[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 35 (Wednesday, March 25, 1998)]
[House]
[Pages H1529-H1534]
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 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 asked and was given permission to revise and extend 
his remarks.)


                   Tribute to Honorable Steven Schiff

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, the Speaker of the House of 
Representatives just a few hours ago had the sad duty to report to us 
the death of one of our colleagues, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. 
Schiff). So I would like to begin my remarks this evening expressing my 
sincere condolences to the Schiff family and letting them know that my 
prayers go out to them in this very difficult moment.
  We will miss in this House Steve Schiff. He was a great man. But I 
would say that he was really a great man, above all else, because he 
was a good man. He was a man of extraordinary integrity as well as 
great intelligence. He possessed a brilliant legal mind that he put to 
use serving not only this House but our country.
  And so, I will certainly miss my friend and colleague Steve Schiff. I 
will always recall with much affection how, based on the fact that he 
was of such discipline of mind, he was, for example, teaching himself 
Spanish and he would enjoy conversing in Spanish; and it was remarkable 
that just literally months after beginning his Spanish classes he had 
achieved a great fluency.
  Anyway, we will miss, I will certainly miss my friend Steve Schiff.
  Mr. Speaker, in just a few days, and I think it is important for the 
American people to realize it, the Pentagon, the Department of Defense, 
is scheduled to make public a report, an assessment, of the security 
risks, the danger to the national security of the United States posed 
by the Cuban dictatorship just 90 miles from our shores.
  A number of us here in Congress have received preliminary reports 
with regard to that assessment that will be made public in just a few 
days by the Department of Defense, disturbing reports, because we are 
of the understanding, we have been led to believe that the Pentagon is 
about to say that there is, in essence, no threat from the Cuban 
dictatorship. That is a grave mistake if, in fact, that is the 
assessment that is made of the threat.
  It is a grave mistake and it is really unfortunate. Because the only 
way in which the conclusion can be reached that there is no threat from 
the Cuban dictatorship 90 miles from our shores is based on a political 
decision, an imposition by the White House upon the Department of 
Defense with regard to the report, its threat assessment, of just a few 
days.
  So if it is the case then, the preliminary reports that we have 
received, that in effect the Pentagon will say in a few days that there 
is no threat coming from the Cuban dictatorship, if that is the case, 
we, those of us in Congress who had received these preliminary reports 
are of the belief that a political decision is motivating that report.
  Just a few days ago, a number of us wrote to the Secretary of Defense 
and Secretary of State with regard to this very issue. And if I could, 
I would like, Mr. Speaker, to be able to read this letter:
  ``Dear Mr. Secretary,
  ``We are writing to express our concern about the ongoing national 
security threat from the Cuban dictatorship. Specifically, we are 
convinced that the Castro dictatorship is a major enemy of our efforts 
to shield America's frontiers from the drug threats, and we are 
additionally concerned about Castro's ability to develop biological and 
chemical weapons. Castro is technically capable of many of the same 
types of things we know Saddam Hussein is doing, and the Castro 
dictatorship is the only rogue regime that is 90 miles from our shores.
  ``We are appalled about current attempts to downplay the Castro 
threat and are deeply disappointed that the Department of Defense 
refuses to acknowledge Castro's ongoing threats to the United States. 
We 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 economic 
situation, Castro remains a dangerous and unstable dictator, with the 
intentions and the 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 trained for air strikes against military targets in 
south Florida. Five years ago a Cuban air force defector in a MiG-29 
fighter aircraft, flying undetected until just outside Key West, 
Florida, confirmed that he had received training 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}  2100

  There is a pathologically unstable tyrant in the final years of his 
dictatorship just 90 miles from our shores. His four-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 he maintains in hidden 
foreign accounts. Forbes magazine has calculated a minimum of $1.5 
billion that Castro has in such foreign accounts. Castro has a proven 
capability to penetrate U.S. airspace with military aircraft and to 
conduct aggressive shootdown operations in international airspace just 
outside the United States.
  Castro is training elite special forces units in Vietnam who are 
prepared to attack United States 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 
nations. 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 these days in Colombia.
  Castro continues to coordinate and facilitate the flow of illicit 
drugs through Cuba into the United States. We will talk more about that 
later. Castro continues to offer Cuba as a haven for drug smugglers, 
criminals and international terrorists, including more than 90 felony 
fugitives wanted by the Department of Justice.
  The Lourdes electronic espionage facility is used to spy against U.S. 
military and economic targets, including the intercept of highly 
classified Persian Gulf battle plans in 1990-1991. Castro is working 
with Russia, which recently extended a $350 million line of credit for 
priority installations in Cuba, and anyone else willing to offer 
assistance to complete the nuclear reactor at Juragua.
  Castro has access to all the chemical and biological agents necessary 
to develop germ and chemical weapons. Despite Cuba's failed economy, 
Castro has constructed a secretive network of sophisticated 
biotechnology labs, fully

[[Page H1530]]

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. Castro 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 and dying. Given 
Cuba's proximity to the United States and Castro's proven instability, 
it would seem to be an unacceptable and potentially tragic mistake to 
underestimate his capabilities. We request that Castro be kept on the 
State Department's list of terrorist nations 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 stage.
  This letter was sent by nine Members of Congress just a few days ago 
as I stated, Mr. Speaker, to the Secretary of State and the Secretary 
of Defense. The evidence with regard not only to what we mentioned in 
that letter but specifically with regard to narcotrafficking is 
extensive. The really sad aspect of this, in addition to the fact that 
it takes place, is that there is an undeniable pattern on the part of 
the Clinton administration to cover up and deny every single piece of 
evidence existing linking Castro and his regime to narcotrafficking 
into the United States. A number of colleagues and I sent a letter back 
in November of 1996 to General McCaffrey, the Director of the Office of 
National Drug Control Policy in the White House. We stated, after some 
introductory paragraphs, ``There is no doubt,'' we told General 
McCaffrey, ``that the Castro dictatorship allows Cuba to be used as a 
transshipment point for drugs. We were deeply disappointed when DEA 
Administrator Tom Constantine testifying before the House International 
Relations Committee in June said that `there is no evidence that the 
government of Cuba is complicit in drug smuggling ventures.' On the 
contrary, there is no doubt that the Castro dictatorship is in the drug 
business.''
  We continue in our letter to General McCaffrey: ``Your appearance 
before the committee that day was also very disappointing on this 
critical issue. Castro and his top aides have worked as accomplices for 
the Colombian drug cartels and Cuba is a key transshipment point. In 
fact, just this year sources in the Drug Enforcement Agency's Miami 
field office stated to the media that more than 50 percent of the drug 
trafficking detected by the U.S. in the Caribbean proceeds from or 
through Cuba. Since the 1980s, substantial evidence in the public 
domain has mounted showing that the Castro dictatorship is aggressively 
involved in narcotrafficking. In 1982, four senior aides to Castro were 
indicted by a Florida grand jury for drug smuggling into the United 
States. They were Aldo Santamaria, Fernando Ravelo, Gonzalo Bassols and 
Rene Rodriguez-Cruz. In 1987 the U.S. Attorney in Miami won convictions 
of 17 south Florida drug smugglers who used Cuban military bases to 
smuggle at least 2,000 pounds of Colombian cocaine into Florida with 
the direct logistical assistance of the Cuban armed forces. Evidence in 
this case was developed by an undercover government agent who flew a 
drug-smuggling flight into Cuba with a MiG fighter escort. In 1988, 
federal law enforcement authorities captured an 8,800-pound load of 
cocaine imported into the United States through Cuba. In 1989, U.S. 
authorities captured 1,060 pounds of cocaine sent through Cuba to the 
United States.''
  ``Prior administrations,'' we wrote to General McCaffrey, ``have 
correctly identified the Castro regime as an enemy in the interdiction 
battle. As early as March 1982, Tom Andrews, then Assistant Secretary 
of State for Inter-American Affairs, stated before the Subcommittee on 
Security and Terrorism of the Senate Judiciary Committee that `we now 
have also detailed and reliable information linking Cuba to trafficking 
narcotics as well as arms.' On April 30, 1983 James Michel, Deputy 
Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs, testified 
before the Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere of the Senate Foreign 
Relations Committee, his remarks validated prior findings. `The United 
States has developed new evidence from a variety of independent sources 
confirming that Cuban officials have facilitated narcotics trafficking 
through the Caribbean. They have done so by developing a relationship 
with key Colombian drug runners who on Cuba's behalf purchased arms and 
smuggled them to Cuban-backed insurgent groups in Colombia. In return 
the traffickers received safe passage of ships carrying cocaine, 
marijuana and methaqualone through Cuban waters to the United States.'

  July 1989. ``Ambassador Melvin Levitsky, Assistant Secretary of State 
for International Narcotics Matters, testified that, `there is no doubt 
that Cuba is a transit point in the illegal drug flow. We have made a 
major commitment to interdicting this traffic. Although it is difficult 
to gauge the amount of trafficking that takes place in Cuba, we note a 
marked increase in reported drug trafficking incidents in Cuban 
territory during the first half of 1989.'
  ``We are sure,'' we continued in our letter to General McCaffrey, 
``that while in Panama as Commander of the U.S. Southern Command, you 
(General McCaffrey) became aware of General Noriega's close 
relationship with Castro and of Castro's intimate relationship with the 
Colombian drug cartels.
  ``Because past administrations identified Cuba as a major 
transshipment point for narcotics traffic, it was integrated into the 
larger interdiction effort. By contrast, under the existing strategy, 
no aggressive efforts have been made to cut off this pipeline despite 
the growing awareness of its existence.
  ``In April 1993, the Miami Herald reported that the U.S. Attorney for 
the Southern District of Florida had drafted and prepared an indictment 
charging the Cuban government as a racketeering enterprise and Cuban 
Defense Minister Raul Castro as the chief of a 10-year conspiracy to 
send tons of Colombia cocaine through Cuba to the United States. 
Fifteen Cuban officials were named as co-conspirators and the Defense 
and Interior Ministries cited as criminal organizations.''
  We continued in our letter to General McCaffrey, In the last few 
months, the prosecution of Jorge Cabrera, a convicted drug dealer, has 
brought to light additional information regarding narcotrafficking by 
the Castro dictatorship. Cabrera was convicted of transporting almost 
6,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States, sentenced to 19 years 
in prison, and fined $1.5 million. Cabrera made repeated specific 
claims confirming cooperation between Cuban officials and the Colombian 
cartels. His defense counsel has publicly stated that Cabrera offered 
to arrange a trip under Coast Guard surveillance that would proactively 
implicate the Cuban government.
  ``Overwhelming evidence points to ongoing involvement of the Castro 
dictatorship in narcotrafficking. The Congress remains gravely 
concerned about this issue and we are deeply disappointed that the 
administration continues to publicly ignore this critical matter.''
  We ended our letter to General McCaffrey stating, ``We appreciate the 
opportunity to share these concerns with you and can assure you that 
further administration inaction on this matter will be met by serious 
congressional concern as well as investigation as to its cause.''
  Administration inaction has continued for the over 1 year after this 
letter. The letter in reply that we received was a form letter, totally 
unacceptable. Even more unacceptable has been the continued cover-up of 
the administration of this evidence and much more that exists directly 
connecting the Castro regime to the narcotrafficking of cocaine and 
other deadly substances into the United States. This is a situation 
that the American people have got to become aware of. The Clinton 
administration is covering up the connection, covering up the reality 
of the Cuban dictatorship's cooperation with the drug traffickers, 
conspiracy with the drug traffickers to import narcotics into the 
United States. There is a cover-up of this issue by the Clinton 
administration. Every time that we hear the President and the drug czar

[[Page H1531]]

and other leaders of this administration talking about this issue, the 
cover-up continues, the cover-up is intensified, the cover-up is 
magnified. There is absolute silence with regard to this evidence.
  But there is more. There is a spy center, an espionage center in the 
outskirts of Havana that picks up every single telephone conversation 
in the eastern United States. The Clinton administration systematically 
ignores the existence of that espionage center and is doing absolutely 
nothing about it. It is a Russian espionage center that has remained 
from before the collapse of the Soviet Union, and the Russians maintain 
it. Even though the Soviet Union collapsed, that espionage center 
continues to pose a threat to the national interests of the United 
States.
  It is the Lourdes espionage center. It was built in Cuba, according 
to a secret agreement between former Soviet and Cuban special services, 
in the early 1960s. The station is controlled and operated by the GRU, 
the Russian Military Strategic Intelligence Agency, and establishes a 
radio and electronic intelligence field over the southeast United 
States and the Atlantic region, collecting intelligence cyberdata in 
close cooperation with Russian intelligence stations and field offices, 
military spy satellites, Navy reconnaissance and Air Force 
reconnaissance. This information came from a high ranking Russian 
defector who recently came to the United States.
  The main mission of the Lourdes espionage station is registration and 
penetration through coded and ciphered radio, radio-technical/
electronic, micro-waves and cellular signals in the eastern part of the 
United States, disclosing American nuclear missile submarines' combat 
patrol routes throughout the Atlantic. The station routinely provides 
to Moscow's military-political leadership extremely important strategic 
military and economic, commercial and private information about the 
U.S. and other countries in the Atlantic Basin.
  The station is capable of compromising the United States Government's 
secrets, commercial and private communications, monitoring all American 
military movements throughout the Atlantic region. This is something 
that was just confirmed. During Desert Storm, in that extraordinary 
effort led by President Bush and the United States of America in 1990-
1991, when this Nation's military demonstrated to the world not only 
its technological prowess but the genuine superpower status of the 
United States of America and liberated Kuwait, during Desert Storm in 
1991, in the Lourdes espionage center in Cuba, Russian specialists 
obtained and disclosed to the Iraqis the U.S. military plans of the 
battle against Iraq, thus directly compromising American and allied 
troops in Saudi Arabia and in Iraq.

                              {time}  2115

  That has been confirmed by a Russian defector. The plant that Castro 
is running in cooperation with the Russians not only was able to obtain 
in Desert Storm all of our military plans, but made it available to 
Saddam Hussein. The same thing without any doubt is happening now with 
regard to the plans that we have in case we have to go back into Iraq.
  And what are we hearing from the Clinton administration with regard 
to the Russian espionage center in Havana? Nothing.
  I see my friend from California here.
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. I would just like to commend my colleague for not 
only this speech, but the diligence that he has shown over the years in 
alerting us and the American people to what Fidel Castro is all about. 
I do not know why, but there seems to be a romance with this bearded 
fascist down there in Havana, and people do not want to admit the 
horror that he has brought to the people of freedom all over the world. 
He has been one of the strongest enemies of freedom anywhere in the 
planet in the last 40 years, and his dirty deeds; you, know I could see 
back in the 1960s when people were idealist, they would overlook the 
fact that when he came to power he just cleared jails out and went out 
and shot people, you know, just summarily executed people; said those 
were Batista-ites or something. But as time went on, it seems that the 
liberal left in this country seems to bend over backwards never to 
acknowledge the wrongdoing of Fidel Castro.
  You mentioned, for example, his drug dealings. We know about his drug 
dealings. I mean, it is clear that this man and his cohorts down there 
have been involved up to their necks in drug dealings for decades. 
Robert Vesco, who we know as probably the fellow who went down and 
organized the modern drug movement in Latin America, where was his 
headquarters all of these years? It was in Cuba. Yet when we try to 
confront our administration with facts about who or where, you know, 
where are the drugs coming from and who are the kingpins, you never 
hear Fidel Castro mentioned.
  And some of the things you are bringing up tonight about what he has 
done, and even a few years ago in Desert Storm, that threaten our 
national security, put the lives of our young men and women in the 
military at risk; why is it that Lincoln Diaz-Balart has to be the one 
talking to an empty Chamber here and trying to gain the attention of 
the people of the United States? Where is our administration? Where are 
the people who are supposed to be watching out for our security? Well, 
they are making overtures to try to think, well, now is the time we 
should loosen these restrictions on Castro.
  It is beyond me.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Rohrabacher, it is worse than that. Not only are 
we not hearing anything from our administration, from the Commander in 
Chief whose responsibility under the Constitution is to protect the 
security of the American people, not only are we not hearing anything, 
but in a few days we are going to hear something officially coming from 
the Pentagon, politically ordered, saying in effect that there is no 
threat coming from Castro's Cuba.
  And what is really sad is that you and I and most of the men and 
women in this Congress are extraordinary admirers of our men in uniform 
and our women in uniform, and they are great professionals. But the 
reality of the matter is that there are sometimes, sometimes examples 
of undue influence of political decisions made in the White House that 
are imposed upon the agencies of the executive branch, including the 
Pentagon.
  So I urge, and a number of us have sent in writing our concerns to 
the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State with regard to this 
upcoming whitewash. This will simply be unacceptable to publicly say 
that a drug trafficker who maintains that Russian espionage center, and 
we have not gotten into the nuclear power plants yet, the Soviet-
designed nuclear power plants that Castro is doing everything in his 
power, and he just received a $350 million line of credit from the 
Russians to complete less than 200 miles from the United States these 
Soviet-designed nuclear reactors. Defectors that worked in the initial 
stages of their construction have sworn here under oath in 
congressional committees and have stated to our intelligence community 
that, even beyond the inherent dangers of those nuclear plants, all of 
which, by the way, of that design have been closed in the former Soviet 
Union and in the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe. Each of 
those former Communist countries, now liberated, has shut down those, 
they are called DD-440 Soviet nuclear power plants, because of their 
inherent dangers. But over and above the inherent dangers, defectors 
have stated that there were so many mistakes made in the initial stages 
in their construction that they are literally ticking time bombs. And 
we are hearing absolutely nothing from our administration with regard 
to those nuclear plants.
  I think it is indispensable. I think it is the constitutional duty of 
the President of the United States to say those plants are not going to 
become operational, period. Because that madman, that tyrant, if he is 
able to blackmail the President of the United States with refugees, 
imagine with Soviet-designed nuclear power plants. We are not only 
talking about a Chernobyl-type accident possibility, and I have the 
records in my files that within 72 hours as far north as Washington, 
D.C. would receive the radiation, the disaster would be without 
parallel, without precedent in this country. Not only an accident, but 
an incident manufactured or

[[Page H1532]]

threatened by the Cuban tyrant with those nuclear power plants. Simply 
unacceptable. We are not only talking about the Cuban people being 
wiped out in the case of a Chernobyl, it is less than 200 miles from 
the United States. We are not talking about Chernobyl in the Ukraine. 
We are talking about Soviet-designed power plants less than 200 miles 
from the United States of America.
  And where is the administration?
  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Well, this administration, if the gentleman will 
yield, is a horrible record. This is totally consistent with what the 
administration did the last time we were out on vacation. What did they 
do? They moved to eliminate the final impediments to any type of trade 
with Vietnam. This administration which, by the way, has of course been 
involved in a scandal dealing with campaign donations that may have 
come from Red China, has done more to eliminate those people, the 
efforts by people to confront the Red Chinese on their human rights 
abuses.
  So, should we be surprised that in this vicious dictatorship in Cuba 
that they overlook all of the evil that is so apparent to anyone who 
gives an honest look at the situation?
  You know, I used to think these people were, you know, they just 
briefed in peace and they were so blinded by some desire for peace, but 
this is not a desire of peace. This is something pathological that when 
Communist countries and enemies of the United States are doing these 
type of things that you have outlined today, that we in some ways 
should try to befriend them and in some way that the threat to us is 
going to be less because we are befriending this type  of monstrous 
regime.

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. The gentleman is correct in his analysis. The 
reality of the matter is that just a few days ago, March 20, a Fox News 
Service release which was distributed, I do not know how many 
newspapers in the United States picked it up, but nevertheless there 
was a release, a news release specifying this new commitment by the 
Russians of a $350 million line of credit to Castro for the completion 
of the nuclear power plants. This was in the news wires. And reading 
from that news wire, the scenario could not be more dire.
  A nuclear disaster in Cuba that would send a plume of radioactive 
fallout across Florida and as far as Texas, the likes of which have not 
been seen since the 1986 accident at Chernobyl in the Ukraine. And it 
also could not be more plausible, say some Cuba experts now, that Cuba 
and Russia have announced plans to resume work on two long-stalled 
nuclear reactors located in the island Nation's western province of 
Cienfuegos, 180 miles from the United States.
  The announcement came in the wake of Russia's decision just a few 
weeks ago to free up $350 million in credits offered to Cuba last year.
  Quote, ``This is a Chernobyl-like disaster just waiting to happen 
right off of our shores,'' end quote, said Roger Robinson, former 
senior director of international economic affairs at the National 
Security Council. Quote, ``Anything could happen given such horrendous 
deficiencies in design and safety,'' end quote.
  ``So concerned is the U.S. Department of Defense,'' here is the 
reaction of the administration, ``So concerned is the U.S. Department 
of Defense over the plant's safety that it plans to build a radiation 
detection facility in Florida that would alert residents'' in the 
United States along the entire Gulf of Mexico and as far north as 
Washington, D.C. ``of leaks from the two reactors.''
  The 1998 defense budget approved by Congress provides $3 million for 
the early warning system. That is not the solution. It is too late. If 
this warning, if this detection facility ever picks up radiation coming 
from those Chernobyl-style plants, it is too late. They cannot be 
permitted to come on line.

                              {time}  2130

  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. I thank the gentleman from California, and we will 
work very intensely in the coming months on this caucus in the Congress 
to educate our colleagues and the American people with regard to simply 
the unacceptable reality of the construction of those plants and that 
they cannot be completed.
  With regard to the point made by the gentleman from California with 
regard to Castro's hatred of the United States, just the day before 
yesterday, a dear friend of mine, a former Cuban political prisoner, 
spoke by phone with one of the most respected and leading dissidents 
inside of Cuba.
  There is an extraordinary story going on unreported in Cuba. I have a 
list of 500 activists in my office, in the streets of Cuba, in all the 
provinces who are disarmed, and they are seeking, they are fighting for 
democracy day in and day out peacefully, in the midst of that 
totalitarian system and suffering extraordinary repression.
  Of course, there are thousands in prison. But just the day before 
yesterday, perhaps one of the most respected of those dissidents, a 
young lawyer, 33 years old, who we in this Congress nominated for the 
Nobel Peace Prize when he was in prison last year, and the gentleman 
from California joined in that petition to the Nobel Peace Prize 
Commission, because that young man certainly deserved it, and we hoped 
to see if we could help him in his physical integrity and protection 
while he was a political prisoner last year. He has now been released.
  He was able to speak to a former political prisoner and very good 
friend of mine the day before yesterday. I would like to read the 
remarks and answers in his reply to the questions posed by this 
gentleman who is now in exile, because one of the points he makes is 
precisely about Castro's hatred for the United States.
  But if I may, Mr. Speaker, the question was, what is Leonel Morejon 
Almagro, this renowned and respected dissident, what is he doing 
presently for his country?
  ``We are working,'' he answered. ``Working and asking God to end this 
nightmare. We continue working on the plebiscite; we have a good number 
of signatures.'' Under the Cuban Castro constitution, theoretically, 
you can put something on the ballot if you have 10,000 signatures. Of 
course, they never recognize those signatures. He is working on that. 
He is thrown in jail on that, but nevertheless, he is working on it, 
trying to find unity, a consensus of the people to achieve something 
important in this country.

       In everything else, trying to grow each day in the people, 
     which is what is vital, to be able to perform a civic action 
     that has real repercussions and can create a movement with 
     the strength of the people, to make the government sit down 
     and talk to us. Or to change the political map of the 
     country, That or any other project that can bring about a 
     consensus among the opposition, and in the end mobilize the 
     masses of the people, the opposition, the dissidents with a 
     common goal. That is the solution. I believe that 
     revitalizing the Cuban Council at this point is important.

  What are the changes that Castro has made?

       Castro has made absolutely no change. Please, let us not 
     make mistakes, let us not get happy, let us not have futile 
     fantasies, nor celebrations in vain. Because Castro was very 
     clear in his last speech. In his love to talk and talk, he 
     said the following: ``If they lift the embargo, those who are 
     saying that if they lift the embargo we are going to change, 
     we tell them,'' Castro said that if they lift the embargo, 
     ``we will create true socialism.''
       Please, Castro has not changed in the least. Castro has 
     played a political hand, gentlemen. A pardon, to forgive some 
     people. We are happy because here are our brothers such as 
     Alonso Romero, Omar del Pozo, et cetera. They have not left 
     Cuba, but they are supposed to, they are being held in Villa 
     Marista. Each time a political prisoner is freed, we are 
     happy, but that is not the solution. What do we gain if one 
     political prisoner is released when tomorrow 20 others are 
     arrested? The punishment is still there.
       I am threatened with a 20-year prison sentence. They have 
     told me this to my face, that if I continue working for 
     democracy, they will put me away for 20 years. They do not 
     let me speak, they shut me up. How can I possibly believe in 
     a change in Fidel. Do not believe that, because if Castro 
     fools you, then you are really dumb.

  Question: How do you see the U.S. capitalist sectors who wish to 
invest in Cuba?

       Until now, the United States has, more or less, been able 
     to hold back Americans from investing in Cuba. I think that 
     if they allow this to happen, this would be a great lack of 
     respect toward the Cuban people. Not only do they want to 
     invest in Cuba, they want to come here for the ``mulatta,'' 
     to be with the

[[Page H1533]]

     ``Caribbean mulatta'' or the tanned boy. The investors who 
     are already in Cuba are paying trifles. We are like the 
     Indians. They are buying us with necklaces, with glass beads. 
     That is immoral. It is indignant.
       If they are able to achieve their wishes of investing, 
     where does that leave us; where does that leave the Cuban 
     people who have been kicked around for years, insulted; where 
     does that leave the people who have suffered beatings, the 
     disrespect, the intolerance? Where does that leave us?
       I believe in democratic capitalism, in the one that helps 
     man. If they come here to invest, it is going to be a 
     disaster, because the Cuban people are not ready at this 
     time, under these circumstances. Because the Cuban people are 
     a slave people. The Cuban people are slaves.
       And under those conditions we cannot win, because nobody 
     who respects himself, for a little bag at the end of the 
     month and for $148 a year is going to work in this country, 
     nobody is going to do it. And those who do it are unhappy 
     doing it.
       For this country to take off economically, there needs to 
     be economic freedom. Cubans have to be able to invest. The 
     people need to live. The people need to prosper, the people 
     need to be able to buy a car when they want to, save money 
     whenever they want to, and Castro is not going to allow that, 
     because that is the way to losing power. Because for Castro 
     to remain in power, he needs the CDR, the Committees for the 
     Defense of the Revolution, militants among the youth, among 
     the party. He needs to have the people hungry and the people 
     under control.
       Everyone knows that I am in favor of the Helms-Burton law.

  We are talking about a brave man, talking by telephone to the United 
States. Everyone knows that. He says that he is in favor of the Helms-
Burton law.

       What I want is for Castro and the Cuban Government to give 
     my people rights, to me, to my daughter, to my wife, and 
     everyone.
       The embargo is not a Cuban problem. I remember when I was 
     in high school, in 12th grade. During that time, petroleum 
     was being thrown away. Petroleum and gasoline were wasted, 
     were used for no reason. Because 13 million tons were 
     received each year. There was too much for an island such as 
     this. To the point that oil was sold to Nicaragua, to Africa, 
     and the Caribbean.
       At that time, Fidel Castro didn't even remember the 
     embargo. My God, it is not a blockade problem. Fidel Castro 
     uses it as a shield, but when Castro does not have an 
     embargo, he is going to have a conflict with the United 
     States to say, well, the gringos lifted the embargo, but now 
     we cannot leave our one party, nor can we abandon socialism.
       And then he will say to those who come to invest that they 
     have to be very careful, because they are our eternal 
     enemies. The speech will then be that it is a strategy to 
     threaten him, Castro. It is a strategy so that we open up and 
     lose power. And then he will ask more than ever not to lay 
     down arms. They will celebrate the lifting of the embargo as 
     a political victory, and everything will remain the same.

  Question: What policy should be followed?

       Until there is a real opening in democratic Cuba, until we 
     have the possibility of publicly debating the country's 
     problems, until there is the possibility for real change, 
     there can be no softening of the sanctioning of the 
     government, with regard to the pressure on the government, 
     acting as though it were a normal government. If the embargo 
     is lifted, we are lost. It will be a great defeat for the 
     country.

  Question: In Europe they say that if the embargo is lifted, Castro 
will be forced to make changes.

       No, not true. The economic avalanche will not have any 
     effect because, in Cuba, there is no will for change. There 
     is no entrepreneurial spirit in the regime. The economic 
     avalanche, whatever it may be, is going to be calculated, 
     controlled by the government. Precisely to avoid change. 
     Because the Cuban people are under a strong economic, 
     political and social control.
       The world may open up for Castro, but Castro is not going 
     to open up for the world. Because Castro is only going to 
     open up to his interests or for the benefit of the Communist 
     Party's interests.
       Tomorrow the blockade or embargo can be lifted, and the 
     Europeans want to invest in Cuba. But to invest in Cuba, they 
     need to go through the government's commercial filters, 
     because in Cuba there is no commercial freedom, it does not 
     exist in an external or internal sense.
       In Cuba, every internal investment needs to go through a 
     commission which decides what is going to be done. Foreign 
     investors cannot meet with Cuban partners.
       What do you think motivates those who wish to save Castro? 
     The underlying envy of Europe and the rest of the Americas 
     towards the United States. Castro has utilized that very 
     well. They see Castro as the symbol of anti-Americanism, the 
     anti-yankee, and they want to save him. They want to save his 
     legend.
       But Castro has used that legend to hurt the Cuban people, 
     to hurt you, and to hurt me. I cannot have a normal life. 
     What I want most is to enjoy my life. I do not want to be 
     president or even a councilman from Marianao.
       What I want is democracy in Cuba. Then after that, I want 
     to write poetry, study piano, I want to travel, I want to 
     study ecology, dedicate myself to my wife and to my daughter. 
     I want to dream. I want to write a book. I want to live, damn 
     it. And that is impossible in Cuba, just impossible.
       I am not a politician. What I am is an idealist. And, in 
     Cuba, one cannot live. It is impossible. Because, in Cuba, 
     one cannot live under this system. In Cuba, our dreams have 
     been castrated, there is a castration of the Cuban youth.

  What do you recommend be done at this time?

       It is necessary to help the opposition. The opposition 
     needs real and concrete help, not just in heart and soul, it 
     is needed in every sense. Much can be done, but there are too 
     few resources for everything. There is nothing here. There is 
     not even a Crayola to paint.
       The Cuban Council is hope. And what people do is flee, 
     leave the country. That takes away from us. It takes away 
     from us and we leave the solution in the hands of that man, 
     of this man who is a monster, who is delirious, who is 
     paranoid, a lunatic, whatever he is. Who has ruined our 
     lives, who has ruined my life.

  Are you scared of anything?

       Yes, I am. I do not want to walk alone at night. I am 
     worried because my wife is very nervous, due to threats I 
     have received. I do not want a bus to mysteriously run over 
     me. I am 33 years old, I do not want to be crucified. I 
     aspire to live the happiest moment of my life, the moment of 
     meeting again with you, with the good that you are, not the 
     bad. The good that can be found in Cuba, to meet again and 
     breathe, breathe in a free country. I want that. That will be 
     the happiest moment of our lives.
       I have a 6-year-old daughter. I sleep in one room with my 
     wife and my daughter. She is growing. And I would like to 
     offer her a better life. I am an attorney, I did well in my 
     career, the time that I was working. I lost my career, I lost 
     the possibility of practicing because I thought, and I think, 
     that it was my duty as a man to tell the truth in court and 
     not remain quiet before injustice. I have lost, not lost, but 
     gained years lived in prison, because they have given me the 
     honor of being able to tell my daughter and my grandchildren 
     tomorrow that I suffered in prison for opposing Castro.
       I do not want to lose my life, but if I have to lose it, 
     I'd do it happily to destroy a hateful dictatorship in my 
     country. But truly I want to live. I want to live. I want to 
     be able to live. Look, in Cuba, one does not live, people 
     leave Cuba because you cannot live here.
       In Cuba, there is no future. Cuba is a country condemned to 
     a totally indecent present. A hateful present. And somebody 
     has to do it. It is my place to speak in the name of those 
     Cubans who are afraid, very afraid, who have many 
     responsibilities, what they cannot say.

  Is there hope?

       In Cuba, there are thousands of people who are waiting for 
     the opportunity. We can really destroy this in a matter of 
     months, but we need to see the formula. What the people need 
     to understand is that the solution is within us. Let us see 
     how we get there. I have been trying to figure out how to do 
     it. But we have on top of us the entire intelligence 
     apparatus. We are a people controlled by the yoke.

  What is the future of the Cuban opposition?

       I can guarantee you something. Perhaps tomorrow we cannot 
     call upon a million people to show strength among the people, 
     but I can tell you that no matter what they do to us, they 
     will not be able to get rid of us, to eliminate us. The Cuban 
     opposition was born, grew, and here to stay. Fall who may, 
     and do what they do, we will be here.

  What would you say to those who wish to invest while Castro is still 
in power?

       We have to tell them not to get desperate to invest in Cuba 
     because they will lose more investing today than waiting for 
     tomorrow. They should invest in a country with full economic 
     rights and guarantees.
       That is the message that we have to give the Americans who 
     are dying to invest in Cuba. We have to tell them to remain 
     calm. They will have opportunities to invest in a country 
     that really has economic potential, with security, and peace. 
     Because Cuba right now is a time bomb, because a people such 
     as this, is not going to, even if it is dormant, even if it 
     is in a long lethargy difficult to wake from, it is not going 
     to resign itself to live as slaves. Because Cuba, at this 
     time, is a country of people who are tired and sodomized. 
     Castro has simply sodomized the Cuban people.
       And we must tell those investors not to get desperate, help 
     more by pressuring the government, more so that it opens up, 
     more to make a safe society, a pluralistic society, a society 
     with all its social dynamics, its freedom, and its 
     capabilities open so that they may prosper.

  Leonel Morejon Almagro, from Cuba, the national coordinator of the 
umbrella of 140 dissident and independent press and professional and 
workers organizations. This is the Cuban people speaking.
  In addition to that, you know that the three Cuban American Members 
of

[[Page H1534]]

Congress, both Republicans and Democrats speak like this man speaks, 
because we know what the Cuban people feel.
  Our friends in Congress here, who are all of you, coincidentally, who 
are here this evening, from both parties, the friends of the Cuban 
people respect the Cuban people and want free elections for the Cuban 
people, and they listen to the Cuban people's representatives like 
Leonel Morejon Almagro. I thank the representatives.
  On behalf of Leonel Morejon Almagro and the Cuban people, I thank the 
representatives of the American people and the American people for 
standing on the side of Cuba's right to be free.

                              {time}  2145

  Mr. ROHRABACHER. Mr. Speaker, if the gentleman will yield, I think 
that it is vital that we understand that if we do what is right now, 
and we have the courage, as this man suggested in the reading, that we 
discipline ourselves and not rush in to try to invest in Cuba before 
Castro is gone.
  Castro will some day be gone, whether it is natural causes or 
otherwise, and the Cuban people will have a chance to be free. But I 
fear that American businessmen, as they are doing in China and as they 
are doing in other dictatorships, are rushing not to try to have a 
positive influence, but instead, are looking at the quick buck and are 
establishing economic ties with these totalitarian regimes which will 
give life to those regimes.
  In other words, I believe that once American businessmen invest in 
Cuba, we will find that Communist Cuba has a whole new group of 
advocates in the United States, as we have seen in China, as we have 
seen people who are supposed to be talking about democracy in China 
because they are Americans and they are investing in China and up 
spending all of their time trying to do what? Trying to lobby us not to 
be tough on China because of the abuses of human rights there. This 
same thing could happen in Cuba.
  Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, at the very least, 
even though we have not been able to prevent what I personally consider 
an immoral policy with regard to the Chinese Government, because the 
real matter is that the Chinese Government uses slave labor and the 
multinational corporations are investing in that market and benefiting 
from the slave labor of the Chinese people. We have not been able to 
stop that because it is a billion people and it is too strong for us to 
have stopped it.
  But at the very least we can say in this hemisphere, this is a 
hemisphere of democracy and this is a hemisphere of freedom and the 
Cuban people are not the only people that should be condemned to live 
in tyranny in this hemisphere; no, they deserve to be free.
  Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Bilirakis), the 
gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney), the gentleman from New Jersey 
(Mr. Pallone), my colleagues that are here. They are representative of 
the overwhelming majority of the Congress of the United States in both 
parties who stand with the right of the Cuban people to be free.
  We are, in the next few days, going to celebrate the 100th 
anniversary of the resolution passed by this Congress that said Cuba is 
and it ought to be free and independent, as we told the Spanish 
colonialists, who invented the concentration camp under General Wahler. 
By the way, interestingly enough, Castro's father was sent to Cuba to 
fight the Cuban insurrection as a Spanish soldier under General Wahler 
and General Wahler invented the concentration camp, and he put entire 
segments of the Cuban population in concentration camps to defeat the 
insurrection.
  Mr. Speaker, it was the American people, and the American people 
alone, that stood with the Cuban people, and Cuba was free and 
independent. The United States withdrew from Cuba after helping the 
Cuban people defeat Spanish colonialism in 1888 and the United States 
withdrew in 1902.
  The relationship between Cuba and the United States has always been 
friendly, except for this madman who represents the anti-Cuba and who 
will soon be gone from the face of the Earth and will be in the dust 
bin of history.
  I thank the Congress of the United States; I thank the leaders who 
are here who represent the majority opinion of the Congress and of the 
American people, and I thank the American people for time after time 
after time standing with freedom, standing with democracy, two times in 
this century, saving the world from tyranny. This is a noble people, 
and what an honor to be able to stand in this Congress of this great 
Nation of the United States of America.

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