[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 1]
[House]
[Page 510]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




          CONCESSIONS TO CUBA ARE JUST THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, as an 8-year-old child, I was forced 
to flee Havana, Cuba, with my family for the shores of the United 
States of America, this shining city on a hill and a beacon of hope and 
freedom to the world.
  The Cuban American Members of Congress are all united by our love of 
this great country and our love and respect for freedom, for democracy, 
and the rule of law because of where we come from and whom we 
represent. For us, these principles aren't concepts that we take for 
granted. We cherish them because we know the alternative.
  We need look no further than just 60 miles south of the United States 
to see the alternative, where the Castro regime has been entrenched for 
over 55 years and ruling the island with an iron fist.
  This is Berta Soler, one of the leaders of Las Damas de Blanco, the 
Ladies in White, a peaceful dissident group. Berta has been detained so 
many times, she says to me, that she has lost count. That is why we 
stand united in a bipartisan manner, in steadfast opposition to any 
attempts by the Obama administration to normalize relations with the 
Castro regime.
  President Obama's audacity of hubris has resulted in one exercise in 
folly after another, and engagement with Cuba is the height of that 
folly. What have we gotten in return? Let me turn to the next poster. 
This poster has a list of some of the many wanted criminals who have 
sought refuge and have gotten it in Castro's Cuba. We haven't gotten 
any reforms from this deal.
  We haven't gotten the return of these dozens of criminals that Castro 
has been harboring because they have fled from justice in America, like 
convicted New Jersey State trooper killer Joanne Chesimard. After this 
deal was announced, the Castro regime said: Oh, no, all of these 
people, we will give them asylum. The FBI has put her on the most 
wanted terrorist list; yet Castro says: We will give them asylum.
  What have the Cuban people received as a result of this 
administration's concessions? Well, 53 political prisoners supposedly 
were released, Mr. Speaker, like some of these activists, who were 
rounded up in a catch-and-release program of the Castro regime.
  The administration hails this list of 53 as a victory, ignoring the 
fact that hundreds of political and anti-regime activists like these 
were arrested and detained immediately before and after the 
announcement of the changes, and almost 2,000 people were arrested or 
detained last year alone. This infamous list of 53 that has been 
praised by this administration and the Castro regime is another ruse.
  Over a dozen individuals on that list were released prior to the 
December 17 announcement, including Carlos Andres Sanchez Perez. He was 
released over 1 year ago. Some were arrested even before June. Catch-
and-release is the new program, the new playbook of the Castro regime, 
and Obama deliberately has fallen for that ruse.
  Now, the regime will feel emboldened because the United States has 
just signed off on its mistreatment of its citizens, and President 
Obama has extended an economic lifeline to the regime that will allow 
it to continue this repression.
  Before there can be any discussion of changing our policy toward 
Cuba, Mr. Speaker, all political prisoners must be released, not this 
fake list of 53; fair and multiparty elections must be held; and the 
fundamental human rights of every Cuban must be respected.
  Mr. Speaker, I warn my colleagues to pay close attention to what the 
Obama administration is attempting to do in Cuba because this will 
track with its attempts at reconciliation with Iran, another rogue 
nation and state sponsor of terrorism. The administration's efforts in 
Cuba have been the test case for Iran, and the two have paralleled each 
other.
  While the administration was holding secret talks with the Castro 
regime, we know that he was penning secret letters to Iran's Supreme 
Leader Khamenei and conceding to Iran the right to enrich uranium.
  These concessions to Cuba are just the tip of the iceberg, and it 
will open the doors to similar measures in Iran where the Supreme 
Leader will see what is happening in Cuba and says: Hey, we can get 
away with that as well.
  Both have serious consequences for our national security as other 
nations see that we lack the courage of our convictions, and they will 
be willing to test us. In fact, Nicolas Maduro after the prisoner 
exchange said, ``We will exchange Leopoldo Lopez,'' a human rights 
activist whom Nicolas Maduro has imprisoned in Venezuela, for one of 
the criminals in prison here in the United States. They want to test 
us; they want to see what they can get for holding innocents in prison.
  Just look at the appeasements that this administration has made to 
Russia, to Iran, to North Korea. These rogue regimes will continue to 
act with impunity, and our allies have turned away from us because, 
instead of working with our allies, we have been appeasing our enemies.
  Mr. Speaker, in closing, I would like for this Congress to take a 
close look at that list of 53 prisoners and remember that even if that 
were a true list, which it is not, it is not about 53. It is about 
freedom for all political prisoners, some of whose names we will never 
know.

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