[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 42 (Tuesday, March 7, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H2789]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        AMERICAN POLICY ON CUBA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida [Mr. Diaz-Balart] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, back in December, my office began to 
get reports from within the Clinton administration that advisers, 
foreign policy advisers to the President, were advising him to send a 
gesture of friendship to Castro. After I got the third report from 
within the administration that foreign policy advisers to the President 
were pressuring the President to do that, to send a gesture of 
friendship to Castro, Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen and I sent a letter to 
the President, where we expressed our deep concern about those reports, 
and I have got that letter here and I would like to read it if I can.
  ``Mr. President''--this was back in December--

       We have received deeply disturbing reports from within your 
     administration concerning efforts by Mr. Morton Halperin to 
     achieve the implementation of a policy initiative by the 
     White House that would benefit the Cuban communist 
     dictatorship.
       These reports are made even more alarming by the
        fact that Mr. Halperin is the member of your National 
     Security Council staff, whose nomination to a sensitive 
     Department of Defense position had to be withdrawn when 
     the Democratic-controlled Senate would not confirm him. 
     Throughout his career, Mr. Halperin has shown faulty 
     judgment in relation to threats emanating from Castro's 
     Cuba. After Castro's incursions into Angola and Ethiopia, 
     for example, Mr. Halperin inaccurately wrote that ``every 
     action which the Soviet Union and Cuba have taken in 
     Africa has been consistent with the principles of 
     international law. The Cubans have come in only when 
     invited by a government and have remained only at their 
     request.''

  ``As you know, Mr. President''--we continue in the letter, in 
December--

       On August 5th of this year, approximately 30,000 Cubans 
     spontaneously took to the streets in Havana demanding 
     freedom. Despite a terrible crackdown by the regime, Cubans 
     throughout the island are demanding democracy in ever-bolder 
     forms of action. Sugar production and Castro's ability to 
     purchase oil are at an all time low, the sanctions you 
     implemented last August 20th are having a strong effect, and 
     numerous signs point to the inevitable collapse of the 
     communist tyranny.
       Any gesture along the lines being sought by Mr. Halperin at 
     this time, such as authorizing U.S. business to engage in the 
     unrestricted sale and financing of medicine, medical 
     supplies, medical equipment or food to Castro; lifting your 
     August 20th sanctions, banning charter flights and 
     remittances; allowing financial transactions or travel for 
     so-called academic, cultural and scientific exchange, public 
     exhibitions or performances or activities of alleged 
     religious organizations; loosening travel restrictions to 
     allow unrestricted travel by U.S. citizens or allowing 
     business or tourist travel; allowing the establishment of 
     U.S. news bureaus in Cuba or Cuban news bureaus in the United 
     States; or ceasing to regulate financial transactions related 
     to the establishment of news bureaus in communist Cuba; 
     entering into so-called negotiations with the government to 
     settle U.S. property claims or any other friendly gesture 
     toward Castro at this time of almost unprecedented repression 
     would constitute a form of the complicity with the ferocious 
     oppression of the Cuban communist dictatorship against its 
     people.
       We hope that you will remain firm in the enforcement of our 
     sanctions against the Cuban dictatorship by resisting the 
     pressures of those who would throw in the moribund Cuban 
     totalitarian regime.

  He very courteously answers in January, stating, ``I assure you that 
our Cuban policy will remain focused on bringing about a peaceful 
transition to a democratic regime and will be guided by the Cuban 
Democracy Act.'' Basically, he goes on saying that we won't be 
pressured. Then he says, please be--``Please be assured as well that I 
have confidence in the advice that I am being given on Cuba. That 
advice has and will continue to reflect the administration policy and 
the principles of the Cuban Democracy Act. I look forward to working 
with Congress in pursuit of our common objective of a free and 
Democratic Cuba.''
  Now, today the Washington Post on the front page has an article, 
Clinton may ease sanctions on Cuba. Talk about a direct leak. President 
Clinton's foreign policy advisers are recommending, this is not--we 
hear it is possible, there are reports, no, beginning of the article, 
front page of the Washington Post, President Clinton's foreign policy 
advisers are recommending he take steps towards easing relations from 
Cuba by revoking some economic sanctions adopted against the Nation in 
August, administration's officials said yesterday.

                              {time}  2015

  This is the Washington Post today. So how does one reconcile the 
letter from the President, where he says, I am not yielding to 
pressure, we are going to maintain our sanctions, please be assured 
that I have confidence in the advice I am getting, and this article.
  We need to continue talking about this. This is very serious, very 
serious. This is not the time to throw a lifeline to Castro. It is the 
time to go the other direction and to help Cuban people to gain their 
freedom.


                          ____________________