[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 16, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H7539]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 THE PRESIDENT'S LATEST FLIP-FLOP, APPEASING FIDEL CASTRO ON SANCTIONS

  (Mr. COX of California asked and was given permission to address the 
House for 1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. COX of California. Mr. Speaker, within the hour the President of 
the United States has waived sanctions on Fidel Castro that he himself, 
Bill Clinton, signed into law just 5 months ago. This latest flip-flop 
is an extraordinary appeasement of the Communist dictator that will not 
work.
  Since Castro began his sadistic and pathologically anti-American rule 
in 1959, he has denied civil rights and political liberties at home and 
exported revolution throughout the hemisphere.
  Indeed, beyond assisting dictators and dictatorships, in our own 
hemisphere he has fielded soldiers and troops in no less than 14 
African countries in 1 moment. Cuba has not one independent newspaper, 
not one independent school, not one independent labor union. Castro 
continues to execute and imprison political prisoners, and has driven 
1.3 million Cubans into exile in this country.
  The fall of the Berlin Wall and the collapse of the Soviet Union 
should have choked off Castro's rule, but he still is alive, in large 
part because of sustenance from the Clinton administration. Having 
signed the Libertad Act 5 months ago and said that he was for sanctions 
on Castro, Bill Clinton is now using his Presidential authority to 
waive those very sanctions.

  Appeasing Castro is the wrong way for America to proceed. This latest 
flipflop of Bill Clinton's is more than a broken promise to the 
American people and the world. It is, in fact, capitulation that will 
endanger the world's security. Bill Clinton should be ashamed of 
himself.

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