[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 10 (Thursday, January 25, 1996)]
[House]
[Pages H877-H878]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
STATEMENT ON CUBA TRIP
(Mr. MOAKLEY asked and was given permission to address the House for
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
Mr. MOAKLEY. Mr. Speaker, my recent visit to Cuba has been the
subject of some controversy. Some of my colleagues, who have
surprisingly never even talked to me about the trip, have cynically
tried to characterize my views and the trip as insensitive to human
rights and pro-Castro.
Mr. Speaker, that is a blatant distortion of the truth.
My position on Cuba is the same as that put forth by the conference
of Catholic Bishops. My position is also the same as Cuba's Catholic
Cardinal, Cardinal Jaime Ortega.
I might add, as well, that my position is the same as many of Cuba's
leading dissidents--including Elizardo Sanchez, Martha Beatriz Roque,
Vladimiro Roca, and Rene Gomez Manzano, just to name a few.
Are these people, some of whom have spent time in Cuban jails,
insensitive to human rights? Are these people pro-Castro?
Their position, and my position, it that we can best encourage human
rights reforms and begin a transition to a more democratic Cuba through
increased relations and not by more isolation. They, like me, oppose
the so-called Helms-Burton bill.
Mr. Speaker, I realize my public position on Cuba makes me the target
of a very well-financed lobby here in the United States. But, let me
say clearly and sincerely, I believe in my heart that I am advocating
what is best for the courageous people who live on that island and who
yearn for a day when human rights and freedoms are truly respected.
Moakley Statement on Cuba Trip
Washington.--Congressman Joe Moakley released the following
statement from his office today on his recent trip to Cuba:
``I traveled to Cuba for two basic reasons--first, to try
to create an atmosphere in which relations between the U.S.
and Cuba could be improved; and, second, to find ways to
support ordinary Cuban people.
My trip was hosted by the ABC Forum on Cuba, a non-profit
organization dedicated to educating U.S. citizens on issues
related to Cuba and to supporting the activities of NGO's
promoting human rights and helping the Cuban people.
Our delegation consisted of 23 participants ranging from
business leaders to NGO's like the Boston-based Oxfam
America.
I met with a variety of people while in Cuba--including top
Cuban government officials, church leaders, dissidents,
NGO's, foreign diplomats, U.S. officials.
I even had the chance to visit a small group of farmers who
are working with Oxfam on a project to increase agriculture
production for sale on the open market. These farmers and all
the ordinary people I had the chance to meet, were excited to
talk with our delegation and candid about their hopes for
closer ties with people in the United States.
In addition, my aide Jim McGovern and I had a 2 hour
private meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro. After
which, the Cuban leader met with our entire group for another
2 hour session. I told President Castro that we are at a
crossroads in terms of U.S.-Cuba relations. the United States
Congress is nearing final action on the so-called Helms-
Burton Bill which, if signed into law, will strengthen the
current economic embargo and end any possibility for
improved relations anytime in the near future.
[[Page H878]]
I told President Castro that there must be more movement in
Cuba with regard to human rights and economic reforms--and
urge him to act now. He seemed responsive and pledged to give
my request very serious and immediate consideration.
We also had an excellent meeting with Jamie Cardinal
Ortega--the Roman Catholic Cardinal in Cuba. His Eminence
told us that the official position of the Catholic Bishops
was against the US embargo for humanitarian reasons. He also
was very clear about his continued concerns regarding human
rights abuses that currently exist in Cuba.
On a related matter, I raised with the Cuban leadership my
hope that they would invite Pope John Paul II to visit Cuba
during his visit to the Caribbean later this year.
My trip began and ended with important meetings with Cuban
dissident groups. While these people suggested that the
difficulties in Cuba run much deeper than the economic
hardships, a majority of those we meet expressed opposition
to the Helms-Burton legislation.
One of the things that stunned me the most about my trip is
the explosion of independent entrepreneurship. There are
roughly 208,000 independent family businesses operating in
Cuba. This entrepreneurship is allowing people greater
personal freedom from government controls. When people are no
longer dependent on the government for their jobs, they are
freer from economic coercion. I got the sense that the Cuban
government recognizes that these small businesses are
necessary for the country's economic viability and are
accepting the political space that they create.
In fact, Caritas (a Catholic charitable organization in
Havana) described its plans to establish training programs to
help these fledgling businesses succeed. Michael Ryan,
President of ABC Forum on Cuba, which organized the trip
said: ``It was great to see our group get excited about
helping support the Cuban people, particularly in their
efforts to form small businesses and independent NGOs. A
number of our participants expressed a real desire to support
these efforts after we concluded our trip.''
The European Union is about to hold talks with the Cubans
on closer economic ties--and is using this opportunity to
urge the Cuban government to improve its human rights record.
The United States could have ten times more leverage with
Cuba than the Europeans if we got serious about improving
relations. Right now the embargo leaves us completely out of
the picture. I'm afraid if we let Helms-Burton become law, we
will lose an important opportunity to improve the situation
in Cuba. Of all the meetings I had, there was consensus on
one thing--that the future of Cuba will be decided by Cubans
on the island. The degree to which we can encourage positive
change will depend on whether or not we defeat Helms-Burton.
____
[From the Boston Globe, Jan. 23, 1996]
Our Ban in Havana
(By H.D.S. Greenway)
Havana.--``Socialismo O Muerte''--Socialism or Death--say
the graffiti scrawled on the walls of this once grand, now
crumbly Caribbean capital. But as communists the world over
have found, their ``socialism'' means a death of sorts:
stagnation and decline, a slow demise of ambition and
incentive and the equality of shared poverty.
There are only five countries left that call themselves
communist: China and its three abutters in Asia--North Korea,
Vietnam and Laos--and then Cuba. In all, to varying degrees,
the communist leaders recognize the inadequacy of their
economic system, but all want to cling to political power.
With some justification they can point to the death of their
great progenitor, the Soviet Union, as an example of what can
happen when the reins of political power are suddenly
dropped. In short, they want to eat the cake of capitalism
without ingesting political freedoms.
All the ambiguities of this approach are evident in Fidel
Castro, the last of the founding fathers of postwar
communism. All the others--Mao Zedong, Kim Il Sung, Ho Chi
Minh--are dead, but Fidel remains. To some, America's most
enduring bete noire is a Latin David to our gringo Goliath;
to others he is an irredeemable tyrant.
Nine US presidents have tried to do him in--by invasion,
assassination, economic embargo--but he lives on ``to remind
us of our failures,'' as US Rep. J. Joseph Moakley put it.
For 30 years Castro had a free ride, strutting the world's
stage as a symbol of independence to a world emerging from
colonialism but in fact a kept man, his bills paid by the
Soviet Union. After the demise of his patron, Castro and his
economy went into a free fall, bottoming out in 1993.
In desperation, Castro and his lieutenants have planted the
first, few seeds of a free-market economy here. The Yankee
dollar is now a legal currency in Cuba alongside the peso.
Joint ventures with foreigners are beginning to bear fruit,
especially in the tourist industry. Some 208,000 Cubans are
permitted to work in the private sector, but the state still
remains supreme, and a gulf is widening between those who
work in the dollar economy and those left behind in a land of
unconvertible pesos.
Small, private restaurants called ``paladares'' are
springing up in people's homes, but the law allows no more
than a dozen tables, and all the cooks and waiters must be
family members because it is still illegal for one Cuban to
hire another. Thus is entrepreneurship on the one hand
encouraged while the other hand suppresses it.
Last week Moakley led a delegation of inquiry here of which
I was a member. We talked to Castro, aging now but still in
command. He is trying to probe for weak spots in the mortar
of the embargo that the United States has imposed.
Moakley, in turn, was trying to squeeze human rights
concessions from Castro, concessions that Moakley could
use back in Washington to defeat the Helms-Burton bill,
sponsored by Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina and U.S.
Rep. Dan Burton of Indiana, which would put even more
restrictions on doing business with Cuba.
It seemed evident in conversations with Castro and his
ministers that Cuba isn't going back on the meager reforms
they have instigated. Castro said the changes are
irreversible. But Cuba's leaders are afraid of moving forward
too fast. Castro and his lieutenants appear to have no clear
vision but are making policy up as they go along.
Listening to Castro--his famous beard now gone gray--I was
struck by how much the world had changed and how much Fidel
has been bypassed since the heady revolutionary days of 30
years ago. Fidel Castro no longer presents the United States
with the mortal threat of Russian missiles 90 miles offshore.
His expeditionary forces no longer rampage through Africa,
spreading socialismo and death. Nor are his agents stirring
up trouble in the hemisphere. Che Guevara and the revolution
he represented lie in an unmarked Bolivian grave.
In an era when the United States is helping North Korea
with nuclear power, scrambling for investment in China and no
longer involved with embargoing Vietnam, the present
restrictions on trade with Cuba seem somewhat anachronistic.
Castro may have suffered from the U.S. embargo, but he has
also benefited enormously by having someone other than
himself to blame for Cuba's economic inadequacies, able to
wrap himself in the nationalist flag against the big bully of
the North.
In the long run, communism in Cuba is doomed. Both the
United States and Cuba have a convergence of interest in
seeing that the transition is smooth and the landing is soft.
A breakdown of order on the island would bring another vast
armada of Cubans fleeing to our shores, and that would be
destabilizing to both countries.
The best way to ensure a soft landing is to defeat
counterproductive legislation such as the Helms-Burton
``Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act,'' which would
threaten our allies that do business in Cuba and tie even
more restrictions on the present embargo. The bill will not
help Cuba's transition to a market economy and could only
retard the very forces of freedom and openness the United
States wishes to encourage. The embargo is strict enough
without additional baggage and should be used as a bargaining
chip to nudge Cuba into the democratic and human rights
reforms that will one day set its people free.
____
Havana, January 19.--Cuban dissidents have met a visiting
U.S. congressman in public, the first time in years such a
meeting has taken without interference from the authorities,
one of dissidents said on Friday.
Elizardo Sanchez told Reuters he and other dissidents met
visiting Democratic Representative Joe Moakley of
Massachusetts for several hours in the state-owned Hotel
Nacional.
Sanchez, leader of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and
National Reconciliation, said he was surprised the dissidents
had been able to hold a meeting in public without problems.
Meetings with members of Cuba's small and illegal opposition
groups generally take place in dissidents' homes or foreign
embassies.
We are not bothered (by officials) either entering or
leaving (the hotel),'' Sanchez said, adding that the group
discussed issues such as proposals in Congress to toughen the
longstanding U.S. embargo against communist-ruled Cuba.
Moakley, who also met the dissidents on Tuesday at the
house of the senior U.S. diplomat in Cuba Joseph Sullivan, is
on a fact-finding mission that included talks with President
Fidel Castro on Wednesday night.
Moakley said on Thursday he found Castro flexible on the
congressman's suggestion that if there were some change on
the island it might help defeat moves to toughen the embargo.
____________________