[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 104 (Tuesday, July 22, 1997)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1467]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  TIME TO CHANGE A STATIC CUBA POLICY

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                          HON. LEE H. HAMILTON

                               of indiana

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, July 22, 1997

  Mr. HAMILTON. Mr. Speaker, I commend to my colleagues' attention an 
editorial that appeared earlier this month in the Miami Herald. The 
editorial concludes, based on a recent poll by Florida International 
University's Institute of Public Opinion Research, that among the Cuban 
American community in Dade County, there is a wide and healthy 
plurality of views on a number of issues, including current United 
States policy toward Cuba.
  Such a diversity of opinions and an active debate on Cuba policy are 
in the national interest, and I look forward to renewing that debate in 
this body. It is time to explore this diversity of opinion and 
reexamine the static assumptions underlying our 39-year-old policy 
toward Cuba.
  The editorial follows:

                 [From the Miami Herald, July 1, 1997]

                          Year 39 and Counting

       Frustration is a powerful, if maddening, force. And it runs 
     through the results of the most recent poll of Dade County 
     residents of Cuban heritage. Such, and other, deeper emotions 
     may well explain some of the survey's findings, as well as 
     some of its apparent contradictions.
       Since 1959 Cubans have migrated to Greater Miami seeking 
     haven from Fidel Castro's revolution. After 38 years, many 
     still anxiously await Castro's demise, await the end of his 
     totalitarian regime, await a free Cuba. People inevitably 
     tire of waiting.
       The poll by Florida International University's Institute of 
     Public Opinion Research, funded by The Herald, suggests a 
     growing pessimism, unlike in the heady days after the Iron 
     Curtain came crashing down. Then, Christmas toasts in Miami 
     were made to the next Nochebuena in Havana. FIU's similar 
     poll in 1991 found that 77 percent of those questioned 
     expected major political change in Cuba within five years.
       This latest poll, though, shows that only 36 percent 
     believe that such change is likely, with another 38 percent 
     responding that change likely never will come or that they 
     don't know when it may. Perhaps this is to be expected now, 
     16 months after Castro's MiGs shot down two unarmed Brothers 
     to the Rescue planes, killing four civilians. That barbarous 
     act froze the possibility of rapprochement with the United 
     States that had existed for a time then.
       Today Castro remains, if not the world's wiliest dictator, 
     certainly the longest-lasting. He has consistently 
     manipulated to his own favor events that could potentially 
     damage his power; witness the 1980 Mariel boatlift and the 
     1984 exodus of rafters. His cunning leaves not only 
     Washington but Cuban exiles at a loss for strategy. Perhaps 
     that's why 73 percent of those polled said that the U.S. 
     embargo has not worked well. And yet, absent anything better, 
     72 percent favored continuing it.
       Moreover, the survey reflected something that few outside 
     of South Florida often recognize: Not all Cubans here think 
     the same. In fact, the poll reflects a wide and healthy 
     plurality of views on a number of issues. Consider the 48 
     percent for and 45 percent against establishing a national 
     dialogue with Cuba; the 60 percent for and 38 percent against 
     U.S. companies doing business with Cuba; the 43 percent in 
     agreement and 49 in disagreement with a Miami radio station 
     that stopped broadcasting Cuban music by artists living on 
     the island.
       The influence of young Cuban Americans and of the more-
     recent arrivals from Cuba also made its mark, diversifying 
     and moderating views. Yet on the question of whether exiles 
     might return to Cuba, painful nostalgia clearly mixes with 
     pragmatism. Poll respondents who arrived after 1990 appeared 
     most willing to entertain thoughts of returning, perhaps 
     because of their closer island ties.
       Yet more important is to note the few, some 20 to 30 
     percent overall, who might return under questionable economic 
     or political circumstances. While nearing four decades of 
     diaspora, Cubans here, citizens and noncitizens alike, know 
     not when those circumstances may change. But this poll shows 
     anew that the diversity of Cubans' views in South Florida is 
     anything but static, and stereotypes are inaccurate.

     

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