[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 158 (2012), Part 4]
[House]
[Page 5133]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                        SUMMITS OF THE AMERICAS

  (Mr. RIVERA asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. RIVERA. Mr. Speaker, this past weekend I attended the Summits of 
the Americas, where Western Hemisphere leaders were in attendance to 
discuss regional policy issues and challenges. Leftist regimes 
repeatedly criticized the United States for our strong opposition to 
communist Cuba participating in the summits.
  This summit is and should be reserved only for democratic nations, 
not totalitarian, dictatorial terrorist regimes like the Castro 
dictatorship. We should continue our commitment to the Cuban embargo 
and reiterate the importance of condemning a regime that refuses to 
grant its citizens the freedoms every human deserves: human rights, 
civil liberties, and free elections.
  The illicit drug operation in our hemisphere contributes to the 
problem of increasing violence and terrorism in the regime. Legalizing 
drugs is not the answer. Instead, we must bolster regional security and 
directly target drug gangs and violent narcotraffickers. America must 
stand strong against these efforts and in favor of democratic values.

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