[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 58 (Friday, May 12, 2006)]
[Senate]
[Pages S4508-S4509]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                            TRADE WITH CUBA

  Mr. MARTINEZ. Mr. President, yesterday, I introduced a measure which 
is a companion to one introduced in the House of Representatives by 
Congresswoman Ros-Lehtinen relating to the business of trade with Cuba. 
This morning, I wanted to speak a little on the issue of my bill as 
well as on the overall need for us to file this bill.
  Many years ago, perhaps too long for some in this Chamber to 
remember, as a result of hostile acts by the state of Cuba, under the 
government of Fidel Castro, who today continues to terrorize his people 
and to be a very negative influence on the world and is one of the 
longest reigning dictatorships in the history of the world--certainly 
the modern history of the world--because of hostile acts by the Cuban 
Government against the United States and against the interests of the 
United States in Cuba, the Government of the United States felt it 
necessary to begin trade sanctions against the Cuban Government. These 
trade sanctions were designed as retaliation for the actions of the 
Cuban Government.
  Those actions included, among other hostile actions, the 
expropriation without adequate compensation of properties of citizens 
of the United States on the island of Cuba. They included the property 
of oil companies such as Texaco and Standard Oil and other interests of 
the United States that had large refineries in Cuba, that had oil 
exploration interests, and that also had, of course, retail outlets on 
the island.
  As a result of Cuba's action, the United States imposed the 
sanctions. The sanctions were designed to help the Cuban Government 
understand that it had to live by international law and by 
international standards, which were to pay just compensation, fair 
compensation, for the expropriated properties. Unfortunately, the Cuban 
Government chose not to do so, and to this day these claims of the 
nationals of the United States for the unfair, unlawful, and 
uncompensated expropriation by the Cuban Government continues 
unsettled. The Cuban Government has never taken steps to recognize 
allegations under international law or obligations under international 
law or obligations to a neighbor with whom it purports to want better 
and improved relations.
  So the United States began a policy of an embargo or trade sanctions 
against Cuba. It really wasn't an embargo, it was simply: We will not 
trade with Cuba. The Government of the United States will not trade 
with Cuba. That has been in effect even until today. It was done by 
Executive order for many years, but then many years ago, with the 
Helms-Burton Act, it was codified into legislation. It became part of 
the law of the land as a result of congressional action.
  That legislation also provided a path by which these sanctions could 
be ended. It provided a path by which more normal trade and other 
relations could be had, and they had to do with the issue of something 
simple, something this President has so eloquently spoken about: 
democracy, rule of law, elections--a quaint thought, that the people of 
a country ought to elect their leader. The thought that the people of a 
country would have an opportunity on a given day in life to go to a 
booth and in private exercise that universal right to vote, to say whom 
they want their leader to be--Cuba doesn't permit that.

  There might be a free press. Wouldn't that be a nice thing? People 
could speak their mind. Folks would have an opportunity to go into a 
public square and debate the issues of the day. Cubans are denied that. 
That is no longer an opportunity and continues not to be so.
  In addition to those problems, the actions of the Cuban Government 
over its history have been anything but benign. They have been quite 
hostile to the interests of the United States.
  This is to not go into all of the details of the actions of the Cuban 
Government toward its own people--human rights and its denial of the 
most basic human rights--but as we look to other issues such as the 
issues of actions in the world, Cuba has tried to export revolution, to 
foment and foster revolutions throughout the world. They were very 
active in Africa as a surrogate for the Soviet Union in Angola, working 
hostile to the interests of the United States. In addition to that, 
they proceeded to encourage and foster wars in Central America which 
caused countless thousands of deaths in the 1980s.
  Thanks to the determined and decided action of the United States, it 
was possible for these countries to live in peace and for these 
countries to have Democratic and normal elections.
  Fast forwarding to now, even as recently as a few days ago, the U.S. 
State Department continues to have Cuba on the list of States that are 
sponsors of terrorism. There are probably 180-some nation states in the 
United Nations. Of those, there are only a half dozen that are on the 
list of terrorist states around the world. Cuba is one of them.
  In addition to that, Cuba now is part of an axis, an axis that works 
in partnership with Hugo Chavez, the somewhat democratically elected 
President of Venezuela but someone who increasingly governs as an 
autocrat. This is someone who, in partnership with Fidel Castro, has 
encouraged and helped Evo Morales to be elected as President of 
Bolivia. What have these countries under the tutelage of Castro done? 
Morales, in the past few days, has shown or expressed his intentions to 
nationalize the gas industry, to nationalize the natural resources of 
his country, beginning with gas. Yet in Europe he made some very clear 
statements that he believed that for 500 years Europeans have pillaged 
his country and that all natural resources ought to belong to the 
people of Bolivia, and therefore more expropriations are sure to come 
of the natural resources as defined by Mr. Morales, President Morales, 
and they include natural gas, and he will move on to others.
  Yesterday as well, or the day before, the Congress in Venezuela said 
that they also believe they should be nationalizing all the natural 
resources of Venezuela. This includes, of course, the investment that 
the U.S. oil companies have had in Venezuela for a number of years.
  So what is the suggestion and answer that some would have to our 
dependence on foreign sources of oil, to our dependence on unstable 
foreign governments, to our dependence on foreign governments that are 
hostile to the United States? To enter into business with the country 
of Cuba in order to partner with them in oil exploration, a little less 
than 50 miles off the shores of Florida. Why is this not a good idea? 
Simply for the fact that to enter into a partnership with a government 
that does not observe the rule of law, to enter into a partnership and 
encourage American companies to invest in a country where we have very 
strained, if any, diplomatic relations, is not only not a good idea--to 
enter into a partnership for oil exploration with a country that has in 
the past expropriated American oil companies' properties in Cuba would 
be only to repeat a cycle of mistakes made in the past. It would be 
only to come back into the fold of a dictator who does not observe or 
understand the rule of law. To go into a business in a country that 
does not have a judicial system that is independent, to go into 
business with a country that does not recognize the fact that foreign 
investors have a right to their property when they purchase it, who 
will not honor the rule of law, will not honor private property rights? 
With this kind of country, it is suggested we go into a partnership in 
order for us to have sufficient energy, in order for us to be 
independent in our resources.
  These efforts are sadly misguided. What we must do is do things such 
as explore for oil--and I know the Presiding Officer, our President pro 
tempore, so passionately cares about this--

[[Page S4509]]

in the ANWR, an area that is totally under the control of the United 
States, that is part of the United States. We can also drill in the 
Gulf of Mexico, an area that is so sensitive to Floridians and where we 
have acquiesced to drilling in 2 to 3 million acres of the gulf.
  To conclude, I suggest the bill we have filed, which tries to reenact 
and speak to the Cuban embargo that has been in place for many years, 
with good reason. That embargo would be stringently enforced with those 
who seek to invest in partnership with this illegitimate government, a 
government that continues to be a threat to its neighbors, continues to 
be a hostile government to the United States.
  In September of this year, the President of Iran, Mahmud Ahmadi-
Nejad, is going to be visiting Castro in Cuba. This is a return visit 
for one that Fidel Castro paid to Iran a year or so ago. At that time, 
Castro said to the people in Iran: Working together and in partnership 
we will bring the United States to its knees. It is with this 
government that some would suggest we should enter into a partnership 
in order to solve our energy woes. I would say those efforts are 
misguided, and I look forward to further debate on my proposal which 
seeks to reassert the long-held position of the United States that 
trade with Cuba today would not be in the best interests of this 
country.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Isakson). The Senator from Hawaii is 
recognized.

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