[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 1 (Tuesday, January 7, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H37-H38]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       AMERICA'S POLICIES IN CUBA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Florida [Mr. McCollum] is 
recognized for 20 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, I take this opportunity to have this few 
minutes of conversation about a very important topic on this first day 
of Congress. Just a couple of days ago, on January 3d of this year, 
President Clinton announced his decision to suspend for the second time 
Title III of what is known as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic 
Solidarity Act, otherwise known as the Helms-Burton law. This is a very 
significant event, and one which I fear is going to lead to lots more 
problems rather than solutions with relationships that we have in this 
western hemisphere, with the United States and Cuba and our allies.
  Let me explain this and put it in context. Cuba has been a 
dictatorship under Fidel Castro for some 37 years. During that time I 
think the world is fully aware of the many human rights violations this 
dictator has committed and his regime has committed. I think the world 
is probably also fully aware that Cuba and Fidel Castro remain only one 
of two Communist dictatorships left after the fall of the Soviet Union 
and changes around the world and tendencies towards more democracies, 
as we have seen in the last decade or so.
  It is shameful that we have today, only 90 miles across the ocean 
from the United States, just 90 miles away, a Communist dictatorship of 
the nature Fidel Castro runs. We have tried over the years since the 
failure of the Bay of Pigs, which indeed was tragic and a shameful part 
of our history, frankly, that we did not support that invasion fully as 
it should have been supported. We have tried numerous times since then 
in small, incremental ways, to either oust Fidel Castro or to change 
his policies. It should be abundantly clear to anyone who has observed 
this man over the years that he is not about to change his stripes. He 
is not about to give up his ruthless power. He is not going to do that 
voluntarily at least.
  For those who wish democracy in Cuba, I can only say I hope there is 
democracy, like you do, but it is wishful thinking if you think it is 
going to come about as long as Fidel Castro is in power. The only way 
to see democracy in Cuba and to see our hemisphere Democratic and to 
have normal relations again with that small Nation state to the south 
is for Fidel Castro to leave office and for those who supported him for 
all these years to end that support.
  Let me tell the Members the biggest problem facing us in seeing that 
accomplished in the current time frame. It is not from the Soviet 
Union. It does not exist anymore. It is not from Russia. It is not from 
some far-flung place. It is from our allies in Europe and in Canada and 
in Mexico who supply the currency, who supply the economic support 
necessary to prop up this regime, either directly through their 
governments, or more frequently, through companies or business entities 
that invest in Cuba that are involved

[[Page H38]]

in providing the liquidity and the capital that allow him to continue 
to exist.
  He makes modest changes in how he does business, which have no 
bearing in reality upon ever becoming truly democratic or allowing a 
true market system to work, and he is given a reward to do this by the 
continued open door policies of these allies who pour these dollars in 
through the businesses that operate there.
  In Title III of the law that is known as Helms-Burton that was passed 
by the last Congress, there was a provision very important to stopping 
this. That provision stated that an American business or an individual 
who had been harmed because a business at one time before Castro in 
Cuba that was American had been confiscated by Castro, confiscated by 
the Cuban government after the revolution that brought Castro to power, 
a person, an American situated in this case, either a business or an 
individual, could sue a company or a business in another nation, Europe 
or Canada or Mexico or wherever, who did business by investing in and 
supporting in some way the business entity that had been confiscated 
that had previously been an American-owned business in Cuba; sue in the 
courts of the United States for damages, sue in order to be able to 
recover the lost value of the property that had been confiscated from 
the companies doing business to allow Cuba to continue to exist by 
propping up the confiscated property and the business that might have 
been confiscated, if you will.
  What President Clinton has done is succumbed to our allies who have 
said, oh, this is horrible. You are going to allow our businesses in 
our countries to be sued for damages by American citizens because they 
are investing in Cuba and in formerly American property interests in 
Cuba.
  And President Clinton, who has the power under this bill, and I am 
not at all sure he ought to have it, but he has the power under this 
bill for every 6-month period to waive these provisions, just on 
January 3d, a few days ago, January 3d of this year, for the second 
time since Helms-Burton has been the law, chose to waive it and say we 
are not going to enforce that at this point in time.

                              {time}  1815

  There can be no lawsuits, no litigation in American courts against 
foreign corporations, foreign business interests that invest in 
previously owned American property in Cuba or American interests in 
Cuba. That is a horrible decision by the President. It is outrageous 
what he did. It is something that kowtows to the big business interests 
of our allies and is detrimental to everything that we believe in and 
to the best interests of our national security and our interests in 
this hemisphere.
  Our interest is in having democracy in Cuba and that can only happen 
when the noose is tied tightly enough around Castro and the current 
Cuban regime that he is ousted and that a new government comes into 
place. The economy of that country is dependent upon these investments 
and anything we can do to stop the money from flowing and the support 
from flowing into this government and into its economy is essential and 
important and critical, not only to the freedom-loving people who want 
to be free in Cuba, Cuban Americans and Cubans everywhere, but also to 
America, the United States' national security interest.
  I submit that the President has also played a lot of politics with 
this. He has indicated that while he is only doing it for 6 months that 
he plans to make this suspension indefinite, that he apparently has no 
intention of ever letting title III become law and effective and allow 
these lawsuits to take place. That is not what he indicated when he 
first signed that bill. There was no indication of that. He said to the 
Cubans of the world and the Cuban American community in particular, I 
am signing Helms-Burton, I am proud of it, support me in the next 
election, support my party in the next election and you will see that I 
am true to my word and we will tighten the noose around Castro and 
bring about more democracy.
  Oh, I know there are those who are going to say, well, there is some 
bargaining going on, there is some quid pro quo, there is some progress 
being made, and so on and so forth.
  There is no real progress being made. Castro's playing us for a 
sucker, if that is the case, and this administration is blind to that 
fact. You cannot have your cake and eat it, too, Mr. President. You 
must understand that if we are to end this tyrannical dictatorship 
south of the United States, only 90 miles off our coast, a true embargo 
has to be enforced, a true economic embargo. And this provision, this 
title III provision of the Helms-Burton law allowing Americans to sue 
in court companies abroad that are doing business and investing in 
American interests, formerly American interests in Cuba, has to be 
allowed to go forward. And if it does, then and only then do we have a 
chance of ousting Castro in some more peaceable manner other than short 
of some invading force, which none of us are predicting or expecting or 
advocating.
  But we do need to do what we have to do, and I believe, Mr. 
President, that you have made a very big mistake in this regard, and I 
think it borders upon hypocrisy for others to say that this is a 
wonderful piece of legislation and then we are not going to let it go 
into play and not going to enforce it. That is exactly what some have 
said.
  I hope and pray that my colleagues will join with me in the next few 
months as we go back and revisit this issue legislatively. If the 
President is not willing to enforce title III of Helms-Burton and is 
going to continue to waive it, then I would suggest it is within our 
power and this Congress should pass a law that says that that provision 
of title III is no longer eligible for waiver, that it indeed is the 
law of this land, that Americans who formerly had an interest in Cuba 
can sue foreign companies investing in those property interests in 
Cuba, to heck with what the President has to say about it. He should 
not even have a say at all, if that is the way he is going to act on 
this proposition.
  I would urge my colleagues to examine it. It is a very important 
ingredient in our foreign policy. We should never have allowed a 
dictatorship to exist for 37 years of such a vile nature as we have in 
Castro south of here, just 90 miles off our coast. And there is no 
reason, no reason to allow our allies and their business interests to 
continue to prop up that dictatorship with its human rights violations 
any longer. The time has long since passed to do something about it. 
Let us act in this Congress to force the hand of this President and to 
allow American citizens to sue, at the very least to try to bring some 
pressure that can be legitimately brought on the Cuban regime in 
addition to enforcing the embargo and whatever else we can do within 
our powers.

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