[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 30 (Wednesday, March 18, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H1280-H1281]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




       THREATS TO U.S. NATIONAL SECURITY FROM CUBAN DICTATORSHIP

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, I have received extremely disturbing 
reports that the Department of Defense plans to officially minimize the 
threat assessment of Castro's Cuba and that this may be utilized to 
subsequently remove Castro from the State Department's terrorist list.
  Despite Cuba's destroyed economic situation, Castro remains a 
dangerous and unstable dictator with the intention and capability to 
hurt U.S. interests. Thirty-five years ago, during the Cuban missile 
crisis, Castro urged a nuclear first strike by the Soviet Union against 
the United States. Ten years ago, Cuban General Rafael del Pino 
disclosed that Cuban combat pilots train for air strikes against 
military targets in South Florida.
  Five years ago, a Cuban airforce defector in a MiG-29 fighter 
aircraft, flying undetected until outside Key West, Florida, confirmed 
that he had trained to attack the Turkey Point nuclear power facility 
in South Florida. Two years ago, Castro ordered Cuban MiG-29 fighter 
aircraft to attack and kill unarmed American civilians flying in 
international air space just miles from the United States.

                              {time}  1445

  There is a pathologically unstable tyrant in the final years of his 
dictatorship just 90 miles from our shores. His 4-decade record of 
brutality, rabid hostility toward the Cuban exile community, anti-
Americanism, support for international terrorism, and proximity to the 
United States, is an ominous combination.
  When considering the potential threat from Castro, the following must 
be noted.
  Despite the end of the Cold War, Castro continues to espouse a hard 
line, using apocalyptic rhetoric, proclaiming socialism or death, 
ranting about a final reckoning with the United States, and punishing 
any Cuban who advocates genuine political or economic reform.
  Castro maintains one of Latin America's largest militaries with 
capabilities completely inconsistent with Cuba's economic reality and 
security needs.
  Despite Cuba's economic failure, Castro has the capability to finance 
special projects through his network of criminal enterprises and 
billions of dollars of hard currency reserves that he maintains in 
hidden foreign accounts. Castro has a proven capability to penetrate 
U.S. airspace with military aircraft and to conduct aggressive shoot-
down operations in international airspace just outside the U.S.
  Castro is training elite special forces in Vietnam who are prepared 
to attack U.S. military targets during a final confrontation, according 
to Janes Defense Weekly.
  Castro actively maintains political and scientific exchanges with 
each of the countries on the Department of State's list of terrorist 
states. Castro continues to provide logistical support for 
international terrorism and pro-Castro guerrilla groups, and Cuban-
trained international terrorists are still active around the world, 
most ominously at this time in Colombia.
  Castro continues to coordinate and facilitate the flow of illegal 
drugs through Cuba into the United States. He continues to offer Cuba 
as a haven for drug smugglers, criminals and international terrorists, 
including more than 90 felony fugitives wanted by the U.S. Department 
of Justice.
  The Lourdes electronic espionage facility is used to spy against U.S. 
military and economic targets, including the intercept, and this has 
been confirmed, of highly classified 1990 Persian Gulf battle plans. 
Castro is working with Russia, which recently extended a $350 million 
line of credit to him for priority installations in Cuba, and anyone 
else willing to offer assistance to complete the nuclear reactor in 
Cuba.
  Castro has access to all the chemical and biological agents necessary 
to develop germ and chemical weapons. Despite his failed economy, he 
has constructed a secretive network of sophisticated biotechnology 
labs, fully capable of developing chemical and biological weapons. 
These labs are operated by the military and Interior Ministry, are 
highly secure and off-limits to foreigners and visiting scientists. 
Under the guise of genetic, biological and pharmaceutical research, 
Castro is developing a serious germ and chemical warfare capability. He 
has the ability to deliver biological and chemical weapons with 
military aircraft, various unconventional techniques and perhaps even 
missile systems increasingly available in the international black 
market.
  Tyrants are most dangerous when they are wounded. Given Cuba's 
proximity to the U.S. and Castro's proven instability, it would be an 
unacceptable and potentially tragic mistake to underestimate his 
capabilities. It is critical that Castro be kept on the State 
Department's list of terrorist states and that a realistic threat 
assessment be made, which includes an examination of Cuba's 
biotechnical capabilities as the Castro dictatorship moves towards its 
final stages.
  It is important, Mr. Speaker, that we explain at this time what our 
embargo against Castro is and what it is not. We must counter the 
massive disinformation campaign by those who wish to lift the embargo 
against Castro. The way to do that is with the facts. Our embargo is an 
embargo against U.S. credits, financing and mass tourism to Castro. It 
is not an embargo on medicine or humanitarian assistance.
  These facts are necessary to be espoused and clarified. We will 
continue speaking on them in the coming days.
  Mr. SOLOMON. Mr. Speaker, the Cold War was about one thing: freedom.
  As the communist tyrants of the Soviet Union tried to expand their 
evil form of repression around the world after World War II, the United 
States stepped up to the plate and said ``no''.
  Why? Because it was the right thing to do. Yes, it was the right 
thing strategically. It was in our interest to contain Soviet military 
power. But more importantly, it was the right thing morally.
  As the heroic dissidents and defectors from communist repression, 
Alexander Solzhenitsyn, Andrei Sakhorov, Vaclav Havel and many others 
told us, and as level-headed academics like Robert Conquest chronicled, 
and as the opening of the Soviet archives have proven definitively, 
communism has been the most destructive force in this century, 
responsible for more harm to more people in more places than any other.
  That's why we waged the Cold War, Mr. Speaker. It was simply the 
right thing to do.
  But now, with the Cold War long gone, some people, and certainly the 
people making foreign policy in the Clinton administration and in 
Europe, have forgotten all about morality in foreign policy. They have 
forgotten about doing the right thing.
  We see it in the Clinton administration's shameless appeasement of 
Communist China, all because of the almighty dollar.
  We see it in the administration's normalizing of relations with the 
Communist regimes of Vietnam and Laos, despite the fact that those very 
regimes killed, captured and have failed to account for thousands of 
young Americans.
  We see it in the French drive to let Saddam Hussein off the hook, 
just so they can earn a few bucks. And we see it in the worldwide 
business as usual relationship with this awful tyrant in Havana named 
Fidel Castro.
  Despite Castro's vicious dictatorship, despite his political prisons, 
despite his documented human rights abuses, despite his support for 
Marxist revolutionary movements around the world during the Cold War, 
the pernicious effects of which are still being felt in places like El 
Salvador and Nicaragua, our Canadian neighbors, our European friends 
and many other countries throughout the world serve to prop up Castro's 
repressive machine through trade.
  It has devolved to America to continue to do the right thing by 
maintaining our trade embargo, Mr. Speaker.
  And now there are some Americans, and perhaps even the Clinton 
administration, who want to copycat the immoral policies of Canada, 
Europe and countless dictatorships around the world by lifting the 
embargo.
  What a tragic mistake that would be Mr. Speaker. What a terrible 
message that would send to those who languish in Castro's prisons, to 
those Cubans who long to cast a vote for their government for the first 
time in their lives.
  It would tell them that their last hope, America, has abandoned them.
  And what a terrible message that would send to Castro.

[[Page H1281]]

  It would tell him that his arch-enemy, and Mr. Speaker, I consider it 
a badge of honor that the likes of Fidel Castro considers us his enemy, 
has capitulated.
  And it would tell the rest of the world that we have abdicated our 
leadership role in the world.
  Some in America say, ``everybody else is doing it, so why not us''? 
``An embargo can't be effective if others won't join in.''
  Well, Mr. Speaker, copycatting the amoral, rudderless foreign 
policies of other nations is not leadership now, is it?
  We should be exhorting, and using financial leverage, to induce other 
countries to join in.
  That's what Helms-Burton was all about, and it is a scandal that this 
President won't enforce the law!
  And some say, ``The embargo is propping Castro up by giving him an 
enemy.''
  What a ridiculous, a historical view that is.
  If the embargo helps Castro, then why does he want it lifted?
  And how many times do we have to repeat the fact that when Castro 
first seized power, the U.S. offered him assistance? And yet he still 
turned on us, because he is and always has been a Communist. Communists 
consider America the enemy, embargo or no embargo.
  And Mr. Speaker, I am tired of those who say this embargo is not 
working.
  What is not working is engagement, the business as usual engagement 
that the rest of the world is conducting with Castro as we speak.
  It is their trade and aid dollars that are propping up Castro.
  Just as our trade and aid dollars are propping up the Communist thugs 
in Beijing, and Hanoi, and now North Korea.
  Everywhere we look Mr. Speaker, engagement has failed to mellow 
Communist dictators.
  It has failed to improve human rights, it has failed to create 
widespread business opportunities and it has failed to rein in their 
foreign policies.
  This is in stark contrast to Ronald Reagan's hard-line, rollback 
policies that helped bring down the Iron Curtain in Europe.
  This is the policy we need now toward Fidel Castro.
  Only his removal from power can lead to true improvement in Cuba. 
Anything less is a charade, and we have lived through these charades 
before.
  It is time for this administration to get serious about removing 
Fidel Castro from power. It is time to apply the Helms-Burton law with 
full vigor.
  If some of our so-called friends want to prop up this dictator 
longer, it is time for us to tell them they can kiss the most lucrative 
consumer market in the world goodbye.
  That will surely bring them around, as their foreign policies are so 
dollar-dependent.
  And if not, then so be it.
  Let history record America as the country that did the right thing 
vis-a-vis an awful dictator in the Caribbean to the bitter end.

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