[Congressional Record Volume 143, Number 130 (Thursday, September 25, 1997)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9965-S9966]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           CASTRO'S CUBA IS A CRUEL AND FULL-BLOWN PURGATORY

  Mr. HELMS. Mr. President, I have at hand an impressive article 
detailing the oppression that the people of Cuba have long suffered, 
and still suffer to this day. It was written by Carrol Fisher of 
Salisbury, NC, and I decided that it should be made available to all 
Senators--and to others who are concerned about the dictatorship 90 
miles off our shores.
  Carrol Fisher is a World War II Navy veteran whose first visit to 
Cuba was in 1944. He fell in love with the island and its people, 
including the young lady who became his wife 40 years ago. He and Mrs. 
Fisher [Sonia] returned to Cuba recently to visit his seriously ill 
sister-in-law. During that visit, he observed the degrading state of 
affairs in Cuba, the results of Castro's oppressive military 
government.
  When he returned to Salisbury, Mr. Fisher wrote a detailed account of 
what he had witnessed in Cuba. The article, published in the Salisbury 
(NC) Post, counsels that the United States under no circumstances 
should yield in its opposition to Fidel Castro's brutal regime.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that Mr. Fisher's article be 
printed in the Record and the conclusion of my remarks.
  There being no objection, the article was ordered to be printed in 
the Record, as follows:

             [From the Salisbury (NC) Post, Aug. 12, 1997]

           Castro's Cuba is a Cruel and Full-Blown Purgatory

                        (By Carrol J.W. Fisher)

       [Editor's note: Carrol J.W. Fisher and his wife, Sonia, who 
     had not seen her native Cuba for 38 years, were recently 
     granted special permission to visit Sonia's seriously ill

[[Page S9966]]

     sister. Two of their four children, Luke and Mimi, went with 
     them.]
       Knowing that conditions in Havana are hard--at least by 
     American standards--is one thing.
       Seeing the sad and pitiful conditions and the obvious 
     presence of a military state is another.
       We were immediately shocked, revolted and angry to find a 
     manned military station almost every two blocks on Quinta 
     Avenida (5th Avenue), the main travel artery in Havana, where 
     our hotel, the Comodoro, was on the ocean.
       Security personnel, wearing blue trousers, white shirts and 
     ties, were armed with hand-held radios and/or side arms and 
     monitored every activity of hotel life.
       No matter what their dress, they were military men--and I 
     believe our every move was watched and charted. We were the 
     only Americans in the hotel and, the waiters told us, most 
     likely the only Americans who will visit the hotel this year, 
     even though it was for tourists with American dollars.
       Local Cubans were not welcome. They could not drive their 
     ragged automobiles to the hotel entrance. They could not park 
     in the parking lot. They were not permitted to go into the 
     guest's rooms. A very small number was tolerated in the 
     lobby.
       Sonia was injured while we were there, and I insisted the 
     guard permit some of her relatives into our room. Just as 
     soon as I left for the hospital, they were required to leave 
     and return to the lobby.
       Apparently, this military dictatorship is highly organized 
     and so closely administered that every phase of life in Cuba 
     today is controlled by Castro. A medical doctor is paid 
     between 400 and 600 hundred pesos--or, at 22 pesos to a 
     dollar--between $18 and $27 a month. More than one of the 
     drivers of state-controlled taxis told us he is paid 140 
     pesos--or $6.32--a month.
       At our hotel, graduate engineers were washing windows. An 
     electronics engineer was training to be a waiter. A 
     University of Havana graduate in language, a young man who 
     spoke good English, was also training to be a waiter rather 
     than teach English at the university.
       I met a friend I knew in the '50s who had studied in an 
     American university. At great personal risk, he supported 
     Castro's revolution, carried ammunition, food, radios, 
     medicines, etc., from the Guantanamo Naval base to the Rebels 
     in the Oriente Mountains, labored for Castro's regime almost 
     40 years and alienated most of his blood family.
       Today he works in a sensitive job 12 and 14-hour-days and 
     is paid 325 pesos or $14.77 a month.
       I visited a number of other Cuban friends I knew in the 
     1950s. Their households were much alike. There were no recent 
     photographs because they cannot afford a camera or the film 
     that sells in Castro's stores for American dollars. They have 
     no adequate radio, no working television, no transportation 
     except maybe one Chinese bicycle. They have no wrist watches 
     except some pitiful Soviet watches that lose 5 minutes each 
     day. They are allowed one 100-pound tank of LP gas from 
     Mexico for cooking and hot water at a cost of 11 pesos. If 
     and when this tank is empty, a replacement costs $26 (572 
     pesos) which is more than a month's wages.
       So much walking is necessary, but no one seemed to have 
     adequate walking shoes. Most of my friends' family members 
     have very few clothes, and what they do have is worn and 
     mostly in tatters.


                         poor living conditions

       Kitchens and baths are old and tired. Faucets leak and 
     drip. So do the drains under the sinks and lavatories. Very 
     few houses showed any signs of having been repaired or 
     painted.
       People are required to attend block meetings where they 
     gossip and report the activities of their neighbors. I took 
     my Timex watch off and gave it to one of my friends. He was 
     happy and pleased but afraid to wear it for fear of the 
     neighbors. They are morose and have little optimism or hope.
       Since the Soviets fell and their aid ceased, Castro calls 
     this ``A Special Time.'' The adjective they use to describe 
     this special time is ``siempre,'' English for ``always.''
       Quinta Avenida, the main avenue in all Havana, is 
     deteriorating badly, the paving is cracked and very rough, as 
     are the sidewalks and curbs. I saw holes 3 feet deep washed 
     out behind storm gratings that were dangerous to the many 
     pedestrians. Most of the lampposts had wires pulled out and 
     taped together.
       Generally the infrastructure of Havana streets--bridges, 
     walks, parks--is in very poor condition. But the military 
     manned their innumerable posts.
       I was introduced to Cuba in 1945 while flying off the 
     carrier Roosevelt. I returned to Guantanamo Naval Base while 
     flying with an anti-submarine squadron. I loved the people. 
     They worked hard building their houses and families. They 
     were fun to be with, happy and lighthearted, had many 
     parties, and danced to wonderful music.
       I have lived and visited many countries in the world but 
     never found one like Cuba, where the weather enfolds you in a 
     pleasant comfort zone and the eye rests on pure beauty.
       While I was there, I met a school teacher, Sonia, and fell 
     desperately in love, courting her for three years before we 
     married. We have lived in the USA together since October 
     1957. We have three wonderful sons and a beautiful daughter, 
     all university educated, married successfully, and they have 
     given us six lovely grand children.


                         Beauty has disappeared

       But the beautiful Cuba I knew is no more.
       I am not qualified to evaluate or judge Fidel Castro's 
     motives for turning a beautiful country into a lower level 
     Third World country. If he is altruistic and wants what is 
     best for the Cuban people, then as an economist, he is an 
     idiot, and his understanding of human psychology is on the 
     level of a moron.
       I do not believe he is either of the two.
       He was raised in a cultured family, is a graduate of the 
     University of Havana and an experienced attorney. He is a 
     battle-tested military leader who defeated his enemies.
       His motivation must come from a super ego that demands that 
     he wield total control over the Cuban society and over the 
     life of each individual Cuban. The terrible injustice, and 
     imbalance he has thrust into the lives of the Cuban people 
     has engendered mistrust, suspicion and jealousy of neighbor 
     for neighbor. His system is destroying the incentive to work 
     and achieve, to make free and independent decisions for their 
     own lives, to hope for something better for their children, 
     and maybe enjoy some measure of peace and happiness for their 
     senior years.
       The depth of sadness that pervades the Cuban society today 
     is only exceeded by the pervasive evil of a communist system 
     that is destroying the higher human qualities of millions of 
     people..
       Castro made the deliberate choice to embrace Marxism-
     Leninism at a time that most world leaders had already 
     decided that it was a total failure.


                            where is castro?

       I saw no sign of Fidel Castro on any billboard or building 
     as we drove around Havana. It is as if he does not exist. One 
     does see signs of Che Guevara, but not Castro. I heard not 
     one single word of condemnation or support for Fidel Castro, 
     but I did hear a lot of criticism of the system.
       As we arrived back in the United States, my daughter, Mimi, 
     said, ``What disturbs me most its that Castro has succeeded 
     in making the Cuban people equally poor--from the doctor who 
     makes $18 to $26 a month and must drive a cab at night just 
     to make ends meet, to the waiter in training who is not paid 
     anything. They are all victims of Castro.''
       ``The trip was a pilgrimage,'' Sonia said. ``I went, I 
     prayed, I visited what is left of my family there. But, this 
     Cuba is not my home.'' And there were tears.
       I am joining Senator Helms, the Miami Cuban community, even 
     Mas Canosa, and the conservatives who unfailingly resist any 
     softening of the Cuban embargo.
       The Cuban people are suffering badly and should be 
     relieved. But any plan of relief advanced so far will 
     strengthen Castro and his ever-tightening control of every 
     facet of the lives of every single Cuban living in that 
     unhappy island. This is a very difficult decision, but I 
     believe it must be made.
       While we were in Cuba, two hotels were bombed, a school was 
     totally destroyed by fire, and I was told by a man who left 
     Santiago, Monday, July 14, that the downed aircraft out of 
     that city that killed all 40 aboard was the work of a 
     terrorist bomb.
       He also told me that life in Oriente Province--the one that 
     gave Castro his start--is so desperate that they were leaving 
     in droves to go to Havana.


                            what of future?

       Buy today they are being forced to return. Now they are 
     referred to as Palestinians, for they have no home. Just 
     before I left Cuba, I tried to quietly warn my Cuban friends 
     that the Miami Cubans were very wealthy, that they are very 
     powerful, and that they hate Fidel Castro with a deep and 
     pervasive hate, and there is no sign that they will ever 
     relax this hate. I told my friend to be aware of this fact 
     and that they should take what ever precautions they can 
     take.
       Do I believe that Fidel Castro is a threat to this country? 
     At this time the answer is no. There are groups of 
     academicians going from university to university in the U.S. 
     conducting seminars designed to promote Castro.
       But we must keep in mind that Castro, who is desperate, can 
     and might at any time turn over a chunk of the Cuban island 
     to any number of countries hostile to the U.S. They would be 
     just 90 miles from our shore. Do I have any trust in Castro? 
     Absolutely none.
       While we were waiting in the Jose Marti airport, we talked 
     to a Cuban lady from the U.S. who was visiting relatives for 
     the first time in 30 years. With her was her daughter and her 
     daughter's friend. Both the young ladies were attorneys with 
     the N.Y. Justice Department and appeared to be in their mid-
     30s. We asked the friend of the daughter if she would ever 
     make a return visit to Cuba.
       ``Yes,'' she said quietly, ``in a thousand years,'' and 
     then she added, ``when I get back to New York City, I will 
     break out my American flag. I will wave that flag. I will 
     play the `Star Spangled Banner.' And I will behave like the 
     most patriotic American you have ever seen.''

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