[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 106 (Tuesday, June 27, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9146-S9150]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   OBSERVATIONS ON ELECTIONS IN HAITI

  Mr. GRAHAM. Mr. President, I was in Haiti on Saturday and Sunday of 
this weekend, and I would like to share with my colleagues some of my 
observations. I intend to submit a more formal statement later, but for 
this afternoon, I would like to talk about some of the things that I 
saw.
  Frankly, to my good friend from Arizona, who was represented in 
Haiti, he and the IRI, by another good friend, Congressman Porter Goss 
of my State of Florida, I was concerned about my first experience in 
Haiti this weekend. I got off the plane Saturday morning at 
approximately 11 o'clock, and at the foot of the plane were several 
U.S. reporters, including a representative of one of the major 
networks. The first question that was asked was what did we think about 
the report that had been issued a few hours earlier on Saturday 
morning--this is the day before the election--by the IRI criticizing 
the election that had not yet taken place?
  Obviously, we were in no position to comment on a report that we had 
not 

[[Page S 9147]]
seen about an election that had not yet taken place.
  Mr. McCAIN. Will the Senator yield to me to respond to that?
  Mr. GRAHAM. I would like to complete my comments and then yield.
  Mr. McCAIN. The Senator made a serious charge. I would like him to 
let me respond.
  Mr. GRAHAM. That is not a charge. It is a factual statement.
  Mr. McCAIN. As the Senator knows, it is the preelectoral process and, 
to be fair, the Senator from Florida ought to say that. They did not 
comment on the election itself, they commented on the preelectoral 
process. Let us not distort the record here, I say to my friend from 
Florida.
  Mr. GRAHAM. I am not distorting the record. They were commenting and 
made a conclusionary statement as to what they thought the status of 
the election was 24 hours before the election took place.
  Mr. McCAIN. I say to my friend from Florida, I have the document in 
my hand: ``Preelectoral Assessment of the June 25, 1995, Election.''
  Mr. GRAHAM. You do not have the document in your hand.
  Mr. McCAIN. Preelectoral.
  Mr. GRAHAM. Because the document was approximately 300 pages long, 
assessing an election that was 24 hours yet before it was to commence.
  Mr. McCAIN. I have the executive summary of the 300-page document, 
and it clearly states ``preelectoral.'' Preelectoral.
  Mr. GRAHAM. It seems to me that it would have--and this is just my 
assessment, this is my editorial judgment--that it would have been more 
appropriate to have made such an assessment after the election had 
taken place as opposed to the morning prior to the election taking 
place. And it would have been more appropriate to have deferred to what 
has been the tradition of American politics, which is that partisan 
politics end at the Nation's boundaries.
  The reality is----
  Mr. McCAIN. Will the Senator yield again? Is the Senator impugning 
the integrity of Congressman Goss, who was the leader of that 
organization, saying that he took partisanship past the water's edge? 
If the Senator has evidence----
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Florida has the floor.
  Mr. GRAHAM. I am not impugning anyone's integrity. I am suggesting 
that I believe that where the United States sends organizations to a 
foreign country to serve as objective election observers, that both in 
terms of their objectivity as election observers and in the spirit that 
partisan politics end at the Nation's boundaries, that it would be 
appropriate to defer observations on the election until after the 
election has taken place.
  There is a suspicion raised that the purpose of issuing a report on 
an election 24 hours before it commences is to either influence the 
election in that country or to influence domestic politics within the 
United States. I do not think that the process of American political 
party involvement is advanced by issuing a report of 300 pages on the 
morning before the election. That is my judgment. I would not recommend 
that that be done. Others may have different assessments as to the 
propriety of doing so, and I would not state that my values on this are 
biblical or absolute, but they are my values.
  Mr. President, after having gotten off the plane and responding to 
that series of reporters' questions, we then went to a series of 
sessions in which we were briefed as to what we might expect on 
election day and some of the preparation for this election.
  Let me say, this election is one that originally was supposed to have 
taken place in February or March of this year, coincident with the 
completion of the term of all of the members of the lower house of the 
Haitian Parliament and approximately half of the members of the Haitian 
Senate. Because of a variety of difficulties in getting the election 
organized, it was postponed several times and finally took place last 
Sunday.
  There will be a runoff election towards the end of July in those 
races where there was not a majority of the vote secured by any 
candidate.
  I think it is important--and I say this not in an attempt to create 
an unduly positive sense of the atmosphere, environment, but the 
reality of conducting an election in Haiti.
  First, you are dealing with a nation that has a very high proportion 
of its population that is illiterate. Because of that, the ballots that 
were printed were some of the more complex ballots that I have ever 
seen. They were multicolored, in order to depict the parties by being 
able to fully illustrate the party symbols. If it was a rooster, it was 
a red rooster, with all of the coloration of the rooster. They also had 
pictures of all of the candidates for the Senate. And in the first 
voting precinct that I visited in Cite Soleil, one of the large slum 
areas in Port-au-Prince, there were 29 candidates for the Senate from 
that particular district, two of whom would be elected. There were 29 
pictures of each of those candidates for the Senate. These are 
logistically difficult steps to take in order to assure that people, 
many of whom cannot read and write, would be able to cast an informed 
ballot.
  We are also dealing with a country which has had only two elections 
within a whole generation. People do not have much experience--those 
people who are running the election, those people who are participating 
in the election. Basic electoral infrastructure is largely missing. 
Highways are extremely substandard. Telephone and other means of 
communication are often nonexistent.
  So those are some of the practical circumstances under which an 
election was held. Many of the shortcomings which were cited by the 
Senator from Arizona and the Senator from Georgia were the result of an 
attempt to increase the democracy of the elections. They may have been 
attempts which exceeded the capability of those responsible for 
administering the election. As an example, a decision was made that no 
precinct would have more than 400 registered voters. The theory was 
that they did not want to overburden the people who were at the 
precinct and had the responsibility for managing by having an excessive 
number of voters at each precinct. The number 400 was selected as a 
manageable number.
  The problem with that was that they ended up with over 12,000 
precincts in order to have everybody in a precinct with no precinct 
more than 400. Even more than that, because of the attempt to allow as 
many people a chance to register as possible, registration did not 
close until a few days before last Sunday's election. So you had many 
people who registered late, who were assigned to one of these precincts 
with no more than 400 people, where they did not have the time or the 
logistical capability to get the ballots printed out to those precincts 
that were created in order to accommodate the late registrants. 
Probably, in retrospect--and maybe this will be a lesson to be applied 
at the runoff election next month and at the Presidential election at 
the end of the year--they will close the registration books earlier to 
assure that there is an adequate amount of time to process all of the 
registered people and get the materials to those precincts.
  That is an example of the kind of circumstance which started from a 
good motive, to get as many people registered and participate as 
possible, which ended causing the kinds of problems that have been 
cited.
  I talked to IRI--International Republican Institute--people who were 
actually out in the field in the precincts and small towns. I talked to 
OAS representatives in Port-au-Prince, and to others who were observing 
the election. I asked, ``Is there any evidence that these problems were 
intended to benefit a party or a set of candidates?'' The answer was, 
from all sources, ``no.'' The problems, the shortfalls, were as a 
result of incompetence, maybe an overreaching in terms of the desire to 
extend the election to all of the people, and to the kind of basic 
circumstances that are the atmosphere, the environment for any election 
in a country like Haiti. But there was no evidence that those were 
intended to serve partisan political advantage.
  As some have said, we are going to have an early opportunity to see 
whether some of the lessons learned last Sunday will be applied, 
because there are going to be a second round of elections in just a 
matter of 4 weeks. It will be the opportunity for those responsible for 
the electoral process to 

[[Page S 9148]]
incorporate some of those lessons that have been learned, in seeing 
that the next round of elections are more orderly.
  Let me just recite some of the vignettes that stick in my mind of 
this election. In 1987, there were elections scheduled in Haiti, and as 
people lined up at 6 o'clock in the morning to vote, the Tontons 
Macoutes came by with machine guns and slaughtered people in the voting 
lines. You would think that kind of circumstance that occurred less 
than a decade ago would create a sense of anxiety and apprehension for 
people to go out and vote on a Sunday morning in 1995. That was not the 
case. People were, in fact, joyful in their attitudes. They were 
enthusiastic about the opportunity to vote. At 6 o'clock in the morning 
in Cite Soleil--the same place people were being shot down 8 years 
ago--40 people were standing in line waiting to be able to be the first 
to vote at that particular precinct. It was an exciting exhilarating 
experience to see people who wanted so much to participate in 
democracy.
  I was particularly impressed with the number of young people. I just 
read an article about the low participation in American elections by 
our youngest voters. In Haiti, the youngest voters seem to be the most 
participating. I made a point, through a translator, of asking a number 
of these young people why they were doing this. Why was this 18-year-
old out on a Sunday morning standing in line to vote? The answer was, 
``This is my country, this is my future. It is important to me and my 
country that democracy work.''
  That is exactly the kind of spirit that will drive this country into 
a better future, the kind of spirit that will begin to eradicate those 
circumstances that have made holding an election in June 1995 so 
difficult.
  So, Mr. President, as I said, I will be submitting a fuller report at 
a later time, but I wanted to put in context what is happening in this 
country. I do not intend to be naive or Pollyannaish about the 
difficulties, including the difficulties of this election. But I 
believe that we, as Americans, can take pride in what we have 
accomplished, taking a country which a year ago was under one of the 
most brutal dictatorships in modern history in the Western Hemisphere, 
where bodies where showing up every morning butchered as a result of 
the previous night's brutality by agents of a military dictatorship; 
and now we have people standing upright, prideful of their country, 
optimistic of their personal future, desirous of being a part of the 
future of their nation and seeing democracy as the means by which that 
future would be achieved.
  I think we should take some pride in that and that we will be able to 
look back, I hope, at this experience last Sunday as an important step 
in what will be a long path toward the emergence of Haiti as a fully 
committed, operative democracy with an economy that provides 
opportunity and a future for its people and a government which respects 
the rights and dignity of each individual citizen of Haiti.
  (Ms. SNOWE assumed the chair.)
  Mr. DODD. If my colleague will yield. Madam President, I want to 
commend our colleague from Florida,
 who took the time, once again, as he has on numerous other occasions, 
to personally participate and observe routine, watching the elections 
in Haiti.

  Senator Graham of Florida has a consistent and longstanding interest 
in Haiti, and I think it is worth our while. We anticipate and await a 
more detailed report.
  I was particularly interested in hearing your firsthand accounts of 
what actually occurred this past weekend, with all of the shortcomings 
that occurred.
  I read with some interest the departure statement of the U.S. 
Presidential delegation who observed the Haitian elections and the 
number of places that the delegation--some 300 polling sites--observed 
complicated balloting procedures involving elections for more than 
2,100 legislative, mayoral and local council offices, 25 political 
parties, and it goes on how complicated this process was.
  The delegation notes here that:

       Despite repeated misunderstandings over the actions of 
     election officials at all levels, the delegation saw little 
     evidence of any effort to favor a single political party or 
     of an organized attempt to intentionally subvert the 
     electoral machinery. At many points, the Provisional 
     Electoral Council's actions and public statements raised 
     questions about the credibility of the process. The most 
     significant of the problems was the failure to explain the 
     reasons candidates were rejected. Political parties raised 
     these and other concerns relating to the transparency of the 
     elections in their contacts within the delegation.

  It goes on. I think it points out the success of this delegation.
  Last, Mr. President, in the Miami Herald, Monday, June 26, edition, 
``Haiti: Ballots, Not Bullets.'' I think it is a worthwhile headline to 
note, Ballots Not Bullets.

       Historic vote is mostly free of violence. Democracy scored 
     a fragile victory Sunday as Haitians trooped to the polls 
     under a blazing sun and a cloud of confusion to vote on all 
     but 10 of the country's 2,205 elected offices.

  I ask unanimous consent to have the article printed in the Record.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

                      Haiti: Ballots, not Bullets

                   (By Don Bohning and Susan Benesch)

       Port-au-Prince.--Democracy scored a fragile victory Sunday 
     as Haitians trooped to the polls under a blazing sun and a 
     cloud of confusion to vote on all but 10 of the country's 
     2,205 elected offices.
       Perhaps most important, the election was virtually free of 
     the violence that marred previous ones.
       Sunday's was the first and most complicated of three 
     crucial electoral tests in the wake of the U.S.-led military 
     intervention in September that restored President Jean-
     Bertrand Aristide to office after three years of exile.
       The next test comes July 23, with a runoff for Senate and 
     Chamber of Deputies candidates who did not win a majority in 
     Sunday's balloting. All 83 seats in the lower house and 18 in 
     the 27-seat Senate were contested.
       Both Sunday's vote and the July 23 runoff are curtain-
     raisers for year-end presidential elections.
       ``We're voting for democracy to advance,'' pronounced a 
     smiling Aristide after voting near his residence on the 
     outskirts of Port-au-Prince.
       Dressed in blue jeans and a white polo shirt with green 
     trim, the diminutive Aristide, buried in a phalanx of 
     security officials and aides, walked the half-mile from his 
     home to the polling station at the St. John Paul II church 
     and school complex.
       Aristide emerged 15 minutes later, showing a crowd of 
     journalists and admirers his thumb coated in indelible ink, a 
     sign he had voted.
       A far greater problem than the few scattered and mostly 
     minor incidents of violence across the country, were the 
     almost universal complaints of snafus at the 10,000 polling 
     stations.
       Many polling places opened late, some by several hours. In 
     others, ballots and other voting materials were missing. In 
     some cases, so were poll workers. Transportation was a 
     problem, with all but official and public vehicles banned 
     from the streets. The ban also applied to all commercial 
     airline flights.
       For the most part, Haitians waited patiently outside 
     polling stations as electoral officials scurried to correct 
     the deficiencies.
       With about 80 percent of Haitians illiterate, many voters 
     struggled to decipher a multitude of party symbols on the 
     ballots. Independent candidates were identified with a 
     Haitian flag. Voters also got help from election officials in 
     marking their ballots and depositing them correctly.
       Electoral officials estimated that about 90 percent of 
     eligible Haitians--3.5 million--had registered to vote. There 
     were no immediate figures available of how many actually 
     voted, but turnout appeared to be heavy, although not equal 
     to that of the December 1990 election that swept Aristide to 
     office.
       Results for the local, district and the first round of 
     parliamentary elections are not expected for at least a week, 
     because the ballots have to be counted by hand.


                           foreign assessment

       The tentative assessment was that Sunday's vote probably 
     met at least the minimum standards for a credible election. A 
     final verdict is expected today, when up to 1,000 foreign 
     observers offer their assessment. And it's likely that even 
     they might not agree.
       ``There were the kind of administrative problems we 
     anticipated, but Haitians as a whole voted without 
     intimidation or fraud in the electoral process,'' said a 
     Clinton administration official participating in the 20-
     member U.S. presidential delegation witnessing the vote.
       ``I have been in many African countries for elections and 
     they are doing very well here,'' was the midmorning 
     assessment of Sen. Jacques Goillet, member of a French 
     parliamentary observer delegation.


                             positive side

       While the credibility of the election may be debated, on 
     the clearly positive side there were no reports of major 
     election day violence.
       The most serious incidents of election-related violence 
     occurred overnight Friday in 

[[Page S 9149]]
     the northern areas of Limbe, Le Bourgne and Dondon. Sunday's vote was 
     called off in all three places, with the expectation it would 
     be rescheduled in conjunction with the July 23 runoff.
       In Limbe, somebody threw a firebomb into the electoral 
     offices, destroying thousands of ballots. In neighboring 
     Dondon, election officials decided to shut down to prevent 
     problems. And in Le Bourgne, a mob attacked the electoral 
     offices, stealing seven boxes of election materials. They 
     were later recovered but in unusable condition.
       There seems to be little doubt the election violence was 
     held to a minimum by 6,000 foreign troops--including 2,400 
     Americans--remaining here as part of a United Nations force. 
     Along with about 1,000 international police monitors, they 
     were deployed nationwide.
       Florida Sen. Bob Graham, observing the vote, said he was 
     ``pleased by what I have seen so far.''
       Almost to a voter, Haitians in line in Cite Soleil, a Port-
     au-Prince slum, said they were voting for the candidates of 
     the ticket known as The Table, who are favored by Aristide.
  Mr. DODD. I want to commend my colleague for his efforts and for 
sharing his observations here. This was not perfect by any standards. 
Given what we have seen over the years here, this does offer at least 
some significant hope--that the comments you heard from young people 
about what they wish for, why they were going through the process of 
voting, is something that we can get behind and nourish and try to 
encourage in the coming years.
  I thank my colleague for his efforts.
  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, while my friend from Florida is on the 
floor, International Republican Institute has similar preelection 
reports from Nicaragua, China, El Salvador, Slovenia, just to name a 
few. The National Democratic Institute has issued preelection reports 
in the course of their monitoring of elections.
  For the Senator from Florida to somehow believe that this is an 
unusual or inappropriate measure is simply, I think, incorrect, in 
light of the fact that it is a normal, standard procedure for electoral 
observation teams to make these reports.
  I will be glad to provide for the Record all those that the National 
Democratic Institute also completed.
  Because this report was very critical in no means, in my view, 
invalidates it. I would like to point out I know that the Senator from 
Florida knows that Congressman Goss, of all people, is highly 
qualified. He is a former member of the CIA--I think the only member of 
the other body that is a member of the CIA.
  I would say to my friend from Florida, at no time, in 4 years of 
observing 48 elections, has the International Republican Institute or 
the National Democratic Institute, been challenged on the basis of 
party bias. If they did, if there was any of that, they would have no 
credibility.
  While we are looking at newspapers, here is a picture at a counting 
station in downtown Port-au-Prince. ``Monique Georges reacts to the 
state of ballot boxes deposited by angry election workers who said they 
had not been paid.''
  The Washington Post reports:

       Parties and election observers across the political 
     spectrum--from the government of President Jean-Bertrand 
     Aristide--today criticized as chaotic and disorderly 
     elections Sunday that were considered a key step in 
     establishing democracy in this impoverished nation.

  To be fair I should go on:

       But most said the disarray did not invalidate the voting, 
     and even the Republican observer team said the irregularities 
     were not enough to prompt a cutoff of U.S. aid.

  Nor am I seeking a cutoff of U.S. aid.

       ``The process is very badly organized, and we, the 
     government, are not proud of it,'' said Jean-Claude Bajeaux, 
     the Minister of Culture, in a radio interview. ``Instead of 
     improving on the 1990 elections, we have done worse.''

  Now, this is the Minister of Culture in Haiti.
  Madam President, we are wasting the time of the Senate in a way, 
because the facts are going to come out on this election. These are the 
first initial observations made by qualified observers, and I think 
more and more evidence is pouring in that this election did not meet 
the minimum standards in order to judge an election as fair and 
equitable and that the people are allowed to select their leadership.
  I just want to emphasize, Madam President, that this election was 
observed by unbiased observers. I will provide for the Record the names 
of those individuals who made the observations.
  There being no objection, the ordered printed in the Record, as 
follows:

                         Observation Delegation


                      chairman of the delegation:

       U.S. Representative Porter J. Goss: Congressman Goss (R-FL) 
     is serving his fourth term in the House. He has a particular 
     interest in Latin American policies and served as an election 
     observer to the 1990 electoral process in Nicaragua. 
     Congressman Goss is a member of the Select Committee on 
     Intelligence, the House Ethics Committee, and the House Rules 
     Committee.


                   delegation (in alphabetical order)

       Cleveland Benedict: Mr. Benedict represented the Second 
     District of West Virginia in the U.S. House of 
     Representatives from 1980-1982, and he has served as the 
     state Commissioner of Agriculture, as well as a Deputy 
     Assistant Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. He 
     is the President of Ben Buck Farms in Lewisburg, West 
     Virginia.
       Jeff Brown: Mr. Brown is Director of Grassroots Development 
     with the Republican Party of Virginia. Prior to joining the 
     state Party, he served in Governor Allen's Administration as 
     Director of the Commission on Citizen Empowerment and was 
     with Empower America.
       Malik M. Chaka: Mr. Chaka is the Director of Information 
     for Free Angola Information Service in Washington, D.C., and 
     editor of Angola Update, an internationally distributed 
     monthly newspaper. As a Tanzanian-based free lance 
     journalists in the 1970's, Mr. Chaka has observed the advance 
     of democratic processes in southern Africa.
       George Dalley: Mr. Dalley is a partner with the Washington, 
     D.C. law firm of Holland and Knight. He is a former Counsel 
     and Staff Director to Congressman Charles Rangel (D-NY) and 
     was a Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Carter 
     Administration.
       Mary Dunea: Ms. Dunea is Assistant to Governor Jim Edgar of 
     Illinois. She directs cultural and international initiatives 
     for Governor Edgar and serves as his liaison with groups 
     involved in developing international trade.
       George A. Fauriol, Ph.D.: Dr. Fauriol is Director and 
     Senior Fellow, American Programs with the Center for 
     Strategic & International Studies in Washington, D.C. At 
     CSIS, he directs the program in engaging policy makers in 
     Canada, the United States, Mexico, Latin American and the 
     Caribbean in pivotal issues of common concern, such as trade, 
     democratization, and security matters.
       Ronald Fuller: The owner of an advertising and public 
     relations firm in Little Rock, Arkansas, Mr. Fuller serves as 
     a consultant on governmental and media relations to 
     businesses, trade associations, and political candidates. He 
     served as a communications and political party trainer on an 
     IRI mission to Latvia and Lithuania.
       Rich Garon: Mr. Garon is Chief of Staff of the U.S. House 
     of Representatives Committee on International Relations. He 
     is a long-time assistant to Committee Chairman Ben Gilman (R-
     NY) and has extensive experience in developing foreign policy 
     legislation.
       Kevin T. Lamb: Mr. Lamb is a partner and chair of the 
     creditors' rights, business restructuring, and bankruptcy 
     practice group at Testa, Hurwitz & Thibeault in Boston, 
     Massachusetts. Mr. Lamb represents major lending institutions 
     and venture capital funds in corporate reorganization and 
     work-out arrangements.
       Kirsten Madison: Ms. Madison is Senior Legislative 
     Assistant to U.S. Representative Porter Goss (R-FL). She 
     manages the Congressman's initiatives regarding U.S. policy 
     toward Haiti, as well as has oversight responsibilities 
     involving other foreign policy legislation.
       Roger Noriega: Mr. Noriega is a professional staff member 
     on the U.S. House of Representatives International Relations 
     Committee, responsible for issues involving U.S. interests in 
     Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada. He has actively 
     monitored the situation in Haiti since the 1991 coup and has 
     visited Haiti twice in the last six months and met with 
     President Aristide. Before joining the House committee, he 
     served at the State Department, the Agency for International 
     Development, and the Organization of American States.
       Martin Poblete: Professor Poblete is the permanent adviser 
     on Latin American Affairs at the Northeast Hispanic Catholic 
     Center in New York. He is also Chairman of Columbia 
     University Seminar on Latin America and a Professor of 
     History at Rutgers University.
       Steve Rademaker: Mr. Rademaker is Chief Counsel of the 
     Committee on International Relations of the U.S. House of 
     Representatives. Prior to joining the committee staff in 
     1993, he had served as General Counsel for the Peace Corps 
     and Associate Counsel to the President and Deputy Legal 
     Adviser to the National Security Council during the Bush 
     Administration.
       Therese M. Shaheen: Ms. Shaheen, who has wide-ranging 
     experience working in Asia, the Middle East, and Europe, is 
     President, Chief Operating Officer and Co-founder of U.S. 
     Asia Commercial Development Corporation in Washington, D.C. 
     U.S. Asia develops and manages commercial projects for 
     American firms in Asia.
       Tim Stadthaus: Mr. Stadthaus is Legislative Assistant and 
     Assistant Press Secretary 

[[Page S 9150]]
     to U.S. Representative William F. Goodling (R-PA). He monitors foreign 
     relations matters and oversees related legislation initiated 
     by Congressman Goodling, who is a member of the House 
     International Relations Committee.
       John Tierney Ph.D.: Dr. Tierney is a member of the faculty 
     at Catholic University in Washington, D.C. and also teaches 
     at the University of Virginia and Johns Hopkins. He has 
     served as Director of the U.S. House of Representatives 
     Caucus on National Defense, as a consult to the Heritage 
     Foundation, and as a Special Assistant with the U.S. Arms 
     Control and Disarmament Agency during the Reagan 
     Administration.
       Jacqueline Tillman: Ms. Tillman is Senior Staffer for 
     National Security Affairs and Director of Issue Advocacy for 
     Empower America in Washington, D.C. Before joining Empower 
     America, she was Executive Vice President of the Cuban 
     American National Foundation, Director of Latin America 
     policy with the National Security Council during the Reagan 
     Administration and an assistant to U.S. Ambassador to the 
     United Nations Jeane Kirkpatrick.

  Mr. McCAIN. People can honestly disagree on what they observed. But 
to allege that somehow agreement or disagreement with administration 
policy concerning Haiti would somehow affect one's view of this 
election, I think, does great disservice to the people what took their 
time and their effort.
  The Senator from Florida certainly knows how unpleasant the 
conditions are down there. They may disagree with the Senator from 
Florida as to the veracity of the elections, but I cannot, without any 
evidence, accept any allegation that the observation of these elections 
and the conclusions that were reached by these observers were in any 
way colored by their view of United States policy toward Haiti.
  I am sure that my friend from Florida would not intimate such a 
thing. I want to make the record clear and I want to thank the Senator 
from Florida for his many-year-long involvement in the issue of Haiti, 
for his strong advocacy for freedom and democracy in Haiti, and his 
continued knowledgeable and informative manner as far as the region is 
concerned. I yield the floor.

                          ____________________