[Congressional Record Volume 172, Number 46 (Thursday, March 12, 2026)]
[Senate]
[Pages S1034-S1035]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
Cuba
Mr. WELCH. Mr. President, last Friday, President Trump was quoted
saying that Cuba ``is going to fall pretty soon . . . They want to make
a deal so badly . . . and we'll see how that works out.''
I agree that it is absolutely in the best interest of both countries
to negotiate an agreement--a ``deal'' as the President calls them--but
it needs to be a deal that puts the national interest of the United
States and the national interest of the people of Cuba first.
To do that, we urgently need to do what the Vatican has called for,
and that is a ``dialogue-based solution to the problems that exist''
between our two countries.
It has got to be a solution that stands the test of time, and it
should, at a minimum, include the following: One, President Trump can
end all restrictions on the right of Americans to freely travel to
Cuba. The American and Cuban people should be able to freely interact
with one another.
The President should offer maximum support for Cuba's private sector
by allowing direct foreign investment and development financing for
Cuba's struggling, but really essential, small businesses.
The President must remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of
terrorism. That designation has no legal basis. No other country agrees
that it applies.
And the President must call on Congress to repeal the failed United
States' embargo of Cuba so that Cuba's economic reconstruction can
begin.
And President Trump should lift his punitive blockade of Cuban oil
imports that has contributed to an unprecedented humanitarian crisis on
the island.
And what about Cuba's leaders? Cuba's leaders should abandon central
planning of the economy. It has been a disaster for the Cuban people,
as it has been in every other country where it has been tried.
They should take the necessary steps so American companies can
compete for contracts to invest in Cuba and help rebuild the country's
dilapidated infrastructure--but not like Cuba before the revolution,
when the island was run as a corrupt playground for the rich and famous
while average Cubans lived in squalor. Contracts must be transparent,
and investors must be accountable.
Cuba's leaders must release all political dissidents and accept the
right of the Cuban people to express themselves freely, without fear of
persecution.
And the United States' and Cuba's leaders should agree on a mechanism
for resolving property claims.
Cuba is a small, bankrupt country. It has neither the capacity nor
the intention to threaten the United States. And even before the Trump
administration cut off oil from Venezuela and started blocking oil
shipments to Cuba from other countries, electricity blackouts were
common. And, today, electricity is unavailable--unavailable--for
[[Page S1035]]
most hours of the day and across the entire island.
Just think of what that means for homes, for hospitals, for schools,
for factories, for farms, trash collection, and public transportation--
all of the essentials of daily life. It is absolutely catastrophic. How
does one produce, how does one transport, how does one refrigerate food
without fuel? How do you pump and transport water? How do you power
ambulances, operating rooms, incubators? You simply can't do it.
Faith-based organizations, Cuban entrepreneurs, and concerned
Americans are doing their part, but it is not nearly enough. Cuba's
economy is collapsing, and millions of people are suffering hunger,
disease, and despair. If this continues, thousands are likely to flee
the island, seeking refuge in the United States, just as they did in
1994.
For many years, people in Washington and Miami have blamed Cuba's
leaders for the country's problems. That is valid--to a point. The
Cuban authorities have clung to their revolutionary slogans, while
other countries with communist governments--and with the support, by
the way, of the international community, including the United States--
transitioned to a market economy and more open society.
Cuba's centralized economy, after years of absolute mismanagement,
dependence on foreign subsidies, and strangled by the U.S. embargo--
that economy is in total shambles. Housing and other infrastructure are
decrepit. The health system--something Cubans were proud of--is
collapsing due to the very severe shortages. Basic materials and
supplies are unavailable, except for those with connections to the
outside world.
To quell popular anger, Cuba's leaders always blame the United
States, and they harass and unjustly imprison those who speak out
against the one-party system. That is wrong, and that must stop.
But let's be candid. The United States is far from blameless. For
fully three-quarters of a century, during Republican and Democratic
administrations and with Congress, pressed by Cuban-Americans in
Florida, we have tried to overthrow the Cuban Government by armed
invasion, by assassination, by financing Cuban dissidents, and by
imposing a web of sanctions with extraterritorial reach that are more
punitive than what we inflict on even more brutal regimes.
You know, the oil blockade now under President Trump--which, if
circumstances were reversed, we would condemn as an illegal act of
war--is the latest tactic that is attempting to force Cuba's leaders to
capitulate to U.S. demands.
You know, much of this could have been avoided. After more than six
decades of a U.S. embargo that achieved none of its goals but did hurt
the Cuban people, President Obama did change course. Supported by my
predecessor Senator Leahy and others, President Obama did open travel
for Americans to Cuba, supported Cuba's emerging private sector--it was
working--and cooperation with Cuba on migration, public health,
maritime security, and many other areas--that cooperation increased.
During those 2 years, the lives of many Cubans actually did improve--
much more so than during decades of U.S. hostility and punitive
sanctions.
It was 10 years ago this month that our President then, President
Obama, made his historic trip to Havana and offered a new policy of
positive engagement to help Cuba modernize its economy and bring new
opportunities to the Cuban people. What the President then said:
I have come here to extend the hand of friendship to the
Cuban people.
``[T]o the Cuban people.''
That official good will was reversed in 2017 when the then-Trump
administration restored Cold War sanctions. The deal that the President
is now seeking seeks to force Cuba's capitulation with the oil
blockade, which is inflicting collective punishment on the Cuban
population and creating a humanitarian emergency.
By the way, there was no progress built on what President Obama began
during the Biden administration, so I don't want this to be seen as
just something about one President versus another. This has been
sustained policy by the United States over the course of almost 75
years, interrupted only during that moment after the historic trip by
President Obama to Havana.
Political and economic change in Cuba is absolutely long overdue.
That is not debatable. But the way to get there is not by causing more
hardship for the everyday Cuban family. Cuba is no threat to us today,
but a failed state 90 miles off our shores would be a threat to us
today.
Cuban leaders have had many opportunities to show they could govern
differently, and they did miss those opportunities. Today, countries
that came to Cuba's rescue in the past are no longer willing to do
that, leaving Cuba's leaders no choice but to negotiate with the United
States.
So one thing seems certain: Cuba's Government is going to have to
change its ways.
The Cuban people--90 percent of whom were born after the 1959
revolution--do want leaders who, rather than repeating tired slogans,
accept the need for fundamental changes in how to govern, with greater
participation of the people, greater transparency, greater freedom, and
real accountability.
On Monday, in response to a question about Cuba, President Trump
said:
It may be a friendly takeover, it may not be a friendly
takeover. Wouldn't really matter because they're really down
to . . . as they say, fumes. They have no energy, they have
no money.
Of course, the reason Cuba is ``down to . . . fumes'' is largely
because of the U.S. oil blockade. But despite that--let me be clear--no
American President, under any circumstances, friendly or unfriendly,
should threaten to take over another sovereign nation, whether Cuba,
Greenland, or anywhere else.
Rather than threats of a takeover, the United States should--should--
negotiate a solution with Cuba which above all else puts U.S. national
interests and, as I have said, the needs and aspirations of the Cuban
people first.
I urge the Trump administration and Cuba's leaders to take the steps
I have outlined to stop the suffering and repression in Cuba and
finally put an end to the decades of hostility between our two
countries. I believe they would receive overwhelming support from the
people of both countries as well as overwhelming support here in
Congress.
(The remarks of Mr. WELCH pertaining to the introduction of S. 4095
are printed in today's Record under ``Statements on Introduced Bills
and Joint Resolutions.'')
Mr. WELCH. I yield the floor.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Kentucky.