[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 2 (Thursday, January 5, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S470-S471]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


           TIME TO OVERHAUL UNITED STATES POLICY TOWARD CUBA

  Mr. PELL. Mr. President, as I look at the vast array of foreign 
policy issues the 104th Congress will address, United States policy 
toward Cuba stands out in my mind as the most in need of a dramatic 
overhaul. I believe all my colleagues agree on the goals of United 
States policy toward Cuba--promoting a peaceful transition to 
democracy, economic liberalization and greater respect for human rights 
while controlling immigration from Cuba. Where some of us may differ, 
however, is on how we get there. In my view, current policy is not only 
outdated and ineffective, but, far worse, it is counterproductive to 
fostering these goals and contrary to U.S. national interests.
  Rather than tightening the embargo and further isolating Cuba, as the 
United States has done, we should be expanding contact with the Cuban 
people and lifting the embargo. I say this not because I believe the 
Cuban Government should be rewarded; in fact, I am disappointed that 
the Cuban Government has failed to make meaningful steps towards 
political reform and improving human rights. Nor do I believe that it 
should be done as a quid pro quo. We should lift the embargo simply 
because it serves the U.S. national interests by helping foster a 
peaceful transition to democracy.
  In my view, greater contact with the Cuban people will plant the 
seeds of change and advance the cause of democracy just as greater 
exchange with the West helped hasten the fall of communism in Eastern 
Europe. In his posthumously published book, former President Nixon 
wrote that ``we should drop the economic embargo and open the way to 
trade, investment and economic interaction * * *.'' Nixon believed we 
would better help the Cuban people by building ``pressure from within 
by actively stimulating Cuba's economic contracts with the free 
world.'' William D. Rogers, who served as Assistant Secretary of State 
for Inter-American Affairs for the Ford administration, also believes 
the embargo should be lifted. As he testified before the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee last year, ``The breakup of the Soviet system 
occurred not because we cut off trade and human interchange, but 
because we didn't.''
  United States travel restrictions to and from Cuba, only 90 miles 
away, are among the most prohibitive in the world. At this point, only 
United States government officials and journalists are allowed to 
travel to Cuba without having to obtain a license, and only a handful 
of Cubans are allowed to travel to the United States. I would ask my 
colleagues, do we not have enough faith in the power of our system to 
let contact between our citizens flourish?
  Current policy not only denies the United States the opportunity to 
promote positive change in Cuba, but it increases the likelihood of 
widespread 
[[Page S471]] political violence and another mass exodus of refugees to 
Florida. The Cuban Government, which is successfully expanding 
political and economic ties with the rest of the world, is unlikely to 
give in to United States demands. If economic pressure succeeds in 
encouraging the people to take to the streets, the most likely 
consequence would be bloodshed. The military remains united behind 
Castro, the opposition is too weak and the government too repressive 
for any uprising to be successful.
  Mr. President, it is my hope that my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle will join officials who served in the Bush, Reagan, Ford, Nixon, 
and Kennedy administrations as well as the editors of the Wall Street 
Journal, the Washington Post, the New York Times, USA Today, the 
Economist, the Journal of Commerce, the Chicago Tribune, and U.S. News 
& World Report in calling for an overhaul of United States policy 
toward Cuba and working to promote a peaceful transition to democracy 
in Cuba.
  Let us try the same policies and the same methods that have produced 
the freedom that has come to Eastern Europe and Central Europe and 
knocked off the shackles, chains of the Soviet Union.

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