[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 76 (Tuesday, May 9, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H4598-H4599]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


            REPATRIATION OF CUBAN REFUGEES TO CASTRO'S CUBA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from New Jersey [Mr. Menendez] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express condemnation of 
the secret meetings that were held between the Department of State and 
the Castro dictatorship, and specifically between Under Secretary of 
State for Political Affairs, Peter Tarnoff and Communist Cuban official 
Ricardo Alarcon, which resulted today, a dark day in American history, 
in 18 Cuban refugees forcibly being repatriated to the Castro 
dictatorship.
  Mr. Speaker, I want the Committee on International Relations, of 
which I am a member, to hold hearings and receive a full accounting of 
who specifically authorized such a process, and all details relevant to 
that process. During March I was assured by senior administration 
officials that no other options prior to those that had been publicly 
debated and discussed had been presented to the administration. And we 
had the head of the Cuban desk appear in my district talking to people 
from within the community, and yet, despite all of those statements 
made in public and private, this type of clandestine action occurred, 
and it belies private and public assurances made to me and others and 
therefore betrays trust.
  I would like to know what was the specific role of the State 
Department in this latest process which was concluded in the joint 
statement of May 2 with the Castro dictatorship. What was the specific 
role of the National Security Council, and what individuals from the 
National Security Council were involved? I would also like to know if 
there are any other actual, understood, or implied agreements with the 
Castro dictatorship that have been made or are in the process of being 
made.
  No doubt our Government should be keenly aware of the physical and 
psychiatric abuse and attacks and other forms of harassment and 
intimidation on dissidents to this day by Castro security forces. The 
State Department has documented it over the years in the ``Country 
Reports on Human 
[[Page H4599]] Rights Practices,'' including the report for 1994, and 
the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland, has 
annually condemned Cuba for its gross violations of human rights. We 
salute such condemnation.
  We also are aware of the deliberate sinking of the
   tugboat 13th of March which this House of Representatives 
unanimously condemned which resulted in the deaths of 40 people, that 
incident, including over 20 children. In congressional testimony the 
Secretary of State has stated that the sinking demonstrated the brutal 
nature of the Castro regime. How does the U.S. Government intend to 
ensure the rights of individual dissidents, of human rights activists, 
of former political prisoners, and other objectors to the Castro 
dictatorship with legitimate claims to political asylum if they are 
picked up at sea and returned automatically to Cuban officials? Will 
there be any form of INS personnel on board, or where will they be 
taken to process their political asylum cases? Those questions remain 
unanswered.

  Under Secretary Tarnoff suggests the Cuban dictatorship can be 
trusted. Yet it is my understanding that a group of 20 Cuban nationals 
who recently were deported by the Government of Belize to Cuba have 
been detained in Cuba by Castro's security forces. How can you ensure 
that Cubans whom the United States repatriates will be treated 
differently and that they will not suffer retribution? Can you be 
certain they will be able to keep their jobs, ration cards, apartments, 
and any personal effects that they put at risk upon leaving? What 
further ability will U.S. staff have to monitor the increasing flow to 
the U.S. Interest Section? I do not believe we have that capacity. And 
what is the State Department's position and this administration's 
position regarding Cuban law which was reinstated after the September 
9, 1994 accords which forbids illegal exit from the country? It is my 
understanding that under that Cuban law, people who flee the country 
are considered as having created a crime punishable as treason. If the 
law is in effect, how is it possible to believe that repatriated Cubans 
will not suffer under said law?
  Finally, we stated, this administration has stated and the Secretary 
of State has stated, that we want to foster change in Cuba. But if 
change is ever to come to Cuba, the human rights activists, the 
dissidents, and political prisoners who are willing to risk their lives 
under a brutal dictatorship must know that political asylum is 
available to them in the United States, and I do not believe the State 
Department has the necessary safeguards to ensure that those who fight 
for democratic change can acquire political asylum if their lives are 
in danger.
  That is the reality of this policy that is forthcoming. The fact of 
the matter is that we could have sought the family reunification we 
seek to do with the people in Guantanamo, saved the taxpayers a million 
dollars a year, and not have negotiated with the Castro dictatorship in 
violating basic tenets of human rights, one, that we are a signatory 
to, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which is to ensure that 
people have the right to freely leave their country.

                              {time}  1845

  And in our case, in our own immigration law, to ensure that those who 
truly have a case for political asylum can purport it. The fact of the 
matter is this policy simply does not create that possibility, and in 
fact it dooms those who are political dissidents, human rights 
activists, the people who could make change in Cuba to knowing that the 
United States has closed their door on them.
  It is a sad day in our history.

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