[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 31 (Wednesday, March 12, 1997)]
[House]
[Pages H929-H930]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              CUBAN LIBERTY AND DEMOCRATIC SOLIDARITY ACT

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Florida [Ms. Ros-Lehtinen] is recognized for 5 
minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, it was only a year ago today that the 
Helms-Burton law was signed into law after this Chamber, in all of its 
wisdom and its support of the oppressed people of Cuba, passed that 
landmark and historic legislation by an overwhelming majority. A year 
later the Members of the House of Representatives who supported this 
bill known as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act can be 
proud of casting their vote in favor of the bill because after only 1 
year of its implementation, it has proven to be an effective weapon in 
the battle to rid Cuba of the Castro dictatorship.
  Mr. Speaker, evidence of the success of the Helms-Burton Act can be 
found in various statements by top Castro officials who have faulted 
Helms-Burton for, among other things, the decision by the Mexican 
conglomerate, Grupo Domos, to withdraw from its agreement to 
reconstruct Cuba's domestic telecommunications system, and these same 
Castro officials have stated that Helms-Burton is responsible for the 
lack of private financing for equipment that is needed for Cuba's 
important sugar harvest.
  Just today the Castro regime's foreign minister, Roberto Robaina, on 
a

[[Page H930]]

stop in Brazil, stated that Helms-Burton has had a very strong 
psychological effect and has frustrated investments. He added that the 
Cuban economy has not grown as expected in large part due to this 
legislation.
  But whether or not Castro's thugs agree that Helms-Burton has been 
successful or not, it is clear that this legislation has stopped in its 
tracks Castro's efforts to sell Cuba as an investment paradise, a 
paradise where workers who enjoy no rights are virtual slaves to the 
wicked partnership of Castro and the foreign investors who profit from 
American stolen property.
  All of this, Mr. Speaker, has taken place despite the failure of the 
Clinton administration to fully implement the law. The President has 
ignored congressional intent and has twice waived title III of Helms-
Burton. This is the provision that grants American citizens the right 
to sue in American courts those foreign investors who traffic in their 
stolen American property in Cuba.
  Similarly, title IV of the legislation that denies entry to the 
United States of those officials of corporations that are investing in 
illegally confiscated American property in Cuba, has only been enforced 
against two corporations: Sherritt of Canada and Grupo Domos of Mexico, 
despite evidence that other companies like Spain's hotel builders, Sol-
Melia, are doing business with United States confiscated properties.
  The Castro regime's desperation to silence any support for Helms-
Burton inside the island was translated a few months ago into an 
antidote law that virtually prohibits any positive talk of Helms-Burton 
on the island.
  Articles 8 and 9 of this totalitarian law makes it a crime for any 
Cuban citizen to facilitate the implementation of Helms-Burton. The 
main victims but not the only victims of this new oppressive law have 
been the independent journalists on the island who bravely attempt to 
offer the people of Cuba and the outside world an objective view of the 
repressive situation on the island.
  Raul Rivero, who presides over Cuba Press, an independent journalist 
association in Cuba, and many other colleagues who bravely attempt to 
break Castro's information monopoly, have been systematically harassed 
and arrested by Castro's thugs since this draconian law took effect.
  These journalists are subject to so-called repudiation acts, which 
are government sponsored mobs, which in the middle of the night scream 
insults such as ``traitor,'' and in fact they vandalize these 
reporters' homes.
  Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, many of our allies have followed Castro's 
lead. They have mounted a campaign of their own to revoke Helms-Burton 
in order to be able to continue to profit and participate in Castro's 
slave economy.
  Mr. Speaker, only by denying Castro the resources he needs to 
maintain power can we help the people of Cuba in their struggle to 
eliminate the last dictator of our hemisphere, Fidel Castro.

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