[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 105 (Wednesday, August 3, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 3, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                       MORE ON ATROCITIES IN CUBA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mr. Becerra). Under a previous order of the 
House, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. Diaz-Balart] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because the massacre of 
July 13, I am not going to let it die. It cannot be forgotten. Those 40 
innocent refugees, unarmed refugees who were brought to their death by 
the express order of the dictator of Cuba, their deaths cannot be 
permitted to be in vain. So we are going to continue to remind as many 
people as we can of that massacre and of why that massacre occurred.
  Those bodies must be recovered. They lie at the bottom of the sea. 
The remains of those refugees must be returned to their families for 
burial, and as both the Senate of the United States formally requested 
of the administration less than 2 weeks ago and a number of us formally 
requested of the Secretary of State last week, there needs to be an 
effort by the United States to seek condemnation by the U.N. Security 
Council of the massacre by the Castro dictatorship of July 13.
  Our strength and our weight in the U.N. security Council was 
demonstrated very vividly just a few days ago when we obtained, for the 
first time in history, authorization from the U.N. Security Council for 
military action in this hemisphere. The U.N. Security Council 
authorized its member states, the member states of the United Nations, 
to take military action to depose the Haitian dictatorship, a few days 
ago, due to our requests.
  If there is any symptom, any sign of the weight and power of the 
United States in the United Nations Security Council, I think that it 
was seen just a few days ago. Yet as my colleague from Florida stated 
just a few moments ago, where is the U.S. leadership with regard to the 
dictatorship that even closer to our shores has oppressed its people 
for 35 years? I received a call today from a journalist in Argentina 
and they are worried because there is verification of a connection 
between Fidel Castro and the bombing of the Jewish Center in Argentina 
in cahoots with and in cooperation with Iranian terrorists.
  The Argentinian journalist was talking to me and he asked me, ``How 
do you justify the emphasis given by the United States on Haiti and the 
ignoring on the part of the United States of the Castro dictatorship?''
  I said, ``Really I cannot justify it. I cannot justify it.''
  Speaking as someone who not only has sympathy for but continually 
seeks to express solidarity with the people of Haiti and who has 
approved all measures and supported all measures to try to accelerate 
the return of the democratically elected government in Haiti, I find it 
completely objectionable and unacceptable that many of those who 
continue to speak out for democracy in Haiti are completely silent, 
dreadfully silent, deafeningly silent with regard to democracy in Cuba. 
Let us look at category after category.
  Number of refugees, geography, who is closer, Haiti or Cuba? Degree 
of oppression, who has more political prisons, prisoners? Who is 
engaged in more executions, carried out more executions? the duration 
of the terms of the political prisons, Cuba's dictatorship or Haiti's 
dictatorship? The duration of the oppression, 2\1/2\ years versus 35 
years. Signs of opposition to the dictatorship, intensity of the 
opposition to the dictatorship. Drug trafficking. There is a draft 
indictment in the Southern District of Florida, the U.S. attorney for 
the Southern District of Florida indicting the Cuban Government and 
naming Raoul Castro himself for drug trafficking. What has happened to 
that draft indictment? The fugitives from U.S. law? Who harbors 
fugitives from U.S. law? The Cuban dictatorship, starting with Robert 
Vesco, an indicted fugitive from U.S. law who has been absent from the 
United States since 1972 and is the de facto minister of crime for the 
Castro dictatorship.
  Danger to U.S. national interests. Who has confiscated U.S. property? 
Who remains a danger to the rest of the hemisphere? Who is drilling for 
oil 90 miles from our shores, 90 miles from Florida? Who is drilling 
for oil like a madman, bringing in foreign interests to try to find oil 
in the tourist center, in the premier tourist center of Cuba? Who is 
trying to build nuclear power plants 90 miles from our shores that 
could threaten this hemisphere like few other things could? The Castro 
dictatorship.
  In category after category after category. And speaking from someone 
who supports all measures to bring democracy to Haiti, I think that it 
cannot be denied that the Cuban dictatorship, category after category 
is much more of a threat to the national interests of the United States 
and a threat to the interests of this hemisphere. Yet there is silence 
with regard to Cuba.
  Am I asking for an invasion? No. Do I think it is fair that those who 
want to fight for Cuba's freedom are not allowed to do so? No, that is 
not fair. Do I think it is fair that we continue to abide by the terms 
of the Kennedy-Khrushchev agreement even though there is no Soviet 
Union left and we continue to prosecute those who want to fight for 
Cuba's freedom? No.
  We need to talk about this further, Mr. Speaker.

                          ____________________