[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 14 (Tuesday, February 24, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H550-H556]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CONTINUED REPRESSION IN CUBA
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of
January 7, 1997, the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart) is
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Madam Speaker, today, February 24th, is a very
important day in the history of Cuba. It is the day that in 1895 the
war of independence of the Republic of Cuba began. After almost a
century of fighting, the Cuban people began the war of independence of
1895 on February 24th, a war that was ultimately successful.
And names that already had become not only part of martyrdom but of
history, names like Cespedes and Agramonte and Aguilera, the founding
fathers of the Cuban republic that had launched the first war of
independence in 1868, a war that lasted 10 years, that caused hundreds
of thousands of casualties, those names were added in the war that
began in 1895 on this date to many others that also became part of
martyrdom and of history, names like Marti and Banderas and some names
from the prior war that again that took part in the war of independence
that was successful in 1895, names like Gomez and Maceo. So this is a
very important date in the history of Cuba, and it is important to
remember it.
It is also a very important date, Madam Speaker, now in the history
of the United States, a date that is already not only part of history
but has been bloodied just 2 years ago, on the 24th of February, 1996,
when the Brothers to the Rescue airplanes were on a humanitarian
mission over the Straits of Florida and were shot down and four
innocent civilians were killed.
I would like to, if I may, Madam Speaker, read a part of an opinion
issued just a few weeks ago, a final judgment by the United States
District Court of the Southern District of Florida, specifically
written by Federal Judge James Lawrence King, where this incident of
just 2 years ago is detailed. Not only is it described in all its
brutality but some of the most, I think, extraordinary characteristics
of this brutal incident are laid out.
Judge King writes in his order of just a few weeks ago, the
government of Cuba on February 24, 1996, in outrageous contempt for
international law and basic human rights, murdered four human beings in
international airspace over the Florida Straits. The victims were
Brothers to the Rescue pilots flying two civilian unarmed planes on a
routine humanitarian mission searching for rafters in the waters
between Cuba and the Florida Keys.
As the civilian planes flew over international waters, a Russian-
built MiG-29 of the Cuban Air Force, without warning, reason or
provocation blasted the defenseless planes out of the sky with
sophisticated air-to-air missiles in two separate attacks.
The pilots and their aircraft disintegrated in the midair explosions
following the impact of the missiles. The destruction was so complete
that the four bodies were never recovered.
One of the victims, Armando Alejandre, was 45 years old at the time
of his death. Although born in Cuba, Alejandre made Miami, Florida, his
home at an early age and became a citizen of the United States.
Alejandre served an active tour of duty for 8 months in Vietnam,
completed his college education at Florida International University and
worked as a consultant to the Metro Dade County Transit Authority at
the time of his death. He is survived by his wife of 21 years, Marlene
Alejandre, and his daughter Marlene, a college student.
Carlos Costa was born in the United States in 1966 and resided in
Miami. He was only 29 years old when the Cuban government ended his
life. Always interested in aviation and hoping to some day oversee the
operations of a major airport, Costa earned his Bachelor's Degree at
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University and worked as a training
specialist for the Dade County Aviation Department. He is survived by
his parents, Mirta Costa and Osvaldo Costa, and by his sister Mirta
Mendez.
Mario De la Pena was also born in the United States and was 24 years
old at the time of his death. Working toward his goal of being an
airline pilot, De la Pena was in his last semester at Embry-Riddle when
he was killed. During that semester he had obtained a coveted and
highly competitive internship with American Airlines. Embry-Riddle
granted De la Pena a bachelor's degree in professional aeronautics
posthumously. He is survived by a younger brother, Michael De la Pena,
and his parents, Mario and Miriam De la Pena.
Pablo Morales was the fourth victim. His survivors are not part of
this court case. That is why Pablo, a marvelous young man also, who
himself had been rescued by Brothers to the Rescue, is
[[Page H551]]
not mentioned in this opinion by the Federal Court.
The court then describes the shoot-down.
Alejandre, Costa and De la Pena were all members of a Miami-based
organization known as Hermanos al Rescate, or Brothers to the Rescue.
The organization's principal mission was to search the Florida Straits
for rafters, Cuban refugees, who had fled the island nation on
precarious inner tubes or makeshift rafts, often perishing at sea.
Brothers to the Rescue would locate the rafters and provide them with
life-saving assistance by informing the Coast Guard of their location
and condition.
On the morning of February 24, 1996, Brothers to the Rescue's
civilian Cessna 337 aircraft departed from Opa-Locka in South Florida.
Costa piloted one plane, accompanied by Pablo Morales; De la Pena
piloted the second plane, with Alejandre as his passenger.
Before departing, the planes notified both Miami and Havana traffic
controllers of their flight plans, which were to take them south of the
24th parallel. The 24th parallel, well north of Cuba's 12-mile
territorial sea, is the northernmost boundary of the Havana flight
information region. Commercial and civilian aircraft routinely fly in
this area, and aviation practice requires that they notify Havana's
traffic controllers when crossing south through the 24th parallel.
Both Brothers to the Rescue planes complied with this custom by
contacting Havana, identifying themselves and stating their position
and altitude.
While the planes were still north of the 24th parallel which, as the
judge stated, is well north of the 12-mile territorial limit, the Cuban
Air Force launched two military aircraft, a MiG-29 and a MiG-23,
operating under the control of Cuba's military ground station. The MiGs
carried guns, close-range missiles, bombs and rockets and were piloted
by members of the Cuban Air Force experienced in combat.
Excerpts from radio communications between the MiG-29 and Havana
military control detailed what transpired next.
The MiG-29: Okay, the target is in sight; the target is in sight.
It's a small aircraft. Copied, small aircraft in sight.
We have it in sight.
Target is in sight.
Military Control: Go ahead.
MiG-29: The target is in sight.
Military Control: Aircraft in sight.
MiG-29: Come again?
It's a small aircraft.
It's white. White.
Military Control: Color and registration of the aircraft?
MiG-29: Listen, the registration also?
Military Control: What kind and color?
MiG-29: It's white and blue.
White and blue, at a low altitude, small aircraft.
Give me instructions.
Authorize me.
If we pass it, it will complicate things. We're going to give it a
pass because some vessels are approaching there. I'm going to give it a
pass.
Talk. Talk.
I have it on lock-on. I have it on lock-on.
I have it on lock-on. Give us authorization.
It's a Cessna 337. Give us authorization, damn it.
Military Control: Fire.
MiG-29: Give us authorization. We have it.
Military Control: Authorized to destroy.
MiG-29: I'm going to pass it.
Military Control: Authorized to destroy.
MiG-29: We already copied. We already copied.
Military Control: Authorized to destroy.
MiG-29: Understood, already received. Leave us alone for now.
Military Control: Don't lose it.
MiG-29: First launch.
We hit him. Damn, we hit him. We hit him. We retired him.
Wait to see where it falls.
Come on. Come on in. Come on in. Obscenities.
Mark the place where we took it out.
We are over it. This one won't mess around anymore.
Military Control: Congratulations to the two of you.
MiG-29: Mark the spot.
We're climbing and returning home.
Military Control: Stand by. Stand by there circling above.
MiG-29: Over the target?
Military Control: Correct.
MiG-29: Obscenities. We did tell you, buddy.
Military Control: Correct, the target is marked.
MiG-29: Go ahead.
Military Control: Okay, climb to 3,200, 4,000 meters above the
destroyed target and maintain economical speed.
MiG-29: Go ahead.
Military Control: I need you to stand by. What heading did the launch
have?
MiG-29: I have another aircraft in sight.
We have another aircraft in sight.
Military Control: Follow it. Don't lose the other small aircraft.
MiG-29: We have another aircraft in sight. It is in the area where
the other one fell. It's in the area where it fell.
We have the aircraft in sight.
Military Control: Stand by.
MiG-29: Comrade, it's in the area of the event.
Did you copy?
Okay, this one's heading 90 degrees now.
It's in the area of the event, where the target fell. They are going
to have to authorize us.
Military Control: Correct, keep following the aircraft. You are going
to have to stay above it.
MiG-29: We're above it.
Military Control: Correct.
MiG-29: For what? Is the other authorized?
Military Control: Correct.
MiG-29: Great. Let's go, Alberto.
Understood. Now we're going to destroy it.
Military Control: Do you have it in sight?
MiG-29: We have it. We have it. We're working. Let us work.
The other one is destroyed. The other one is destroyed. Fatherland or
death. Obscenities. The other one is destroyed. It's down also.
The judge continues: The missiles disintegrated the Brothers to the
Rescue planes, killing their occupants instantly and leaving almost no
recoverable debris. Only a large oil slick marked the spots where the
planes went down. The Cuban Air Force never notified or warned the
civilian planes, never attempted other methods of interception, and
never gave them the opportunity to land.
{time} 1945
The MiG's first and only response was the intentional and malicious
destruction of the Brothers to the Rescue planes and their 4 innocent
occupants. Such behavior violated clearly established international
norms requiring the exhaustion of all measures before resort to
aggression against any aircraft and banning the use of force against
civilian aircraft altogether.
The international community, the judge writes, moved quickly to
condemn the murders. The United Nations Security Council, the European
Union, and the International Civil Aviation Organization were among the
many to issue statements deploring the Cuban regime's unjustifiable use
of force. The Congress characterized the shootdown as a blatant and
barbaric violation of international law, tantamount to cold-blooded
murder. Congress concluded, ``The Congress strongly condemns the act of
terrorism by the Castro regime in shooting down the Brothers to the
Rescue aircraft on February 24, 1996.''
The court in its opinion rightly found both the Cuban Air Force and
the Cuban government are liable for the murders of Alejandre, Costa,
and De la Pena.
The court writes, Cuba's extrajudicial killings of Mario De la Pena,
Carlos Costa, and Armando Alejandre, and Pablo Morales, which is not
part of this action.
Cuba's extrajudicial killings of these innocent civilians violated
clearly established principles of international law. More importantly,
they were inhumane acts against innocent civilians. The fact that the
killings were premeditated and intentional, outside of Cuban territory,
wholly disproportionate and executed without warning or process, makes
this act unique in its brazen flouting of international norms. There
appears to be no precedent, writes Judge King, no precedent for a
military aircraft intentionally shooting down unarmed civilian planes.
[[Page H552]]
The only conceivable parallel may be the shootdown of KAL Flight 007
by the former Soviet Union in 1983. That incident can be distinguished
from this case, however, by two key facts. First, the Soviets were
arguably under the impression that the KAL plane was a military
aircraft. Second, the plane had strayed into Soviet airspace. Neither
of these facts is true in this case. Yet despite the fact that the KAL
plane was in Soviet airspace, a commentator studying the incident
concluded that the lethal use of force was completely inappropriate.
So I think it is important, Madam Speaker, to realize that there is
no precedent for the terrorist action committed just 2 years ago today
by the Castro regime killing 4 unarmed civilians over international
waters. This kind of extrajudicial killing constituted an act of state
terrorism, not state-sponsored terrorism but rather state-committed
terrorism that must be, and I commend at this point Judge King and the
court, the Federal District Court for the Southern District of Florida
for this very erudite and responsible and obviously fair and humane
final judgment.
I think it is important that despite the great courage required to do
so, out of a Cuban political prison there has been sent out, smuggled,
if you will, surreptitiously sent, a statement by 8 political
prisoners. They managed to get this statement out of the Ariza prison
in Cienfuegos, Cuba just a few days ago with regard to this date. These
prisoners, risking their lives in sending this statement out, wrote the
following:
``The dictatorship has stained another date in the history of Cuba
with blood, injustice and profound pain with the shootdown of the
aircraft of Brothers to the Rescue in 1996, the second anniversary of
which is commemorated on February 24.
``As will so many Cubans, we will never forget the victims of that
day who because of the love of justice became doves of peace who
offered their lives to try to bring freedom to their humiliated people.
``To those who did not take death seriously when the nation was
discussed, because of their example, we are willing to equal their
measure of devotion.
``In memory of those who fell in flights of peace, the political
prisoners of Las Villas in Ariza, Cienfuegos, manifesting our
repudiation of the massacre and our heartfelt condolences to their
families, will be fasting and in prayer during the entire day of
February 28, 1998.
``Decided for the nation.''
Signed by Vladimiro Roca, Bernardo Arevalo, Augusto Cesar San Martin,
Jorge Felix Canosa, Israel Hidalgo-Gato, Benito Pojaco, Jose Ramon
Lopez and Pedro Genaro Barreras.
This is an example of extreme courage and typical of the kinds of
statements and actions that are being taken by the internal opposition
within Cuba day in and day out, even in the midst and while they suffer
as a consequence grave repression from the dictatorship.
Madam Speaker, I try to utilize this position of great honor granted
to me at 2-year intervals by the 600,000 residents of the 21st
Congressional District of Florida to bring to the attention of my
colleagues and the American people facts and realities that the
majority of the communications media and the press often ignore. All
too often the reality of Cuba, the reality facing the Cuban people fits
into that category. To use the analogy of failing to see the forest
while talking about trees, for one story by a journalist who sees the
forest, we are forced to read 50 stories about trees, stories that are
either completely one-sided, out of context or simply seem to be from
another forest altogether. One of those few articles, one of those few
examples by mass media that show that there are exceptions I read just
yesterday in the Washington Times by a journalist named Tom Carter. Mr.
Carter writes, in an article entitled Cuba's Forgotten Prisoners of
Conscience:
``We knew Nelson Mandela's name long before he was released from the
South African jail because reporters made his name known. All over the
United States and Europe people prayed in synagogues and churches for
the release of Natan Shcharansky and Andrei Sakaharov from Soviet
imprisonment or exile.''
Amnesty International lists 600 prisoners of conscience. Those are
people who have been sentenced for alleged crimes by Castro's regime
which are totally nonviolent, even pursuant to the accusation made by
the dictatorship. Because there are hundreds, thousands of others who
are charged with so-called common crimes even though they are political
prisoners.
``Amnesty International nevertheless lists 600 prisoners of
conscience currently rotting in the Cuban Gulag. Pope John Paul II gave
the government a list of 200 names pleading for their release. Some
were released in a government amnesty earlier this month. Nonetheless,
the State Department's 1998 report on human rights lists Cuba as one of
the world's most egregious violators of human rights.''
``Why then with some 3,000 American reporters credentialed to cover
the Pope's visit to Cuba was there so little news from those opposed to
Castro's Communist paradise?''
``One theory on the media's silence is that the Cuban regime has
cowed the U.S. press in much the same way it has subdued much of its 11
million people, with fear. For years, getting permission to report in
Cuba has been coveted like a brass ring, visas awarded only to
reporters deemed reliable by the Cuban government and some reporters
hoping to make return trips purposely tailor their coverage so as to
not offend anyone in government.''
``On my first visit to Cuba 6 years ago, a well respected reporter
who is still reporting from Cuba schooled me on what the authorities
would permit and what was out of bounds: It was permitted to interview
government-approved dissidents, most notably Elizardo Sanchez, a former
Marxist professor who has spent 8 years in jail. The head of the Cuban
Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation has suffered enormously
and has jackboot prints on his front door to prove it, and reporters
have beat a well worn path to his house. Perhaps coincidentally, Mr.
Sanchez is by his own count one of the minority of opposition figures
who, like the Cuban government, also opposes the U.S. embargo on
Cuba.''
``Other opposition figures I asked about were considered sensitive
and way off limits, only to be interviewed on the way to the airport
and only if a return visa was unimportant.''
``Despite the so-called openness of the Cuban government for the
Pope's visit, it refused visas to at least 60 reporters from the Miami
Herald, the St. Petersburg Times and several European and Latin
American newspapers. Many denied entry were old Cuba hands who had
written unflattering reports about the deterioration of the revolution
in recent years.''
``So many who received the coveted tickets to Havana were Cuban
novices, first-time visitors to the island with no time to peer behind
the public mask of the revolution. Others apparently in sync with the,
quote, gains of the revolution, end quote, and opposed to the U.S. Cuba
policy simply choose to ignore the other side of the story.''
``While I cannot comment on all of CNN's coverage, I did see
Christiane Amanpour's 1-hour special on Cuba and the Pope that was
aired on CNN's international channel.''
``Masquerading as news, it was little more than a song of praise to
the revolution and a political commercial against the U.S. embargo. I
kept waiting in vain for someone, anyone, to say something that didn't
sound like it was straight out of the government newspaper Granma.''
``It is not as though opposition figures in Cuba are unknown. Two
phone calls before I left the United States for Cuba got me 4 pages of
names, addresses and phone numbers. Time prevented me from visiting
more than one, Dr. Hilda Molina, who said American reporters rarely
stop by.''
``Asked if my visit put her in danger, she was defiant. 'I don't care
if you're State security, I'll say the same thing,' she said.''
``Before that kind of courage, I find it cowardly that some news
organizations simply recycle regime propaganda as news.''
Unfortunately, Madam Speaker, that is all too often the reality of
news reporting with regard to Cuba. The reality of Cuba is ignored and
very often if it is not ignored, it is part of disinformation and even
misinformation.
[[Page H553]]
I attempt to update, and I will use this opportunity to update my
colleagues about recent arrests and acts of repression against
dissidents and independent journalists in Cuba. I guess we could call
it a plaque of human rights update on the situation there because I
think that it is important as Mr. Carter writes, for human rights
support groups and international organizations and parliaments
throughout the world and especially in this greatest of all democratic
parliaments in the world, for those brave human rights activists and
freedom fighters to be mentioned, to be supported, to be given
solidarity. It is very telling that despite the repression, despite the
great obstacles faced by the internal opposition, that internal
opposition is an ever growing, brave opposition movement within Cuba
that is actively working to achieve a transition to democracy and
freedom in that long-suffering island.
I have before me just a very incomplete, I recognize, list of obvious
and direct human rights violations, and I would like to read out the
names of just a few of these incidents that have come to my attention
in recent months, and most of them I have actual dates for.
On July 23, Pascual Escalona, a well-known human rights activist, was
charged with dangerousness and arrested.
July 24, Aguilleo Cancio Chong, President of the Cuban National
Alliance, was arrested by Cuban State Security and subjected to intense
interrogation and threats.
On July 24, Pascaul Escalona Naranjo was sentenced to one year's
imprisonment on a charge of dangerousness. It is believed that the
charge stems from his and his wife's advocacy of freedom of expression
for Cuba through the Agencia de Prensa Independiente, the Cuban
independent press agency.
On July 25, Ramon Morejon Castillo's house was searched from 7 in the
morning until 12 noon and he was later arrested. Morejon Castillo is
not a member of any opposition group but was arrested 2 years ago under
the charge of suspicion of sabotaging Cuban elections. He is still
imprisoned in the Villa Marista state security center.
On July 28, Raul Rivero, head of the Independent Press Group, Cuba
Press, was detained.
{time} 2000
He was detained again on August 12.
On July 29 Luis Lopez Prendes, reporter with the Independent Press
Bureau, was arrested after speaking with members of the New York based
Committee to Protect Journalists.
July 31 Rafael Fonseca, Yordys Garcia, Juan Rodiles, Carlos Herrera,
Jackelin Caballero and Dr. Walter Estrada, members of the Cuban
Democratic Youth Movement, all from Guantanamo, were warned by State
security not to show themselves in public while delegates of the XIV
World Youth and Students Festival were visiting Guantanamo. In spite of
this, a peaceful rally demanding the release of Nestor Rodriguez
Lobaina was held and broken up by State security.
Also in July 1997, date unknown Reinaldo Soto from the Cuba Press was
sentenced to 5 years in a maximum security prison. He was found guilty
of distributing enemy propaganda to foreign states.
Also July 1997, date unknown, Heriberto Leyva Rodriguez, vice
president of Youth for Democracy, was convicted of contempt for the
authority of the Santiago courts, based on his testimony given at the
hearing of Garcia de la Vega, another member of Youth for Democracy.
July 1997, date unknown, Lorenzo Paez Nunez, a journalist with the
Habana Press Agency, was sentenced to 18 months for, ``contempt and
defamation of national policy,'' based on allegations that he reported
on police abuses.
August 2, Juan Carlos Herrera was arrested and kept in isolation for
2 days for attempting to contact foreign delegates at Cuba's youth
festival who were in Guantanamo at the time. He was told by Manuel
Ceballos, who was in charge of interrogation, that he would be charged
with disorderly conduct and enemy propaganda because he had a copy of
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights when he was arrested. He was
released when the delegates left Guantanamo.
August 2, Mauri Chaviano Mesa, executive with the Cuban National
Alliance, was arrested in Santa Clara and submitted to interrogations,
harassment and threats by State security.
August 12, Raul Rivero, President of the Cuba Press was detained by
Cuban officials. The agents confiscated materials from his domicile,
and after hours of detention he was released.
August 14 Raul Rivero, was again detained on charges of possessing
enemy propaganda. His house was searched without warrant.
August 15, David Norman Dorm, Director of International Affairs for
the American Federation of Teachers here in the United States, visiting
Cuba, was deported allegedly for contacting the internal opposition on
behalf of the Freedom House Cuban Rights organization here in the
United States.
August 15 Maritza Lugo Fernandez, vice president of the Thirtieth of
November Party, was arrested for informing foreigners about human
rights abuses in Cuba. She started a hunger strike when informed that
she would be tried by a military court.
August 19, State security agent known as Pepin and other agents in an
act of continuing psychological torture, went to the home of Professor
Reinaldo Cosano Allen and told him to gather his belongings because he
was being arrested.
August 20, Zohiris Aguilar, activist and president of the Popular
Democratic Alliance, ADEPO, was detained by Cuban State police without
being given cause. Her husband Leonel Morejon Almagro, lawyer and
founder of Concilio Cubano, well known human rights umbrella group, was
also questioned by police. Police threatened to take away their child
to be raised by the State unless they ceased their activities
advocating free and fair elections.
August 20, Nery Gorotiza Campoalegre, executive of the Cuban National
Alliance, was detained by State Security Agent Pepin, interrogated and
threatened for 24 hours.
August 20, opposition activist Sergio Quiro, secretary for Leonel
Morejon Almagro, was arrested. While being interrogated and threatened,
State security agents played audio tapes with phone conversations
opposition members had had with international human rights support
groups.
August 21, Roberto Gonzalez Tibanear, who had been deported from
Sweden to Cuba early in 1997, was arrested. His defense lawyer was
given 48 hours to prepare his case. The charges against him were
instigation and contempt.
August 21, Vicente Escobar Barreiro, director of the Cuban Unionism
Studies Institute and a leader of the Cuban Workers Council, an
independent union, was called in for questioning by the Singular
Vigilance System. The Singular Vigilance System is one of the many
repressive organs of the Cuban dictatorship.
August 23, Odilia Collazo, while traveling in a car with her husband,
was rammed by a government-owned bus and received severe life-
threatening injuries. In addition to being President of the Cuban Pro
Human Rights Party, Collazo had just assumed the Presidency of the
Dissidents Task Force Support Committee after the task force members,
well known dissidents, Vladimiro Roca, Felix Bonne Carcasses, Dr. Rene
Gomez Manzano and economist Marta Beatriz Roque, were incarcerated the
previous month.
Throughout the month of August 1997, Jesus Chamber Ramirez, sentenced
to 10 years in prison for enemy propaganda and disrespect against
government authority, was regularly denied family visits because he
insisted on being treated as a political prisoner rather than as a
common prisoner. He was tried and sentenced to an additional 4 years
for demanding better conditions with yet another trial still pending.
August 1997, date unknown, Luis Mario Pared Estrada, a leader of the
Thirtieth November Party, Frank Pais, was convicted of dangerousness
and sentenced to one year in prison.
September 8, three leaders of the Democratic Federation of Workers in
Cuba, Ana Maria Ortega Gimenez, Nacional Coordinator; Gustavo Toirac
Gonzalez, Secretary General; and Ramon Gonzalez Fonseca, Secretary of
Transportation were arrested. Jose Orlando Gonzalez Brindon, President
of
[[Page H554]]
the organization was placed under house arrest.
September 9, Cuban State police arrested the President of the
Democratic Solidarity Party, Hector Palacio Ruiz, for commenting on
Castro's lack of mental stability in an interview with a German
journalist. We certainly could do an entire special order on Castro's
lack of mental stability.
September 10, Jorge Luis Garcia Perez Antunez, Nestor Rodriguez
Lobaina, and Francisco Herodes Diaz Echemendia were beaten by over 30
guards in the prison where they were being kept and still are today on
charges of enemy propaganda, attempted sabotage and acts against State
security.
September 10, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, a citizen of El Salvador, was
arrested and charged with being a material author of seven hotel
bombings in Cuba.
September 13, Lazaro Fernandez Valdez and Rodolfo Valdez Perez were
detained at their homes after attending a mass given by Cardinal Jaime
Ortega. They had shouted, Long live Cardinal Ortega.
September 15, Cecilio Monteagudo Sanchez, member of the Democratic
Solidarity Party, was charged with enemy propaganda and detained. He
allegedly distributed a flyer encouraging people to boycott voting in
the one-party election run by the regime.
September 16, U.S. citizen Walter Van de Veer, who had been arrested
in Cuba in August of 1996, was tried as a high risk mercenary, and on
that date was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
September 23 Alexander Hernandez Lago, reportedly a contributor to
Vitral, an officially sanctioned religious magazine, was beaten in his
home by police for allegedly failing to pay a utility bill of 41 pesos.
Lago then protested by wearing a placard in public stating we are fed
up with so much arbitrariness and injustice, Human Rights, Article 19,
Respect Them, for which he was arrested.
September 24, Cecilio Ruiz Rivero, member of the Association for
Struggle Against Injustice, was arrested and charged with disrespect,
assault and resistance.
September 24, Efrain Rodriguez Santos, member of the Club Pueblos
Cautivos de Cuba, Captive Towns of Cuba Club, because there are entire
towns in Cuba that are in effect prisons, and that is a subject that we
will have to treat in detail at some point. Efrain Rodriguez Santos,
member of the Captive Towns of Cuba Club was sentenced to 18 months
imprisonment on charges of disrespect of Fidel Castro. He allegedly
shouted from his home's balcony, Down with Fidel Castro.
September 27 Maritza Lugo Fernandez, was convicted of bribery for
allegedly attempting to convince a prison guard to give prisoners
belonging to the Thirtieth of November Party a tape recorder.
October 23, 11 members of the Pro Human Rights Party of Cuba, PPDH,
were convicted of associating to commit criminal acts and disobedience
after conducting a hunger strike to protest the government's detention
of another PPDH member, Daula Carpio Mata. Sentences ranged from 1 year
of house arrest, Maria Felicia Machad, to 1\1/2\ years in prison camp
for Jose Antonio Alvarado Almeida, Ileana Penalver Duque, Roxana Alina
Carpio Mata, Lilian Meneses Martinez, Arelis Fleites Mendez, Marlis
Velazquez Aparicio, Ivan Lema Romero, Danilo Santos Mendez, Vicente
Garcia Ramos, and Jose Manuel Yera Meneses.
October 29 Luis Lopez Prendes, with the Bureau of Independent
Journalists, was severely beaten for speaking to Radio Marti by phone.
October 29, Daula Carpio Matas of the Pro Human Rights Party, PPDH,
was sentenced to 16 months in the prison work camp for her outspoken
criticism of an earlier trial. She was initially arrested on charges
that she verbally criticized a prison doctor at the trial of a fellow
PPDH member.
November 11, Orestes Rodriguez Urrutinier, acting President of the
Followers of Chibas Movement, Movimiento Seguidores de Chibas, was
brought to trial on charges of enemy propaganda and sentenced to 4
years imprisonment.
November 18, Dr. Desi Mendoza Rivero, this is amazing, President of
the Santiago de Cuba Independent Medical Association, was sentenced to
8 years imprisonment for, quote, ``using the mass media to spread enemy
propaganda,'' end quote. Rivero accused the regime on Radio Marti of
covering up the extent of danger, he is a physician speaking, of
covering up the extent of danger to the public during an epidemic of
dengue fever and of not taking sufficient measures to control the
epidemic.
November 28, Bernardo Arevalo Padron, director of the Independent
Press Agency Linea Sur Press, was sentenced to 6 years imprisonment for
enemy propaganda.
December 17, Ileana Penalver Duque, was sentenced to 18 months
correctional work without internment, ordered to report to work despite
physical illnesses from which she is still suffering, including memory
and vision disturbances and loss of feeling in her legs, ordered to
report to work.
January 9, Jose Angel Pena, president of the Pro Human Rights Party
Chico Oriental, was detained for visiting activist, Silvano Duarto.
January 15, Frank Fernandez Lobaina, president of the union, the
National Union of Opposition Members, UNO, was arrested for signing The
Agreement for Democracy, which is an incredible document that the
opposition has come together and not only drafted, but agreed to the
opposition in Cuba and outside of Cuba. He spoke on its behalf on
January 14 publicly, and he was arrested the next day, January 15.
January 1998, date unknown, numerous people were arrested at papal
services during the Pope's visit, the 4-day trip, which was a marvelous
visit where the Cuban people had a ray of hope for 4 days with the
visit of that incredible, not only one of the greatest figures of this
century, but of the millenium and leader of the Catholic Church, John
Paul, II. Numerous people were arrested at the papal services for
speaking to foreign journalists or holding up pro democracy signs or
other activities that bothered the dictatorship.
I personally witnessed two young women who were filmed by Univision
and CBS tele noticias, and none of our networks here in the English
language or especially CNN, I did not see any of those networks show
that film that they had access to because I saw it on Univision and
tele noticias, two young women being dragged away for holding up a sign
that said, Down with the dictatorship of the Castro brother. That is
during the papal masses.
February 17, dictatorship prosecutors requested a 15-year sentence in
prison for the vice president of the Association for Struggle Against
National Injustice Reynaldo Alfaro Garcia. His crime, speaking out for
the release of political prisoners.
February 18, the regime announced that Benito Fojaco, Israel Garcia,
Jose R. Lopez, Angel Gonzalez and Reynaldo Sardinas will be tried for
acts against the security of the State.
February 22, Castro's joke of a Foreign Minister fellow named Roberto
Robaina, warned that the release of a few dozen prisoners that the
regime has recently announced as a gesture to Pope John Paul does not
mean that those dissidents can engage in antigovernment activities when
they are out of prison.
February 1998 Jose Miranda Acosta, considered a prisoner of
conscience by Amnesty International, was previously sentenced to 15
years in prison even though a Mexican national who was charged along
with him served 9 months before being released. Numerous human rights
advocacy groups have called for his immediate release because of his
extremely delicate health condition. The regime is denying him medical
treatment as a form of torture. Jose Miranda Acosta was included in the
list of prisoners that the Catholic Church gave to the regime for
release, but Castro has refused to release him as he has refused to
release countless others.
The denial of medical care by the dictatorship to political opponents
as a form of torture is widespread. Yesterday, I called for the
resignation of Cesar Gaviria, a secretary general of the Organization
of American States, for his systematic ignoring of multiple requests
made by Sebastian Arcos for condemnation by the Human Rights Commission
of the OAS of that practice by the regime, denying of medical care as a
form of torture for political prisoners.
[[Page H555]]
{time} 2015
One of the most well-known dissidents in Cuba, he died last December
here in exile after he had received cancer while in prison and being
denied medical treatment for years. That, in addition to the highest
incidence of cancer in the Cuban prisons, in the entire world, and many
reports point out that that is too much of a coincidence, is one of the
realities that not only has to be analyzed but definitely is going to
be made known in all its magnitude when Cuba is freed and the files are
opened with regard to inconceivable techniques of torture, like the
ones that are used on a daily basis by the regime.
But the reality of the matter is that, despite those techniques of
torture and the repression, the internal opposition is working harder
than ever.
Just before coming to the floor this evening, I received
notification, I had been told that numerous internal opposition groups
within Cuba were planning to attend a mass this evening around 6
o'clock commemorating the 24th of February, the massacre of the four
Brothers to the Rescue, their murder 2 years ago.
Well, about 20 of them made it to the church in Havana. Over 20 of
them apparently made it to the church. When they left the church after
the mass, just about a little over an hour ago, they started walking
toward the waterfront. They were met by 80 state security gestapo
types, and apparently they have been arrested.
What they wanted me to know and to say was that it does not matter if
they are arrested, it does not matter how many of them are thrown in
the dungeon, they will continue fighting peacefully until freedom and
democracy are restored to Cuba. And they wanted me to make a point of
the fact that it does not matter how many of them are thrown in the
dungeon, the fight will continue, and that every day there are more and
more members of the internal opposition and members of the pro-
democracy movement in Cuba.
The fact that the Cuban people's hands are tied at this point and
that they are unarmed does not mean that they will not triumph. It does
not mean that they will not continue fighting until freedom is
achieved.
I mentioned briefly that the world had witnessed those great days of
hope in January, the four days of hope with Pope John Paul's visit to
Cuba just a few weeks ago.
Even before John Paul had completed his visit to Cuba, TV anchormen
and analysts and editorial writers were at work interpreting the
message, the intention, the agenda behind his words. What exactly did
the Pope say in Cuba?
I want to point to a marvelous analysis done by the Center for a Free
Cuba, run by Mr. Frank Calzon here in Washington, a tremendous human
rights activist.
In the analysis that the Center for a Free Cuba made public, ``The
Pope said his journey was `a pastoral visit,' `an apostolic trip,'
though, judging by some media reports, the lifting of the Washington
trade sanctions against Havana was the most important issue of the
visit. And yet, a word search of the 21,094 words pronounced by Pope
John Paul II in 14 speeches and homilies while in Cuba indicates the
following:
The Pope used the word ``truth'' 74 times; ``freedom'' 53 times;
``family'' 42 times; ``justice,'' 31 times; ``moral values'' 32 times;
``solidarity'' 16 times; ``education'' 11 times; ``civil society'' 9
times; ``do not be afraid'' 5 times.
I am sure those words to the Cuban people, ``do not be afraid,'' are
having a tremendous impact and will have every day even a greater
impact.
The Pope mentioned ``Our Lady of Charity,'' Cuba's patroness, 13
times; ``Jesus and God'' 129 times. He used the word ``prisoner'' 3
times, referred to Cuban exiles around the world 4 times; and he
mentioned the embargo once, before getting on the plane to leave Cuba.
And he did not mention the United States by name at all.
I want to commend Frank Calzon and the Center for a Free Cuba,
because this analysis shows us the kind of campaign that we are facing
by the majority of the media and the means of communication day in and
day out, where they have their agenda. And none of those arrests, human
rights violations and abuses that I mentioned did I see reported in the
mainstream media in the United States or the international media,
newspapers, that I had a chance to read.
You hear about the couple dozen prisoners that Castro releases as a
gesture to the Pope. Most of them had served time as common criminals,
not political prisoners, or who had already finished their terms, their
sentences, in prison.
You read about the couple dozen being released, but you do not read
about the hundreds and thousands when they are arrested. I think that
Mr. Carter of the Washington Times pointed out to a certain extent why
that is the case.
With regard to that so-called humanitarian gesture of the regime, of
the couple of dozen people who were released from prison in the last
few days, it is very important to point out the statement also made at
the cost of great risk and demonstrating great courage by one of the
leading opposition leaders within Cuba, Oswaldo Paya of the Christian
Liberation Movement.
Mr. Paya states the release from prison of a few dozen prisoners
cannot be seen as a sign of political opening. ``We cannot say this is
an opening, when many remain in prison for their beliefs and when some
are still waiting to be tried for political reasons.''
Even if you do not want to believe the opposition and the dissidents,
read what Castro himself or his pathetic foreign minister says:
``The pardon was not made with the intention of stimulating
activities of internal dissent,'' Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina said
Sunday. ``He who returns to the street has the space we all have in the
street.''
I do not think they have the space he has with his yachts. I have
seen a photograph of him in a big capitalist yacht and having access to
la dolce vita and, like Forbes Magazine says, Castro having over $1.5
billion in Swiss bank accounts. That is not the space he is referring
to when he says, ``He who returns to the street has the space that we
all have in the street. Not a space to bend over for those who, from
abroad, want to destroy the country.''
No, no, no. I do not think he means everybody is going to have the
kind of life he has, with his yachts and the hundreds of millions of
dollars that Castro has in Swiss foreign accounts.
What they are talking about is that this is not, as has been stated,
this is not a political opening. What this is is simply a token
gesture, so that the world, that wants to find reasons and pretexts to
justify the actions of Castro, will find another pretext for doing so.
The reality of Cuba is that there are thousands imprisoned. The
reality of Cuba, and I commend to the viewers ``The Politics of
Psychiatry in Revolutionary Cuba,'' I recommend it to the viewers, this
is put out by Freedom House here in Washington, and it details example
after example after example of the use of psychiatry, electroshock
torture and psychotropic drugs against political prisoners and
dissidents by the Cuban regime.
That is the reality of Cuba today, and anyone who wants to find out
the reality of Cuba today should read books like this and, really,
actually listen to the words of the dictator, listen to what happens
when people want to commemorate in a mass the massacre of simply two
years ago, just two years ago, against four Brothers to the Rescue who
were shot and killed over the straits, over international waters, and
the people who wanted to peacefully dedicate a mass in their memory are
met by 80 gestapo thugs and thrown in prison. That is the reality of
Cuba today.
The reality of Cuba today is, and I also recommend this report just
released by Dr. Juan Clark, a Ph.D. in South Florida, Miami Dade
Community College, ``Religious Oppression in Cuba.'' He goes in detail
about what happens day in and day out to believers in Cuba, simply for
peacefully trying to exercise the right of free worship. That is the
reality of Cuba today.
Also though the reality of Cuba today is the fact that the internal
opposition is more active than ever; that those words that the Pope
said do not fear, do not fear, do not be afraid, are having a great
effect, like they did in Poland and like they did everywhere that the
Pope has visited, and the Cuban people are living in the tradition
[[Page H556]]
that they have demonstrated throughout their history, including the
entire 19th century, and if they will put an end to this barbaric
regime, despite the fact that it has been in existence 39 years, it
will come to an end and it will come to an end soon, because the Cuban
people are going to see to it.
The reality of Cuba today is more than 70 opposition movements have
already signed onto this extraordinary agreement called Agreement for
Democracy, and many of the opposition movements in exile as well have
signed on. I will not read it all, but I think it is a fundamental
document to see where the Cuban people are going, where they wish to go
and what they think, and to break through the disinformation and the
misinformation and the lack of information that is provided or not
provided by the international media.
This Agreement for Democracy states as follows. As I say, it has
already been signed on to by more than 70 opposition groups, most
within Cuba.
``We recognize as the fundamental principle of the new republic that
Cuba has wanted independence whose sovereignty resides from the people
and functions through the effective exercise of representative
multiparty democracy, which is the government of the majority with
absolute respect for the minority. All governments must respect the
sovereignty of the people. Therefore, at the end of the current
tyrannical regime, the provisional or transition government shall be
obliged to return sovereignty to the people by way of the following
measures.''
Then they list 10 specific measures through which sovereignty after
the end of the Castro nightmare will be returned to the Cuban people,
obviously in the holding of free and fair elections. Free and fair
elections is the essence, and free and fair elections is the essence of
what we seek in our policy in the United States for the Cuban people.
That is the purpose of our policy. That is why we deny access to the
U.S. market to those who profit from the lack of freedom of the Cuban
people. That is why we have an embargo against Castro.
We have an embargo on credits, on financing, on profits from the
apartheid economy that Castro imposes on the people. We have an embargo
on massive U.S. tourism to Cuba. We do not have an embargo on medicine.
It is important that I repeat that, because there is so much
disinformation and so much misinformation on this. We do not have an
embargo on the sale of medicine. We do not have an embargo on the
shipment of humanitarian aid to Cuba. More humanitarian aid is sent
from the American people each year to the Cuban people than from all
the other countries in the world combined.
{time} 2030
$2.4 billion in humanitarian aid has been sent. That is not including
the cash remittances that the Cuban people send to their family members
on the island each year, not including the cash amounts of hundreds of
millions per year, such as $2.4 million in humanitarian aid has been
sent from the American people to the Cuban people in the last 5 years
alone. That is more again than from all the other countries in the
world combined.
And what we are saying with our policy is that yes, we will deny
credits and we will deny financing and we will deny profits from those
who want to invest in the lack of labor rights, in human rights in
Cuba, until and unless there is a democratic opening, a transition to
democracy in Cuba.
The only instrument that exists for the Cuban people to be taken into
account when Castro dies, and he cannot last much longer, you have to
look at him, they shot him up with cortisone for the Pope's trip. It
will be a while, a year, 2 years, and thank God he is not immortal, he
is going to die.
What instrument do the Cuban people have at that moment so that those
in a situation of provisionality will take them into account and will
agree to return sovereignty to the Cuban people, to have elections, the
only instrument that exists is the U.S. embargo.
Those who find themselves in a situation of provisional power are
going to want to lift the U.S. embargo, and we are going to say,
``Fine, we want to lift the U.S. embargo. The only thing we ask is that
you, those who find themselves in a situation of provisional power when
Castro dies, is that you hold elections. That is the only thing we are
asking for.
Just like in 1898 the only country that stood by the Cuban people and
said they deserve to be free was the United States of America. In 1998
we are the people, we are the Nation, who wants the Cuban people to be
free, and who say, we will not permit access to the U.S. market until
the Cuban people are allowed free and fair elections. The Cuban people
will not continue to be the only people in this hemisphere to be denied
free elections, to be condemned to live under tyranny. We do not accept
that, and the Cuban people do not accept that. They deserve to live in
freedom.
We will hold out and we will deny our market and we will maintain our
embargo until three key conditions are met: Political legalization, all
political parties have to be legalized; all political prisoners have to
be freed; and there has to be a willingness to hold free and fair
elections.
They are three very simple conditions, but they are conditions that
are not going to waived. We will insist on political legalization, we
will insist on freedom for all political prisoners, and we will insist
on free elections. That is our commitment. That is the commitment of
this Congress. That is why we obtained 80 percent of the votes, both in
the Senate and in the House, for our sanctions legislation in 1996, and
we are going to maintain that policy until there is a democratic
transition.
So I end my remarks remembering the four martyrs from Brothers to the
Rescue, remembering all the political prisoners, in solidarity with
them, remembering as well the martyrs of the 13th of July of 1994, the
over 40 men women and children who were murdered by the tyrant just a
few years ago while trying to seek freedom, including more than 20
children.
In memory of them, on this historic date, I end my remarks and I
guarantee that this Congress and the American people will stand with
the Cuban people until they are free.
____________________