[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 162 (2016), Part 1]
[House]
[Pages 396-397]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                                  CUBA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Florida (Ms. Ros-Lehtinen) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, as we get further away from December 
17, 2014, the date that President Obama announced his change in U.S. 
policy toward Cuba, it has become apparent that there could be no 
abusive or provocative act committed by the tyrannical Castro regime 
that the Obama administration is not willing to overlook or willing to 
excuse.
  Even after the Cuban regime was caught red-handed shipping surface-
to-air missiles, two MiG aircraft, and tons of Cuban-made weapons and 
munitions to North Korea in violation of several U.N. Security Council 
resolutions, it could not stop President Obama's desire to placate the 
Castros.
  This and the most recent revelation that the United States Government 
found out in June of 2014 that Cuba managed to come into possession of 
a U.S. Hellfire missile and continues, to this day, to turn over that 
sensitive military technology are not isolated events. Both incidents 
underscore exactly how egregiously the administration has erred and the 
extraordinary lengths to which the President will go in order to hide 
these transgressions from Congress and from the American people.

                              {time}  1015

  You see, Mr. Speaker, after the President made his December 17, 2014, 
announcement, it has been revealed that not only did the administration 
keep Congress uninformed of the negotiations, but the negotiations had 
been taking place for over a year and a half.
  If we follow the timeline, that means that these secret negotiations 
were taking place after the administration was already made aware that 
the Castros were in possession of a U.S. Hellfire missile and after 
Havana sent the illicit shipment of arms to Pyongyang.
  Even after the administration offered concession after concession to 
the Castros--the loosening of restrictions on travel, the opening of 
Embassies--the list goes on and on--the President refused to make the 
returning of sensitive missile technology a precondition to the 
negotiations or to the implementation of this misguided policy.

[[Page 397]]

  Let's stop and think about this for a second, Mr. Speaker.
  The President has given the Castro regime almost everything it could 
have asked for. What did we ask for in return? Did we demand free and 
fair elections? Of course not. Did we demand the end of the persecution 
of dissidents and the release of political prisoners? You have got to 
be kidding. Of course not. Did we demand the regime stop the long list 
of human rights abuses? No.
  In fact, just this past Sunday, over 200 people were arrested in Cuba 
because they were calling for religious tolerance. But never mind that. 
Let's look at the cool, classic Chevys that are all through the streets 
of Havana. That is what we are supposed to be talking about.
  The President didn't even demand that the Communist regime, with 
known and close military ties to Russia, China, and North Korea, turn 
over to the U.S. the Hellfire missile it had been in possession of 
since June of 2014.
  I don't need to remind my colleagues of how incredibly dangerous it 
is for the Castros to be in possession of this sensitive military 
technology or how incredibly damaging it could be to our own national 
security interests when, not if, the regime turns that technology over 
to one of our adversaries.
  Last year both the Russian Minister of Defense and China's top 
military official visited Havana to discuss ways to strengthen their 
military cooperation efforts with Cuba, and a senior Castro regime 
official traveled to North Korea for military talks.
  Mr. Speaker, not only has the President's Cuban policy been a 
disaster for the people of Cuba, it has been a disaster for our own 
safety and security. There should be--there must be--a full and 
thorough investigation into this Hellfire missile incident. If this 
administration won't do what is necessary to hold the Cuban regime 
accountable, then we in Congress must use every available tool in order 
to do so.
  We cannot allow the administration's endless train of concessions to 
the tyrannical Cuban regime to continue while it turns its back on 
those who are suffering under the regime's oppression. This is not what 
America stands for, and we should not allow President Obama's misguided 
foreign policy objectives to ever change that.

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