[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 65 (Monday, April 23, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2338-S2339]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
CUBA
Mr. MENENDEZ. Mr. President, today I wish to address Cuba's
undemocratic leadership transition and its implications for the Cuban
people and U.S. foreign policy.
Today, in a highly scripted process, Cuba's National Assembly
replaced Raul Castro, the country's gerontocratic dictator, with heir
apparent Miguel Diaz Canel. While this marks the first time in nearly
60 years that a Castro does not occupy the Cuban Presidency, this
transition by no means portends the desperately needed political and
economic change that Cubans desire, nor does it mean that the Castro
regime is no longer in charge.
This week's transition, characterized as a coronation and an attempt
to institutionalize the Castro regime, is a ruse. This spectacle does
not remotely come close to meeting internationally recognized standards
for a democratic election. Cuba remains a single party, authoritarian
state that denies its citizens their most fundamental freedoms.
Some contend that Mr. Diaz Canel could be a ``Cuban Mikhail
Gorbachev,'' and in seeking to reform the Castros' broken model, he
will stumble into the collapse of Cuba's communist system. Such
thinking fails to account for the fact that Mr. Diaz Canel's political
ascent was forged under the same Communist Party that has perpetuated
the Castros' decades-long stranglehold on Cuba.
More importantly, Raul Castro will maintain his position as the First
Secretary of the Cuban Communist Party. As article 5 of Cuba's
authoritarian constitution states, ``The Communist Party of Cuba [. .
.] is the superior ruling force of society and the State . . .'' Under
such a structure, does anyone honestly think that Raul Castro won't
continue calling the shots while his handpicked dauphin occupies the
role of President?
As this political farce unfolds, I want to make brief observations
about three aspects of Raul Castro's legacy, the state of human rights
in the country, the state of the Cuban economy, and the crisis in
Venezuela, which Miguel Diaz Canel now owns.
Raul Castro will certainly leave an enduring human rights legacy. In
the last 3 years, the Cuban Commission on Human Rights and National
Reconciliation, Cuba's leading independent human rights organization,
documented more than 20,000 arbitrary detentions of activists.
Moreover, the State Department's 2016 Human Rights Report on Cuba
stated that the Cuban Government routinely denies its citizens fair
trials, monitors and censors private communications, suppresses
freedoms of speech, assembly and press, and employs threats, physical
assault and intimidation tactics against its own people.
Raul Castro's economic legacy will be the maintenance of the dual
currency system that distorts the national economy and subjugates Cuban
citizens to second-class status in their own country. Foreign companies
seeking opportunities in Cuba are still forced to conduct business with
the military and its vast network of shell companies. ``Independent
entrepreneurs'' are a complete misnomer, as individuals continue to
operate in a byzantine system that prevents them from owning their own
companies and subjects them to licensing and tax requirements designed
to stifle entrepreneurial activity.
Additionally, as well-connected members of the Cuban Communist
[[Page S2339]]
Party and the military use their positions for self-enrichment, average
Cubans face a status quo of limited economic opportunities. As the gap
between the ``haves'' and the ``have nots'' grows in Cuba, it appears
that the Castros' Orwellian dystopia is a system in which all Cubans
are equal, but some Cubans are more equal than others.
Finally, looking outward, at the Summit of the Americas last week,
where leaders of the Western Hemisphere grappled with an unprecedented
migration and humanitarian crisis, Raul Castro may have been absent,
but the legacy of ruin in Venezuela was front and center. In a July
2017 Senate hearing, Organization of American States Secretary General
Luis Almagro described Cuba's presence in Venezuela as an ``occupation
army.'' While Nicolas Maduro clings to his failed ideological,
military, and economic alliance with the Castro regime, Venezuelans are
suffering from food shortages, a collapsed healthcare system, and
rampant crime.
This brutal reality is the Castros' legacy for the Cuban people and
the hemisphere. In his role as First Vice President since 2013, Mr.
Diaz Canel has been Raul Castro's first accomplice. So while Cubans
will never stop dreaming for a future in which they are guaranteed
human rights and are truly free to pursue economic prosperity, they
know that Mr. Diaz Canel represents little more than a continuation of
the Castro regime.
Turning to U.S. foreign policy, to those who would argue Cuba is
ready to be a member of the community of nations, let me point to the
attacks against American diplomats in Havana. U.S. personnel have faced
an unprecedented ordeal. More than 50 unexplained attacks have affected
more than two dozen American citizens, with some cases involving
lasting, physical brain damage. Let anyone who harbors doubts about
these incidents refer to the Trudeau government's announcement this
week regarding incidents affecting Canadian officials and changes to
Canada's diplomatic presence in Cuba. These attacks are real. People
are suffering.
Cuban officials attempting to dismiss these egregious attacks is yet
another sign of the disingenuous nature of the dictatorship. Whether
the attacks were perpetrated by Cuban intelligence services or involve
the participation of another country's intelligence services, it is
unfathomable that a government that prides itself on running a police
state would even try to feign ignorance about these incidents. I refuse
to accept the premise that members of the Castro regime are not in some
way complicit or have no information about who is responsible. The
State Department must continue its investigation of these attacks.
The Trump administration must also move beyond Presidential promises
towards a substantive strategy that pressures the regime to undertake
serious reforms to advance democratic values and human rights and end
its support of failed leadership in Venezuela.
First, the United States must remain steadfast in supporting
democratic activists in Cuba. While President Trump claims to support
those fearlessly advocating for their rights, his budget proposals tell
a different story. Alarmingly, his fiscal year 2018 request to Congress
proposed zero dollars for democracy programs in Cuba, while his fiscal
year 2019 budget only requested $10 million. In contrast to his
statements, this amounts to rejecting support for the Cuban people and
our interests.
Additionally, as the U.S. Government hones new tools to advance
accountability for human rights violations, we should utilize targeted
global Magnitsky sanctions to put a spotlight on the Cuban officials
responsible for these abuses.
Second, although senior administration officials have been critical
of business deals with the Cuban military that enrich the Castro regime
in the process, the regulations the administration introduced in
November 2017 fail to address key elements of commerce that benefit
Cuba's dictatorship. In the coming weeks, I will launch a congressional
review of Treasury and Commerce regulations in order to end unnecessary
loopholes that benefit the regime.
Finally, as leaders from the Americas and Europe come together to
address the multifaceted crisis in Venezuela, they must seriously
confront Cuba's role in Venezuela's collapse. To date, efforts to
coordinate increased international pressure on the Venezuelan
Government have given the Castro regime a free pass. There was
widespread support in the hemisphere for Peru's decision to not invite
Nicolas Maduro to the Summit of the Americas due to the authoritarian
nature of his government; yet no one, including the Trump
administration, held Cuba's dictatorship to the same standard. It is
time for the administration to reverse this trend and call for a
coordinated diplomatic response to Cuba's longstanding role in
Venezuela's emergence as a failed state.
In closing, I urge my colleagues join me in speaking out against the
undemocratic political spectacle in Cuba this week. We must join
together to pursue a comprehensive policy towards Cuba that pressures
regime officials to loosen their stranglehold on Cuba's economy and
political system and that advances the true democratic and justice
reforms the Cuban people so desperately desire.
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