[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 110 (Wednesday, August 10, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: August 10, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
              BEGINNING OF THE END FOR CASTRO DICTATORSHIP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlemen from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I join my colleagues from Florida and New 
Jersey in calling upon the Cuban-American community to continue showing 
restraint in the face of taunts by Fidel Castro to create another 
exodus like we had in 1980. Castro continues to inflict pain upon the 
Cuban community both in Cuba and in exile, by seeking to exploit the 
strong yearning for family reunification.
  However, we all know that the only reason that Castro seeks to create 
another Mariel type exodus is to release the pressure valve building 
within Cuba. Castro can not sustain the public demonstrations that have 
taken place in unprecedented numbers, and the constant civil 
disobedience that human rights activists, and average Cubans exhibit by 
taking to the seas in search of freedom. He seeks to divert attention 
from his own abuse of human rights and acts of murder, such as the 
deliberate killing by the Cuban Government of 40 innocent men, women 
and children on the high seas.
  I believe that at long last we are witnessing the beginning of the 
end for he Castro dictatorship. Last Friday's demonstrations represent 
a watershed event in totalitarian Cuba, as similar demonstrations did 
throughout Eastern Europe. The Cuban people are saying loud and clear 
that they no longer fear Fidel.
  Mr. Speaker, the Castro regime has begun to unravel.
  In my view the disturbances will continue. Castro's headaches will 
not go away. His grip on power will continue to loosen as Cuba's failed 
economy continues to go down the drain; and, as the Cuban people make 
clear to Castro: ``Mr. Dictator, we have absolutely no fear of you.''
  However, I call upon the Clinton administration not to play into 
Castro's hand by treating this latest threat as simply an immigration 
problem. If we do so, we will once again have let him set the agenda 
and divert the attention from the real problem; namely, the lack of 
economic and political reform.
  The real solution to the problem is not the exodus of 100,00 or 
200,000 people, but the departure of one tyrant.
  The present situation is not only a challenge but an opportunity. Now 
is the time to use our technology to make sure that both Radio and 
Television Marti fully penetrate Cuba so that we can communicate with 
the Cuban people. We have the ability to make sure TV Marti's signal 
reaches a greater part of the population by transmissions from ship to 
shore, air to shore, satellite transmissions, or by raising the level 
of TV Marti's present signal technology. The powerful images that the 
average Cuban would see, the risks of dying at sea, the funerals that 
have taken place, how we debate these issues in Congress, as well as 
the images of fellow Cubans demonstrating against the dictatorship 
would stem the tide of immigration, show how democracy works, and 
foster hope for democratic change in Cuba.
  The administration must have the will that others have lacked to give 
the people of Cuba, who live in a closed society, an open window on the 
world. Fidel Castro has challenged our national security at a time that 
we find ourselves busy in both humanitarian missions in Rwanda and the 
restoration of democracy in Haiti. It is in the national interests to 
respond by providing free and unfettered information to the Cuban 
people.
  This is also the time to respond to my singular call to prepare for a 
post-Castro Cuba. Immediate support for my Free and Independent Cuba 
Assistance Act would send a message to the Cuban people and the 
international community that we are in solidarity with the Cuban 
people, that we want to assist them, but that we oppose the dictator 
that enslaves them and keeps them hungry. Finally, we must break 
Castro's stranglehold in making this a problem between Castro and 
Washington, or Castro and the exile community in Miami. Since there are 
no democratic elections in Cuba, the Cuban people are voting with their 
feet, by risking their lives and fleeing Cuba. They have also voiced 
their discontent by massive demonstrations, funeral observances in 
defiance of government admonitions, and other acts of civil 
disobedience.
  It is time for the Clinton administration to seek a resolution in the 
United Nations condemning the Castro government for the murder of the 
40 innocent men, women and children aboard the vessel, 13 de Marzo.
  It is time for the administration to get other member countries, 
especially within the Western Hemisphere, to call for U.N. human rights 
observers to be sent to Cuba. They could observe the admitted actions 
of the rapid response brigades' brutality against average Cubans, whom 
Fidel Castro calls private citizens not government thugs. Civil society 
in Cuba is disintegrating and human rights abuses are at an all-time 
high.
  It is time to internationalize the concern for the rights of Cuban 
citizens and break the myth that this is strictly a Castro versus 
Washington problem. This is a problem of hemispheric proportions which 
those countries who call themselves democracies cannot ignore as they 
seek greater hemispheric integration.
  It is time to be proactive, not reactive. It is time to stop dancing 
to Castro's tune, and time to change the music. History will do justice 
to the Castro dictatorship. Once Castro wrote, ``History will absolve 
me.'' Instead, history will condemn him. Let us not absolve Castro by 
blaming the United States: The blame rests squarely with Fidel Castro.

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