[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 126 (Thursday, August 1, 2024)]
[Senate]
[Pages S5787-S5788]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




SENATE RESOLUTION 796--CALLING FOR ACCOUNTABILITY FOR GRAVE VIOLATIONS 
     OF INTERNATIONALLY RECOGNIZED HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA AND MALIGN 
 ACTIVITIES AGAINST THE UNITED STATES AND DEMOCRATIC COUNTRIES IN THE 
      WESTERN HEMISPHERE COMMITTED BY THE COMMUNIST REGIME IN CUBA

  Mr. RUBIO (for himself and Mr. Scott of Florida) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations:

                              S. Res. 796

       Whereas Freedom House's Freedom in the World 2024 Report 
     states, ``Cuba's one-party Communist state outlaws political 
     pluralism, bans independent media, suppresses dissent, and 
     severely restricts basic civil liberties.'';
       Whereas the Department of State's 2023 Country Reports on 
     Human Rights Practices, in addition to numerous international 
     human rights organizations, established that the Communist 
     regime in Cuba continues to violate the tenets of the 
     Covenant Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or 
     Degrading Treatment or Punishment, adopted at New York 
     December 10, 1984, to which Cuba is a signatory;
       Whereas the Cuban regime has imprisoned or continues to 
     harass thousands of Cuban citizens, including youths who 
     participated in the unprecedented July 11, 2021, 
     demonstrations on behalf of freedom for Cuba;
       Whereas the Department of State's annual Trafficking in 
     Persons Report continues to cite Cuba as a Tier 3 country due 
     to its failure to fully comply with the minimum standards 
     against human trafficking, and further designates Cuba as a 
     state sponsor of human trafficking;
       Whereas, in this regard, the Cuban regime sends medical 
     personnel overseas into servitude in Mexico and other 
     countries in which they are paid only 10 to 25 percent of 
     what the host nation compensates Cuba for their services and 
     denies them their fundamental rights;
       Whereas Cuba continues to a be source of regional 
     instability, as noted by a United Nations independent fact-
     finding mission report in 2022 that found Cuban personnel 
     were advising and instructing Venezuelan intelligence 
     agencies committing crimes against humanity in Venezuela;
       Whereas Cuban security assistance to Venezuelan narco-
     terrorist dictator Nicolas Maduro emboldens him to continue 
     to resist free and fair elections in Venezuela and has 
     resulted in thousands of Venezuelans fleeing the country and 
     contributing to overwhelming numbers of illegal United States 
     border crossings;
       Whereas the Cuban regime uses illegal immigration as a 
     weapon to overwhelm the United States border by profiting 
     from international smuggling, exporting dissent, infiltrating 
     spies, and fortifying a self-serving black market economy;
       Whereas the Cuban regime maintains mutually supportive 
     relationships with Iran, Syria, and North Korea, the three 
     other countries the United States has designated as state 
     sponsors of terrorism;
       Whereas Cuba harbors United States fugitives from justice 
     wanted on charges of political violence, including the 
     murders of United States law enforcement officers, including 
     fugitives who have resided in Cuba for decades and criminals 
     such as Joanne Chesimard, Guillermo Morales, Charlie Hill, 
     Victor Manuel Gerena, who are responsible for planning and 
     carrying out violent crimes against Americans;
       Whereas the Cuban regime maintains mutually supportive 
     relationships with groups the United States has designated as 
     foreign terrorist organizations, including Hamas, Hezbollah, 
     and Colombia's National Liberation Army;
       Whereas the Cuban regime also maintains mutually supportive 
     relationships with anti-American countries such as Iran, 
     Russia, and China;
       Whereas the Cuban regime has been one of the most active 
     defenders of Vladimir Putin's invasion of Ukraine, providing 
     diplomatic support and votes in international fora, serving 
     as an amplifier of Russian propaganda on a global scale, and 
     sending Cubans to fight on behalf of Putin;
       Whereas the Cuban regime has allowed Russian warships, 
     including a nuclear-powered submarine, to conduct military 
     exercises in the Caribbean, bringing the flotilla

[[Page S5788]]

     within 30 nautical miles from the United States' coast;
       Whereas the Wall Street Journal reported in June 2023 that 
     the Cuban regime has allowed China to establish an electronic 
     surveillance facility on the island, which ``would allow 
     Chinese intelligence services to scoop up electronic 
     communications throughout the Southeastern U.S., where many 
     military bases are located, and monitor U.S. ship traffic''; 
     and
       Whereas it has been the longstanding goal of United States 
     policy to bring about freedom, prosperity, and democracy to 
     the Cuban people: Now, therefore, be it
       Resolved, That the Senate--
       (1) opposes any revision of United States policy towards 
     Cuba as established in United States law until the Cuban 
     regime changes the above policies and its hostility towards 
     the United States;
       (2) believes that the promotion of democracy abroad is a 
     core foreign policy objective of the United States Congress;
       (3) believes that the spread of democracy globally 
     preserves the security of the United States and enhances our 
     Nation's prosperity;
       (4) calls on the United States Government to use every 
     diplomatic tool to persuade foreign governments and 
     international organizations to join its efforts and 
     coordinate activities to bring freedom and democracy to Cuba;
       (5) believes that the United States should work with allies 
     and like-minded democracies to seek Cuba's expulsion from the 
     United Nations Human Rights Council;
       (6) believes that, due to Cuba's mutually supportive 
     relationships with foreign terrorist organizations and state 
     sponsors of terrorism, the Secretary of State should maintain 
     Cuba on the Department of State's State Sponsors of Terrorism 
     list;
       (7) encourages the United States Trade Representative to 
     enter in consultations with the Government of Mexico and all 
     the other countries that engage in the trafficking of Cuban 
     doctors, not just in Mexico but in all other countries that 
     are in violation of the labor provisions of the United 
     States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA);
       (8) calls on the Department of State to submit biannual 
     reports to Congress on March 1st and September 1st of each 
     year on its efforts to bring freedom and democracy to Cuba 
     based on the principles outlined in this resolution; and
       (9) emphasizes the readiness of the people of the United 
     States to assist the Cuban people, who are emerging from a 
     decades-long authoritarian nightmare, to rebuild their lives 
     and country and to rejoin the community of free, peaceful, 
     and democratic nations.

                          ____________________