[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 42 (Tuesday, March 7, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


        BURTON AND TORRICELLI BLAST IDEA OF EASING CUBAN EMBARGO

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                            HON. DAN BURTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 7, 1995
  Congressman Dan Burton, chairman of Western Hemisphere Affairs 
Subcommittee and Robert Torricelli, ranking minority member of the 
subcommittee expressed strong opposition to any easing of United States 
economic sanctions on Cuba.
  According to a report in the Washington Post today, several of 
President Clinton's advisers are recommending that the economic embargo 
on Cuba be eased, allowing dollar remittances to be sent to Cuba, and 
making it easier to travel to Cuba. In response, Congressmen Burton and 
Torricelli have issued the following statement:

       We are absolutely dismayed over reports that the Clinton 
     Administration is considering easing certain aspects of the 
     United States economic embargo on Cuba. We believe that any 
     easing of pressure on the Fidel Castro regime will only 
     prolong the suffering of the Cuban people and will send the 
     wrong signal to the dictatorship.
       The communist dictatorship in Cuba is one of the most 
     notorious violators of human rights in existence today. 
     Despite the monumental changes in the world over the past six 
     years, Fidel Castro remains as committed as ever in his 
     nefarious, failed ideology.
       The loss of over $6 billion a year in subsidies from the 
     Soviet Union has caused the Cuban economy to contract by 
     sixty percent. It is for this reason that Castro, desperate 
     for foreign currency, has been forced to adopt superficial 
     measures aimed at increasing foreign investment. There is no 
     mistaking the fact that Castro is only interested in 
     perpetuating his own dictatorial rule.
       At a time when the Castro regime is clearly on its last 
     leg, the United States should maintain pressure and resist 
     any calls to lift the embargo. This was the clear message of 
     the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, which the President 
     supported; and it is the aim of the Cuban Liberty and 
     Democratic Solidarity Act (Libertad), which we recently 
     introduced.
       Any easing of the U.S. embargo at this time would send the 
     absolutely wrong message to Fidel Castro, and to the Cuban 
     people. We will fiercely resist any such move.
     

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