[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 95 (Thursday, July 16, 1998)]
[House]
[Page H5639]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   PRESIDENT TO SUSPEND HELMS-BURTON

  (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute and to revise and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, today unfortunately, the President 
will once again suspend the Helms-Burton law, which passed 
overwhelmingly in the House and allows U.S. citizens to sue those 
immoral foreign investors who traffic in American confiscated 
properties on the island.
  This decision is yet another sad example of the administration's 
slippery slide toward further relaxation of sanctions on the brutal 
dictatorship of Fidel Castro. And what has Castro done to deserve any 
weakening of sanctions? Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Human rights 
violations continue, the harassment of dissidents proceeds, and there 
are no signs of any democratic openings on the island.
  How ironic that the President's weak decision comes as we commemorate 
the fourth anniversary of the massacre by Castro of 50 Cubans, mostly 
women and children, who attempted to flee the island on a rickety 
tugboat.
  The President can justify his decisions with the legalisms that have 
now made the White House spin doctors famous, but these false 
justifications will not help the suffering people of Cuba rid 
themselves of the totalitarian regime that oppresses them day in and 
day out.

                          ____________________