the Castro revolution saw what he was already doing in 1980, on this
date, that year, she by the way had described the following: She had
said, she had declared, when all other alternatives fail, Haydee
Santamaria had declared the only solution, political solution, that
remains is suicide, and so she, in a dignified fashion, committed
suicide on a day like today, 26 July, 1980, and Baquero ends his
historical analysis of 26 July, after referring to that incident of
Haydee Santamaria, in the following fashion: If Fidel Castro were loyal
to the memory of his first idol, Eduardo Chibas, who by the way had
committed suicide. He was a very well-known political figure, and he
committed suicide in Cuba in 1951; Fidel Castro would offer this 26th
of July to his tortured people, would offer on this 26th of July to his
tortured people the only serious, adequate, and just action that he has
at his grasp, to blow his brains out. Why not imitate his idol Hitler
when all is lost for him, his idol who Castro stole that phrase from
``History will absolve me,'' when Castro was arrested in 1953; he stole
Hitler's phrase at the end of Mein Kampf, ``History will absolve me.''
Why not imitate his idol Hitler who he stole that joke from, ``History
will absolve me''?
It would be the perfect closing to the door that was opened by Castro
when he attacked that military barracks on July 26, 1953; that suicide
would be the final period on the bloody page, in his bloody page.
Never again another 26th of July. Never again.
[The articles follow:]
[From the Miami Herald, July 19, 1994]
Murder at Sea
Has our hemisphere grown so used to the Cuban regime's
savagery that it cannot summon a cry of outrage for the
nearly 40 Cuban refugees sent to their watery deaths by Fidel
Castro's government? The ``prudent'' silence over Cuba's
murderous sinking of a tugboat loaded with escapees is
without justification.
Would this complicitous silence greet the murder of
innocent men, women and children fleeing other places? The
murdered refugees' only crime was to make a desperate attempt
to flee Cuba. Soon after the group of 72 began their escape
aboard a decrepit tug, Cuban fire-fighting boats attacked
them. According to eyewitnesses, the refugees signaled their
readiness to surrender and to return to port. The escapees
even held up some of the small children for the attackers to
see, screaming that more than 20 children were on board.
Such pleas did not deter Castro's men, who turned potent
fore hoses on the refugee vessel, sweeping passengers
overboard. The pursuit craft then rammed the tugboat
repeatedly, capsizing it. Tragically, all of the children
hiding in the tug's hold apparently died. The adult survivors
are in jail. Where on earth is a mute world's conscience.
Countries with substantial investments in Cuba--Spain,
Mexico and a few others--have a special obligation to
denounce this crime perpetrated by Cuba's government against
the unarmed refugees. Like investors in the South Africa of
apartheid, Cuba's foreign business partners ought to feel
particularly ashamed of the actions of the regime that their
capital is helping to sustain.
____
Amendment adopted on 7/22/94 to H.R. 4603, the Commerce,
State, Justice Appropriations bill--by Senators Mack, Dole,
Graham, and others--sense of the Senate condemning the
sinking of the 13th of March by the Government of Cuba.
(A) Findings--
(1) There are credible reports that on July 15, 1994 Cuban
government vessels fired high-pressure water hoses,
repeatedly rammed and deliberately sunk the ``13th of
March'', a tugboat carrying 72 unarmed Cuban citizens.
(2) About forty of the men, women, and children passengers
on the 13th of March drowned as a result of Cuban government
actions, including most or all of the twenty children aboard.
(3) The President of the United States ``deplored'' the
sinking of the 13th of March as ``another example of the
brutal nature of the Cuban regime.''
(4) All of the men who survived the sinking of the 13th of
March have been imprisoned by the Cuban government.
(5) The freedom to emigrate is an internationally
recognized human right and freedom's fundamental guarantor of
last resort.
(6) The Cuban government, by jamming TV and Radio Marti,
denies the Cuban people the right to free access to
information, including information about this tragedy.
(B) It is the Sense of the Senate to--
(1) condemn the Cuban government for deliberately sinking
the 13th of March, causing the deaths of about 40 Cuban
citizens, including about twenty children;
(2) urge the President to direct the U.S. Permanent
Representative to the United Nations to seek a resolution in
the United Nations Security Council that
(a) condemns the sinking of the 13th of March;
(b) provides for a full internationally supervised
investigation of the incident and;
(c) urges the Cuban government to release from prison and
cease intimidation measures against all survivors of the
sinking of the 13th of March.
____
[From the Washington Post, July 25, 1994]
Let Me Tell You About an Ongoing Tragedy
(Paid political advertisement submitted by Pedro Reboredo,
Commissioner, District No. 6, Dade County, FL)
It is a disturbing sight to see in the network news--almost
every night at dinner time--images of Haitians fleeing their
country, in some cases being rescued by the U.S. Coast Guard,
and in others drowning in the high seas. You feel sorry for
them. I know I do, but there is another tragedy that you have
not seen reported in the news or newspapers. It happened in
the early hours of July 13, when boats belonging to the Cuban
government attacked and sank a tug boat carrying more than 70
women, men and children who were trying to escape the island
and reach the Florida coast. Only 30 survived; the remaining
41 human beings, most women and children, went down with the
boat * * *.
We learned of this major tragedy when the Cuban government
issued a short statement saying that a group of irresponsible
individuals stole a boat in the port of Havana and it
accidentally sank 7 miles off the coast. Then, we heard the
truth. A young mother, Maria Victoria Garcia, survived, but
she does not want to live anymore. She lost her husband, two
brothers and a ten year old son, who was holding on to her
leg, but was washed out by the whirlpool created by the boat
as it was sinking.
Maria Victoria is in Havana. She speaks in detail about how
they were chased by Cuban military boats that used high
pressure hoses to stop the tug boat; how the water pressure
made children and women fly off the boat; and how the wooden
ship was rammed several times while the Cuban officials were
cursing in response to the women's pleas who cried trying to
save the children.
You may ask why am I spending thousands to tell a story
that should have been front page news. I am doing it because
I believe that you should be aware of what is happening only
ninety miles away from our shores; also because the United
States has been good to me. The people of this country gave
me shelter when I too came as a refugee. You, gave me the
opportunity to work, to raise my daughters in a free land.
You granted me the honor of becoming an American citizen and
be elected to several positions in South Florida.
Even though it is important to be aware of what is
happening half a world away from this country, I also believe
that the American people should learn about what is going on
close to your own borders. I know that this is a country that
responds to human suffering, and I want you to realize the
tragedy of the Cuban people--of those remaining in the land
where I was born.
My people do not expect you to invade Cuba. They just want
to feel that they are not alone, that the cries of those
Cuban children, and many others, will not go unanswered or
unheard by the world, and especially by the United States:
The beacon of hope for those who seek life, liberty and the
pursuit of happiness.
____
Clinton Says Cuban Refugee Boat Sinking ``Brutal''
Miami, July 18.--President Clinton on Monday condemned as
``an example of Cuban brutality'' the sinking of a tugboat
off the island after it was stolen by a group of Cubans
trying to leave the island.
``I deplore it as an example of Cuban brutality, another
example of the brutal nature of the Cuban regime,'' Clinton
told reporters during a visit to Miami.
Cuban authorities said Saturday that some people were
missing after the tugboat sank after a collision with a
government vessel that was trying to intercept it before dawn
Wednesday seven miles (12 km) north of Havana.
A Cuban Interior Ministry statement said 31 people had been
rescued.
A survivor of the incident, Maria Victoria Garcia Suarez,
told foreign reporters in Cuba she believed some 70 to 73
people were originally on board when the vessel left Havana
port. This would mean about 40 people had probably drowned.
Garcia said the stolen boat was pursued and surrounded by
other tugboats, which used hoses to spray it with water. It
began taking on water after being struck in the right side
and began to sink, she said.
____________________