[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 66 (Monday, May 19, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E960]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
A NEW POLICY NEEDED FOR CUBA
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HON. LEE H. HAMILTON
of indiana
in the house of representatives
Friday, May 16, 1997
Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I would like to bring to my colleagues'
attention my monthly newsletter on foreign affairs from April 1997
entitled ``A New Policy Needed for Cuba.''
I ask that this newsletter be printed in the Congressional Record.
The newsletter follows:
A New Policy Needed for Cuba
For more than three decades, the United States has
embargoed Cuba in an unsuccessful effort to force Fidel
Castro from power. Last year, in the wake of Cuba's brutal
shoot down of private U.S. planes in international airspace,
Congress passed the Helms-Burton law, which tightened the
economic sanctions. Opponents of the law feared it would hurt
the Cuban people, not Castro. A year's experience shows they
were right. Helms-Burton has helped Castro, weakened his
opponents, brought more misery to ordinary Cubans and damaged
relations with our closest allies and trading partners. We
need a new policy to promote a peaceful transition to
democracy in Cuba.
Helms-Burton's reach
The Helms-Burton law tightens the noose on Cuba in two key
ways. First, it grants U.S. citizens the right to bring suit
in U.S. courts against foreign companies that have invested
in or profited from expropriated properties in Cuba.
(President Clinton has delayed the effect of this provision.)
Second, the law bars from the United States corporate
officers, principals, and shareholders (and their families)
of any company that invests in expropriated property in Cuba.
This law and U.S. policy limits sharply all contact between
the United States and the Cuban people.
By isolating Cuba and tightening sanctions, Helms-Burton is
supposed to move Cuba toward democracy. Rather than promoting
peaceful change in Cuba, the law is hurting the Cuban people.
Castro wants to stay in power, and this law helps him: Using
the law as justification, Castro has cracked down on
journalists and dissidents, solidifying his own position
while suppressing the opposition. Cuba's dissidents refer
derisively to it as the Helms-Burton-Castro Act.
Helms-Burton also gives Castro a new scapegoat for his
economic failures. It eases pressure on him to open up the
state-run economy. Modest reforms in Cuba before Helms-Burton
have since been stymied. Cuba is not moving toward democracy
and free markets--it is moving in the opposite direction.
Humanitarian impact
Helms-Burton is also hurting ordinary Cubans. The embargo,
tightened in the 1992 Cuban Democracy Act and codified and
reaffirmed in Helms-Burton, has had a negative impact on the
health of the Cuban people. Licensing requirements and
outright prohibitions of sales to Cuba have drastically
limited Cuban access to U.S.-produced medicines and medical
equipment. According to recent studies, the health of women
and children in particular has suffered as a result of Cuba's
inability to obtain medicines. While Cuba's health problems
are mostly the fault of Castro's disastrous policies, the
U.S. denial of medicines and medical supplies has contributed
to Cuba's deteriorating health.
Donations from the American people--who donate more to Cuba
than anyone in the world--are also inhibited by current U.S.
policy. Humanitarian missions to Cuba must fly through third
countries. American citizens cannot send prescriptions or
money to their family members in Cuba without an export
license. In a country so clearly in need, it cannot be in the
interest of the United States to delay or inhibit the
provision of humanitarian supplies to Cubans.
Rifts in relations
No country in the world follows the U.S. embargo of Cuba.
While Helms-Burton was intended to isolate Castro, it has
isolated the United States, creating great rifts with our
closest friends and allies. The European Union (EU), Latin
America and Canada have condemned Helms-Burton. All object to
the extraterritorial application of U.S. law, under which
their citizens and companies are subject to penalty in the
United States for their actions in Cuba.
Helms-Burton also spurred a challenge to the United States
in the new World Trade Organization (WTO). The United States
has persuaded the EU to back away from a WTO case for now and
seeks to resolve the dispute through direct negotiations. But
if these talks fail, proponents of Helms-Burton want the
United States to walk away from any WTO proceeding by arguing
Helms-Burton is a national security matter over which the WTO
has no jurisdiction. This approach would weaken the
international trading system, which benefits the United
States, and set a dangerous precedent: Any country could cite
national security to justify protectionism, which costs U.S.
jobs.
Helms-Burton has created other tensions. Canada and
Mexico--our nearest neighbors and first and third largest
trading partners--are contemplating a case against the United
States under NAFTA.
Rethinking Cuba policy
The United States should learn from its successful
engagement with Eastern Europe. Communist regimes there fell
not because they were isolated, but because they were
penetrated by people, new ideas, and commerce. Our policy of
engagement with China is based on the same view, and we
should follow the same approach with Cuba. The Pope, who is
traveling to Cuba early next year, is right to engage the
Cuban people directly, as he did the people of Eastern
Europe. He is not trying to isolate them or coerce them.
Washington would be wise to follow. We should repeal Helms-
Burton, restart direct flights, lift travel and currency
restrictions, and begin exchanges, dialogue and humanitarian
relief for the Cuban people. Step by step, we should lift the
embargo in response to positive change in Cuba.
Conclusion
Helms-Burton has been a mistake. It has not brought change
to Cuba. Instead, it has strengthened Castro and inhibited a
peaceful transition to democracy and free markets. It has
brought hardship to the Cuban people by denying them food and
medicine. It has split us from the rest of the hemisphere,
and forced us into fights with our allies and trading
partners. It has threatened our leadership in the
international trading system. Most important of all, it has
made it more likely that change, when it comes to Cuba, will
neither be peaceful nor democratic.
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