[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 5 (Monday, January 12, 2015)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E52-E53]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                      SUPPORT FOR THE CUBAN PEOPLE

                                 ______
                                 

                       HON. CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH

                             of new jersey

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, January 12, 2015

  Mr. SMITH of New Jersey. Mr. Speaker, I rise to voice my strong 
support for the Cuban people, who have suffered for so many decades 
under the brutal regime of the Castro brothers, and to thank my 
colleague, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, for her leadership in calling for 
statements on the record on the deplorable human rights situation in 
Castro's Cuba.
  Her leadership and moral clarity on this issue stands in contrast to 
that of the Obama Administration, which once again has demonstrated its 
fecklessness. The events of this past weekend--where the absence of our 
President among so many bold Heads of State who marched in Paris for 
freedom and against extremism was so glaring--underscores how this 
Administration scorns our friends while coddling this country's 
enemies. The disregard this Administration showed for the people of 
France is part of a pattern, a pattern of contempt which includes 
disrespect to our great ally Canada and Prime Minister Harper over the 
crucial Keystone pipeline, which includes allowing Administration 
spokesmen to insult Israel's courageous Prime Minister, Benjamin 
Netanyahu in the most juvenile fashion, and which includes abandonment 
of our Polish and Czech allies when they sought to base a missile 
shield in their countries in 2009.
  By this move to normalize relations with Cuba without consultation 
with either Congress or the State Department, and without holding the 
Castro regime to minimum standards of protection of human rights and 
commitment to democracy as prerequisites to negotiations, the 
Administration betrays the aspirations of the Cuban people while 
embracing the brutal dictators and oligarchs who turned an island 
paradise into a gulag.
  Again, there is a pattern here, a pattern of embracing our enemies, 
be it Hugo Chavez in Venezuela, the mullahs of Iran, or the Muslim 
Brotherhood in Egypt, whose rise this Administration helped facilitate. 
And with each embrace of dictatorships and murderous regimes, the 
Administration showed its contempt for the downtrodden of these 
countries--the masses of people in Venezuela who suffered first under 
the dictator Chavez and now suffer under his understudy in oppression, 
Nicolas Maduro, who continues to persecute democracy advocates such as 
Leopoldo Lopez.
  This Administration was also silent when the Muslim Brotherhood Morsi 
regime oppressed the Coptic minority in Egypt, and it lifted no fingers 
to support the people of Iran during their peaceful Green Revolution 
protests in the wake of the 2009 election in that country, which were 
met with batons and pepper spray.
  And now the President embraces the Castro brothers, who were tutors 
to Hugo Chavez in the ways of oppression and whose support of so-called 
revolutionary movements has brought so much suffering to countries in 
Latin America and around the world. Let's be clear about this: Cuba has 
been a state sponsor of terrorism, supporting violence against allies 
of the United States such as Colombia.

[[Page E53]]

  I have been a consistent supporter of the Cuban people in resisting 
tyranny. I am fortunate to have known many great Cuban dissidents, 
first and foremost Armando Valladares, whose autobiography Against All 
Hope was a first-hand account of Castro's tyranny, on par with the 
great work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. I have also stood with the Ladies 
in White, or Las Damas de Blanco, and courageous leaders such as Ivonne 
Malleza Galano, and with heroes such as Dr. Oscar Biscet, a medical 
doctor and courageous human rights advocate who testified before our 
human rights subcommittee in February 2012 on ``Further Human Rights 
Violations in Castro's Cuba: The Continued Abuse of Political 
Prisoners.''
  Dr. Biscet's story is far too commonplace to ignore. For the QUOTE 
UNQUOTE ``crime'' of organizing meetings on behalf of human rights, Dr. 
Biscet was first arrested and detained by Cuban police in 1999 along 
with two dozen other advocates. He was released after 5 days, but was 
rearrested again later that year, this time spending three years in 
prison. After he got out, he was rearrested a third time in December 
2002, beaten and released. Presumably, the Castro regime saw his 
beating as sufficient warning not to speak out in defense of liberty 
and human dignity. When he continued to do so, however, the Castro 
regime arrested him a fourth time, in March 2003, and sentenced him to 
25 years in prison.
  Fortunately, the Catholic Church intervened to secure his release and 
that of 50 other unjustly-jailed dissidents in March 2011. He was able 
to testify via phone at our hearing from Cuba from the US mission. To 
this day he is unable to leave the Island, prevented by the Castro 
Brothers.
  Dr. Biscet is just one example of the many who suffer under the 
Castro Brothers. I join my voice with those of my colleagues to express 
my dismay that the Administration would squander so much leverage in 
seeking this rapprochement with Cuba, and not doing more to gain 
concessions from the Castro regime to advance the cause of human 
rights, offering so much in exchange for so little.
  Despite today's news confirming that Cuba released 53 dissidents, 
which we welcome, since the Administration announced that it would seek 
normalization of relations with Cuba, hundreds have been arrested, and 
critics of the government who thought this might signal a new openness 
continue to be suppressed. This includes Cuban artist Tania Bruguera, 
who along with other freedom advocates was detained following her 
attempt to speak and assembly freely in Havana's Revolutionary Square.
  There should be no easing of the pressure until Cuba has met 
definitive and concrete human rights and democratic milestones. Among 
this is the release of all political prisoners, the end of harassment 
and a policy of releasing and then re-jailing, the ending of 
restrictions on freedom of speech and the press, and on the rights of 
Assembly. Moreover, the Church must be allowed to conduct its affairs 
fully and freely without government interference.
  And, finally, the Castro regime must be held to account for their 
harboring of some seventy fugitives from justice, including Joanne 
Chesimard, who was convicted of killing a state trooper from my home 
state of New Jersey in 1973, Werner Foerster, leaving his then-young 
wife a widow. The events of the past several weeks remind us how 
political violence done in the name of ideology destroys lives and 
creates deep divisions in the fabric of our society. That this 
Administration would fail to condition normalization upon the return of 
fugitives such as Joanne Chesimard, who is on the FBI's Most Wanted 
Terrorist list, shows where its priorities are.
  In closing, I want to assure the Cuban people that I will do 
everything to make sure that human rights milestones are met before our 
government makes concessions that are effectively unilateral, 
squandering leverage. Mind you, this lifeline thrown by the Obama 
Administration to the Castro regime came at a time when Cuba's oil 
patrons, Russia and Venezuela, were themselves hurting for cash, and 
unable to continue subsidizing the regime in Cuba.
  To that end, I plan to hold a hearing on the human rights situation 
in Cuba, focusing in particular on the plight of Afro-Cubans. I also 
intend to seek a visa to go to Cuba, so I can meet with political 
prisoners languishing in jail and visit churches, which are spheres 
independent of government control. I have on multiple occasions sought 
a visa, only to never have one granted. I say to the Cuban regime--if 
today marks a new day of openness, then prove it, and let one of your 
most consistent critics visit Cuba and have freedom of movement to meet 
with victims of the regime. And, finally, I will introduce legislation 
to make sure that human rights are not forgotten.

                          ____________________