<DOC>
[108th Congress House Hearings]
[From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access]
[DOCID: f:96090.wais]
LIVING IN FEAR: THE CONTINUED HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN CASTRO'S CUBA
=======================================================================
HEARING
before the
SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND WELLNESS
of the
COMMITTEE ON
GOVERNMENT REFORM
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
JUNE 16, 2004
__________
Serial No. 108-202
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/congress/house
http://www.house.gov/reform
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_________________________________________________________________
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COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM
TOM DAVIS, Virginia, Chairman
DAN BURTON, Indiana HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut TOM LANTOS, California
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida MAJOR R. OWENS, New York
JOHN M. McHUGH, New York EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York
JOHN L. MICA, Florida PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania
MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York
STEVEN C. LaTOURETTE, Ohio ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
DOUG OSE, California DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio
RON LEWIS, Kentucky DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois
JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts
TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri
CHRIS CANNON, Utah DIANE E. WATSON, California
ADAM H. PUTNAM, Florida STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts
EDWARD L. SCHROCK, Virginia CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland
JOHN J. DUNCAN, Jr., Tennessee LINDA T. SANCHEZ, California
NATHAN DEAL, Georgia C.A. ``DUTCH'' RUPPERSBERGER,
CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan Maryland
TIM MURPHY, Pennsylvania ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of
MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio Columbia
JOHN R. CARTER, Texas JIM COOPER, Tennessee
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee BETTY McCOLLUM, Minnesota
PATRICK J. TIBERI, Ohio ------
KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
(Independent)
Melissa Wojciak, Staff Director
David Marin, Deputy Staff Director/Communications Director
Rob Borden, Parliamentarian
Teresa Austin, Chief Clerk
Phil Barnet, Minority Chief of Staff/Chief Counsel
Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness
DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman
CHRIS CANNON, Utah DIANE E. WATSON, California
CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont
ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida (Independent)
ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland
Ex Officio
TOM DAVIS, Virginia HENRY A. WAXMAN, California
Mark Walker, Chief of Staff
Mindi Walker, Professional Staff Member
Danielle Perraut, Clerk
Richard Butcher, Minority Professional Staff Member
C O N T E N T S
----------
Page
Hearing held on June 16, 2004.................................... 1
Statement of:
Kozak, Michael, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau
of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of
State; Deputy Assistant Secretary Dan Fisk, Department of
State; David Mutchler, Senior Advisor on Cuba, U.S. Agency
for International Development.............................. 19
Suchlicki, Jamie, director, Cuban Transition Project,
University of Miami; Omar Lopez Montenegro, executive
director, Cuban American National Foundation; Eric Olson,
advocacy director, Americas, Amnesty International; and
Miguel Reyes, stepson of Raul Rivero, a poet imprisoned in
the March 2003 dissident crackdown......................... 51
Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:
Burton, Hon. Dan, a Representative in Congress from the State
of Indiana, prepared statement of.......................... 5
Franco, Adolfo A., Assitant Administrator for Latin America
and Caribbean, U.S. Agency for International Development,
prepared statement of...................................... 41
Kozak, Michael, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau
of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of
State, prepared statement of............................... 24
Montenegro, Omar Lopez, executive director, Cuban American
National Foundation, prepared statement of................. 64
Olson, Eric, advocacy director, Americas, Amnesty
International, prepared statement of....................... 69
Ros-Lehtinen, Hon. Ileana, a Representative in Congress from
the State of Florida, information concerning Foundation for
Human Rights in Cuba....................................... 13
Suchlicki, Jamie, director, Cuban Transition Project,
University of Miami, prepared statement of................. 54
LIVING IN FEAR: THE CONTINUED HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES IN CASTRO'S CUBA
----------
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 2004
House of Representatives,
Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness,
Committee on Government Reform,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:07 a.m., in
room 2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Dan Burton
(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding.
Present: Representatives: Burton, Ros-Lehtinen, Cummings
and Watson.
Staff present: Mark Walker, chief of staff; Mindi Walker,
Brian Fauls, and Dan Getz, professional staff members; Nick
Mutton, press secretary; Danielle Perraut, clerk; Richard
Butcher, minority professional staff member; and Cecelia
Morton, minority office manager.
Mr. Burton. Good morning. A quorum being present, the
Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness will come to order.
I ask unanimous consent that all Members' and witnesses'
opening statements be included in the record. Without
objection, so ordered.
I ask unanimous consent that all articles, exhibits and
extraneous or tabular material referred to be included in the
record and without objection, so ordered.
In the event of other Members of Congress joining us at
today's hearing who are not members of the committee, I ask
unanimous consent that they be permitted to serve as a member
of the subcommittee for the day. Without objection, so ordered.
The subcommittee is convening today to examine the
atrocious human rights violations Cubans continue to suffer at
the hands of the oppressive, totalitarian, communist regime led
by Fidel Castro. We are also going to discuss what the proper
current U.S. response should be in further supporting peace
advocates and promoting the development of democracy in the
island nation of Cuba.
An individual's freedom should be his or her most basic
human right. Throughout Castro's 45 years of tyrannical regime,
he has continuously arrested and detained people who speak
openly about their different governmental views. Even under the
most repressive of conditions, many Cubans who live under
Castro's iron fist consistently demonstrate their resilience
and continue to fight against the numerous injustices they are
forced to endure.
Since Castro assumed control of Cuba on January 1, 1959,
fundamental human rights and basic living conditions have
deteriorated continuously and tremendously. Most Cuban people
live every day in fear of their government, thousands of whom
risk their lives every year to flee the communist regime by any
means necessary, even attempting to brave the hazardous 90-mile
crossing between the United States and Cuba on makeshift rafts.
Recent events in Cuba have further opened the eyes of the world
community to the true evil nature of the Castro regime. Over
the past 2 years, Fidel Castro has created a constitutional
amendment permanently making socialism the official form of
state government as well as posturing himself to remain in
power until he is forcibly removed or deceased.
In addition to these totalitarian mandates, he staged the
most sweeping crackdown on peaceful advocates for change in the
history of Cuba. On March 18, 2003, Fidel Castro ordered the
arrest of many writers, poets, librarians and pro-democracy
advocates in a large scale operation to stifle any movement
against his regime. Subsequently, some of the targeted
individuals were released but 75 remain in jail to be tried for
their ``crimes'' against the country, citing Article 91 of
Cuba's penal code that states, ``Anyone who in the interest of
a foreign state commits an act with the objective of damaging
the independence or territorial integrity of the State of
Cuba.'' The Cuban Government accused dissidents of engaging in
activities that could be perceived as damaging to Cuba's
internal order and/or perceived as encouraging the U.S.'
embargo against their country.
Since then, the United States, along with many freedom
loving nations and international governing bodies, has taken
action in response to the harsh imprisonments of political
dissidents in Cuba. The United States has imposed both stricter
sanctions against Cuba as well as encouraged other world
communities to place further resolutions and sanctions on Cuba.
On April 15, 2004, the United Nations Human Rights
Commission convened and voted on the U.S.-backed resolution
stating that Cuba ``should refrain from adopting measures which
could jeopardize the fundamental rights'' of its citizens.
Other international governing bodies such as the European Union
have taken action against Cuba in light of the unjust March
2003 mass incarceration.
Last year, the European Union's member states imposed stern
measures against Cuba including suspending high level
diplomatic visits, reviewing the value of cultural and other
exchanges and inviting dissident activists to diplomatic events
as a clear call to Fidel Castro to end the dissidents'
imprisonment. The actions of the Cuban Government by way of
Fidel Castro's orders are an affront to Articles 9 and 19 of
the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights which
declared that, ``Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion
and expression'' and that ``no one shall be subjected to
arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.'' It is particularly
interesting that before Fidel Castro, Cuba was a signatory in
the adoption of this declaration in 1948.
The list of Cuban detainees published by Amnesty
International in their Essential Measures Brief of 2003
revealed some striking information. Among the detained are 23
people over the age of 50 as well as 5 others who are more than
60 years of age. I wonder what dissenting activities they were
engaging in that would earn them a collective 1,242 years in
prison. These peaceful, pro-democracy advocates who Mr. Castro
likes to call dissidents or ``enemies of the revolution'' were
convicted for activities such as attending an assembly to
promote civil society, possessing membership in the Committee
on Cuban Human Rights or publishing documents to be
disseminated abroad that represent a clear means of
implementing the measures established in Article 4 of the
Libertad Act also known as the Helms-Burton Act, which would
increase the U.S.' sanctions and blockades against Cuba.
I believe that although Cuba's transition from the Castro
regime to a democratic society with a free economy and basic
human rights will be a challenging process, it is an attainable
endeavor and it is inevitable that it will happen. We can
improve human rights and freedom within Cuba by fostering
dramatic reform of the Cuban peoples' values. The U.S.
Government, along with non-governmental organizations, has been
working toward a free and democratic Cuba. In October 2003,
President George Bush announced the creation of the Commission
for Assistance to a Free Cuba. After several months of
meetings, the Commission published their initial findings.
The report published in May 2004 gives a six fold strategy
for Cuba's liberation and development including the empowerment
of Cuban civil society, the denial of resources to the Cuban
dictatorship and the encouragement of international diplomatic
efforts to support Cuban civil society and challenge Castro's
regime. To better address these issues, the subcommittee has
the pleasure of receiving testimony from the Honorable Michael
Kozak, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau or
Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, Department of State, to
further discuss the new U.S. policy on Cuba. Ambassador Kozak
has had the opportunity to live in Cuba and as such, is able to
provide us with a personal account of the current state of
affairs there.
In addition, the subcommittee will hear from the Honorable
David Mutchler, Senior Advisor on Cuba, United States Agency
for International Development. He will discuss the current
Federal Government interaction and monitoring of human rights
violations in Cuba.
NGO's have played an instrumental role in gathering
information that has been useful in learning more about this
closed country's human rights violations. To give further
details on these most important issues, the subcommittee will
also receive testimony from Eric Olson, advocacy director for
the Americas with Amnesty International and Omar Lopez
Montenegro from the Cuban American National Foundation, who
have been great friends for a long time. These gentlemen will
shed new light upon and explain in greater detail the severity
and specifics of human rights violations in present day Cuba.
Because Cuba is one of the last remaining totalitarian
communist regimes in modern day society, many academics have
researched the current human rights situation and itemized
methods by which democracy can be obtained within Cuba. At the
forefront of this endeavor is the Cuba Transition Project at
the University of Miami. Today, the subcommittee also has the
honor of hearing from Jamie Suchlicki, the director of this
program. Mr. Suchlicki will speak on the implications and
strategies involved in ushering in a representative Government
for Cuba.
In 2003, the United Nations Educational Scientific and
Cultural Organization awarded Raul Rivero, a journalist and
poet imprisoned in the crackdown the coveted Guillermo Cano
World Press Freedom Prize after his arrest. The subcommittee
has the pleasure of receiving testimony from Mr. Rivero's
stepson, Miguel Reyes, who will give us his personal
perspective on the impact the dissident imprisonment had on
Cuba nationals and their families.
I want to thank all of you for being here today and coming
to speak on these ever important human rights issues. In
addition, I look forward to hearing about the Bush
administration's efforts to help Cubans free themselves from
the shackles of Castro's brutal regime so they may finally take
their rightful place as a bastion of liberty and democracy in
our hemisphere.
We have had these hearings for a long, long time and I hope
and pray and believe that I will live long enough to have a
Margarita with some of my friends in a free Cuba.
With that, we will now recognize my good friend and a great
patriot, Ms. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
[The prepared statement of Hon. Dan Burton follows:]
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Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. I will drink to that. Thank you, Chairman
Burton.
Thank you for holding this hearing. I would like to express
my heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering commitment to the
people of Cuba. We thank you.
We have come here today once again as we have throughout
the years to shine the light of truth on the atrocious human
rights record in Cuba. Chairman Burton has been a true leader
and advocate for advancing human rights in Cuba for the many
years he has been in Congress. I am so proud to be a member of
his committee each and every time he does this.
I look forward to hearing from our guests who have labored
over the issue of how to deal with Castro's atrocious actions
and how freedom-loving nations should respond to those actions
and how to help the Cuban people because I think the U.S.-Cuba
policy always has that as its primary goal, how to help the
Cuban people in spite of the propaganda and the lies that
Castro puts out.
I would like to thank my good friend, Jamie Suchlicki, for
his dedication as the director of the Cuba Transition Project
and I would also like to express my thanks to Ambassador
Michael Kozak who has been a good friend for many, many years;
David Mutchler of U.S. AID, who is always very helpful in
making sure that good organizations which can help the Cuban
people receive the necessary aid; and I appreciate the work of
Dan Fisk from the State Department who has been the leader in
making sure we can put forth regulations that hurt the Castro
regime and help the Cuban people. He has always had that as his
goal and we thank him so much for his leadership.
I am so pleased, Mr. Chairman, that you have also invited
Omar Lopez Montenegro of the Foundation for Human Rights in
Cuba and Miguel Reyes who is the stepson of Raul Rivero, a poet
imprisoned in the crackdown of March 2003. Raul Rivero was just
a writer, had no political tie-ins whatsoever other than
speaking on behalf of freedom, human rights, and for that he
has gone to jail. Let us see when he will be released and we
hope it is soon.
Omar, who heads this wonderful organization called
Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba, put out these pamphlets.
This one shows Dr. Elias Biscet who is still languishing in
jail in very difficult conditions. It says he shouts, ``Long
live human rights,'' before he is forcefully led away in a
police car, and below, agents of the National Revolutionary
Police kick a demonstrator during the popular revolt of August
1994. Another publication of his has Hortensia Graceful,
displays a picture of her son, a political prisoner, Graspo,
and below are members of the Rapid Response Brigades armed with
sticks and steel bars ready to repress peaceful demonstrators
against the regime. The sign on the wall reads, ``Here you can
see socialism.'' Well, you sure can. Another publication is
Cuba, Enemy of the Press and it quotes Cuba world press freedom
index from Reporters Without Borders and it says, ``Cuba second
from last, just ahead of North Korea, is today the world's
largest prison for journalists.''
So, we have brave men and women all across Cuba who have
endured appalling human rights abuses throughout Castro's
repression. Even as we meet here today as we have pointed out,
courageous advocates suffer in jail for speaking their minds
and advocating for freedom and liberty. Brave Cubans such as
Marta Beatriz Roque, an independent economist, a leading pro-
democracy advocate enduring a harsh prison sentence of 20 years
and Marta Beatriz had previously spent 3 years for publishing--
along with three other colleagues--a paper calling for
democratic reforms. That is a crime in Cuba. The list of names
is so long as the daunting reality of what the dictatorship has
done sinks into our consciousness. Every day more and more
opposition leaders are sentenced to jail, languishing in these
terrible conditions. The conditions are bad in Cuba, conditions
outside the jail are bad and you can imagine what it is like
for a political prisoner inside a Cuban gulag. They are
subjected to the most inhumane and degrading treatment. Their
bodies are weak, they are rapidly deteriorating but their
courage, their spirit, their commitment to free Cuba from its
enslavement is stronger than ever.
The purpose of your hearing today, Mr. Burton, is to
address their plight, to find ways to empower and support
forces in order to precipitate a transition to a free
democratic rule in Cuba. As we all know, last October President
Bush inaugurated the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba
and this Commission has dealt head on with the difficult
problems engendered by a terrorist regime that has cowardly
plundered the island of Cuba of its most valuable asset,
freedom.
This Congress plays a pivotal role in supporting such
efforts. Critical among congressional tools is the one co-
authored by our chairman, the Libertad Act, the Helms-Burton
Act, a bill that allows our Government to address the lingering
pain of the Cuban people. We must ensure that all provisions of
the Libertad Act are fully enforced to bring about the end of
the Castro tyranny and the beginning of liberty, libertad for
the Cuban people, because indifference breeds evil,
indifference is the enemy of freedom, indifference helps cloak
the deplorable actions of tyrants and we should not be
indifferent to the plight of our fellow Cuban brothers and
sisters and we should seriously take a look at what our
Government can and should do to promote freedom in Cuba.
For that, we thank President Bush for his leadership and
the regulations that he has put forth that are going to ensure
that the money Castro needs to stay afloat will not get to him
as readily as it has in the past. We are going to continue to
work here in Congress on behalf of not only Cubans who suffer
at the hands of a cowardly dictator but for all people who are
prosecuted for their beliefs and faith in the wonders of
liberty.
We want to thank the chairman for this hearing. I also want
to congratulate Eric Olson for Amnesty International. I always
like to point out that my daughter, Amanda, was the chapter
president of her school of Amnesty International. So I get
lobbied right at home on behalf of human rights.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for this hearing.
[The information referred to follows:]
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Mr. Burton. Thank you, Ileana.
With the war going on in Iraq and the world war against
terrorism, there hasn't been a lot of media focus on Cuba and
the human rights atrocities that take place down there but I
can assure you that there are a lot of Members in Congress who
will continue to focus attention on this until we get some
positive change down there.
Our first panel consists of the Honorable Michael Kozak,
Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy,
Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State and Dan Fisk,
Deputy Assitant Secretary for the Department of State. We also
have the Honorable David Mutchler, Senior Advisor on Cuba, U.S.
Agency for International Development.
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Burton. Let us start with Principal Deputy Assistant
Secretary Kozak.
STATEMENTS OF MICHAEL KOZAK, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT
SECRETARY, BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN RIGHTS AND LABOR, U.S.
DEPARTMENT OF STATE; DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY DAN FISK,
DEPARTMENT OF STATE; DAVID MUTCHLER, SENIOR ADVISOR ON CUBA,
U.S. AGENCY FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT
Mr. Kozak. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank
you for the opportunity to testify on the human rights
situation in Cuba.
It has been more than a year since the Cuban Government
arrested 75 individuals working peacefully for democratic
change. The committee's continuing interest in the situation in
Cuba is both well timed and welcome. It affords us an
opportunity to show our support for the growing demand by Cuban
citizens themselves for the blessings of self determination and
democracy.
The Castro Government as you noted has long waged war on
the basic human rights of its people. It controls all aspects
of daily life through an elaborate and pervasive system of
undercover agents, informers and neighborhood committees
working to detect and suppress dissent and impose ideological
conformity. Spouses are encouraged to report on each other and
children on their parents. Independent voices have been
arrested on charges as vague as dangerousness or as clearly
political as disrespect for authority.
Dissidents are routinely and falsely labeled as foreign
spies, mercenaries and agents of the United States. Access to
information is tightly controlled, including access to the
Internet and publications such as the Boston Globe are labeled
enemy propaganda, the possession of which is a criminal
offense.
The 75 arrested in March 2003 are serving sentences
averaging 20 years each for subversive activities such as
association with international human rights and humanitarian
NGO's. Omar Rodriguez Saludes was sentenced to 27 years for
disseminating a photograph of Cuban poverty. Raul Rivero
received 20 years for unspecified subversive activities. Owning
a chair that a U.S. diplomat once sat in was cited as evidence
against Rivero to justify this charge.
Conditions of incarceration for these prisoners remain
harsh. Many of the older detainees suffer from increasing poor
health. My friend, Marta Beatriz Roque spent 3\1/2\ years in
prison in the late 1990's for the crime of peaceful sedition.
This crime is defined as anything that perturbs the socialist
order. In Marta's case that involved taking the Communist Party
up on its request for public comments on a draft 5 year plan.
Marta was out for 4 years and then returned to jail with a 20
year sentence last year. Her health has been poor throughout
her ordeals and she remains in a military hospital.
Oscar Espinosa Chepe has been returned to a very small
shared cell after an extended hospitalization. Raul Rivero,
whom I was honored to meet with on many occasions during my
years in Cuba, earlier this year was awarded the UNESCO
Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Award as you mentioned.
However, this accomplished poet and journalist was not able to
pick up his prize and enjoy what should have been one of the
highlights of his professional career. He too is serving a 20
year sentence in a Cuban jail.
Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet has worked tirelessly to put Dr.
Martin Luther King's philosophy of nonviolence into practice. I
visited him in 1999 when he was on a 40-day fast, 1 day for
each year of the revolution at that point. Dr. Biscet was
arrested in 2002 for attempting to teach others about
international human rights practices. Three other people who
had been arrested with Dr. Biscet were convicted in May of this
year for the crime of studying the Universal Declaration of
Human Rights at a private home in Havana.
I would note I was in Havana on the 50th anniversary of the
signature of the Universal Declaration. The Cuban authorities
made a big deal out of that, of what a big day that was. At the
same time, they were arresting people for having possession of
the Universal Declaration.
Unfortunately, such flagrant abuse of human rights has not
been limited to the group of 75. Francisco Chaviano, an
advocate of peaceful democratic reforms, was sentenced in 1994
to 15 years in prison for revealing that his organization had
been infiltrated by a government agent.
Many of these prisoners of conscience, falsely accused,
summarily tried and sentence to long terms in prison, are
subjected to treatment usually reserved for the most violent
criminal offenders. Most are allowed to see their families only
briefly once every 3 months. For many the only real hope of
release is to accept exile from the country for which they have
sacrificed so much. Small wonder then if families of political
prisoners and those other men and women dedicated to peaceful
change who are outside prison walls live in justifiable fear of
imminent arrest.
Despite this very real danger, Cubans are losing their fear
of the dying regime and are demanding a role in building their
own democratic future. An authentically independent civil
society, the building blocks of real democracy, is developing
before our eyes. The Varela Project is a peaceful call for a
national referendum on political and economic reforms in Cuba
that seeks to take advantage of a clause in the Castro
constitution that requires the national assembly to consider a
referendum upon petition of 10,000 citizens. The regime
obviously never thought such a provision could be used against
it, but it happened. Over 11,000 signatures were collected from
ordinary Cuban citizens in 2002 and presented to the national
assembly. This showed incredible courage on the part of those
who signed and registered their identification numbers. The
response from the regime was to arrest over 20 of the
organizers and sentence them to long prison terms.
Instead of capitulating to this pressure, civil society
leader, Oswaldo Paya and his colleagues reconstituted their
effort and collected and delivered an additional 14,000
signatures. These thousands of Cuban citizens cannot be
dismissed by the government as insignificant, minuscule groups
of misfits.
Vladimiro Roca, the son of one of the founders of the Cuban
Communist Party, was jailed along with Marta Beatriz Roque,
Felix Bonne, and Rene Gomez Manzano in 1997. Vladimiro himself
did over 5 years in prison yet continues his work. We admire
and applaud these valiant and principled efforts to promote
peaceful and positive change in Cuba despite active hostility
from the Castro Government and we welcome the growing optimism
in Cuba that the end of the dictatorship is near.
A peaceful, orderly transition in Cuba is not only right,
it serves U.S. interest in the stability of our own region but
what in such a hostile environment can the United States really
do to support the dreams of these independent defenders of
fundamental freedoms and liberties and to promote a free and
prosperous Cuba? When the Cuban Government digs tunnels and
puts its army and people on a war footing in response to non-
existent U.S. invasion threats and hunts imaginary spies in a
real but peaceful opposition, when principled expressions of
concern by the European Union, Honduras, Peru, Mexico and other
democratic governments result in strident denunciations and
retaliatory threats and insults from the Cuban Government, when
the regime works aggressively to limit and redirect the flow of
humanitarian assistance and information, how can we or anyone
in the international community extend a helping hand to the
beleaguered people of Cuba?
It isn't easy but it must be done. Much of what we do is to
provide moral support. Those of us who have served in Eastern
Europe know how important that is for those suffering under a
totalitarian system to know that others know and care what is
happening to them. We also know how much regimes of this nature
crave international recognition and respect to provide them the
legitimacy they have failed to earn from their own people. So
we work with other democracies to condemn the repression and
encourage support for real reform.
Since last June, the EU, for the first time, is inviting
dissidents to its official receptions in Havana, much to the
anger of the Cuban Government. Individual EU governments are
reviewing their assistance to the regime with Italy suspending
bilateral cooperation and France redirecting its assistance
away from the government and to the Cuban people itself. We
continue our unceasing efforts in international fora such as
the U.N. Commission for Human Rights. Last April, the U.N.
Commission for Human Rights passed by a single vote a
resolution tabled by Honduras to call once again upon Cuba to
implement the human rights obligations it has freely accepted.
Secretary of State Powell and other high level State Department
officials were involved on a daily basis in our efforts to
support Honduras and the 34 other co-sponsors of the
resolution. President Bush and Dr. Rice made personal
interventions with foreign counterparts. Several Members of
Congress also played important roles in shoring up support and
for those efforts, we are deeply appreciative.
As those of you who have been involved with these efforts
know we offer neither rewards nor threats, rather we appeal to
the highest principles of our fellow Commission on Human Rights
members, three-fifths of whom represent democratically elected
governments. So one might ask why so much efforts is required
to get a resolution passed there.
The answer is the Cubans do what they falsely accuse us of.
They cannot credibly argue that they are in compliance with
their human rights obligations, so instead they threaten other
voting members with domestic discord, withdrawal of medical
workers and so on if they vote to urge Cuba to fulfill those
commitments. They run campaigns accusing other governments and
individual leaders of giving in to U.S. pressure or worse.
Despite these Cuban tactics, Honduras, Costa Rica, the
Dominican Republic, Guatemala, Peru, Chile and Mexico all took
courageous stances in support of human rights in Cuba by
tabling, co-sponsoring and/or supporting the resolution.
By the same token, we were disappointed that countries such
as Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, whose own democratic
transitions were assisted by international support, chose to
abstain rather than take position in favor of observance of
human rights. Especially disappointing is South Africa which
during its own struggle against the apartheid regime was the
original beneficiary of what are called item line resolutions
in the Human Rights Commission and they took a leadership role
in pressing other African delegations to vote with the Cubans.
In addition to showing our moral and political support for
those courageous Cubans who are struggling for democracy, our
policy is also designed to actively encourage a rapid, peaceful
transition to democracy in Cuba. There is no reason that the
Cuban people should not enjoy the freedoms and prosperity that
now exists in Central Europe, South Africa, Central and South
America and other places around the world that once languished
under totalitarian or authoritarian dictatorships. To this end,
President Bush in October 2003 created the Commission for
Assistance to a Free Cuba. The Commission's task was to develop
a proactive, integrated and disciplined approach on how the
United States can work to hasten a peaceful transition to
democracy, particularly through breaking the regime's
information blockade. The Commission was also charged with
developing contingency plans to assist a free Cuba during such
a transition should its citizens request such assistance.
I would emphasize that we do not seek to dictate the terms
of transition. Cuba's future must be decided by the Cuban
people. Rather, we look for ways in which we can cooperate as
friends with the newly free Cuba.
The Commission report proposes a wide range of actions the
U.S. Government would be prepared to undertake should a Cuban
transition government so request. This would include assistance
to meet critical humanitarian and other important needs early
in the transition and to initiate the reactivation of the
economy, to help build essential democratic institutions, both
in government and in civil society, to help establish reforms
necessary to stimulate the domestic private sector and lay a
basis for economic recovery; and to address the degradation of
its infrastructure and environment which, as in other countries
freed from communism, have seen serious deterioration in areas
of water, sanitation, power and telecommunications.
In addition, the Commission report proposed additional ways
to empower independent Cuban civil society through material
assistance and training, including increasing assistance up to
$41 million over 2 years. The Commission recommended steps to
expand outreach and expedite the processing of related license
applications to religious organizations. These organizations
represent the fastest growing and strongest alternatives to the
Cuban state in providing basic services and information to the
Cuban people.
The fundamental goal of any U.S. assistance to a free Cuba
must be to empower and respect the sovereign rights of the
Cuban people. Empowering them will mean improving their
economic and social well being, helping them reconstruct a
democratic civic culture through education and institution-
building and supporting them as they transform themselves and
Cuban society.
President Bush and Secretary Powell, who chaired the
Commission, have repeatedly called for an end to repression in
Cuba. They have insisted that Cubans who seek peaceful change
and basic human rights and freedoms, be permitted to do so.
Their call, and that of others in the U.S. Congress, has been
echoed by many others--by representatives of the European
Union, by the leaders of democratic governments in Latin
America, the U.N. Commission for Human Rights and other
prominent figures and institutions across the world.
We must continue to support the efforts of those working
for a better Cuba wherever and whenever we can, whether through
our outreach to ordinary Cubans or in partnership with like
minded members of the international community.
I would like to conclude by stressing the promotion of
democracy is and will continue to be the central defining
element of our foreign policy. We will continue to use all
available bilateral and multilateral tools at our disposal to
combat threats to democracy and institutionalize democratic
reforms toward a stable western hemisphere.
Thank you again for holding this hearing.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Kozak follows:]
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Mr. Burton. Thank you, Mr. Kozak.
Mr. Fisk, did you have a statement you would like to make?
Mr. Fisk. Mr. Chairman, Ambassador Kozak delivered the
statement for the Department, so I will defer.
Mr. Burton. Mr. Mutchler.
Mr. Mutchler. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
U.S. AID Assistant Administrator Adolfo Franco was
scheduled to appear before you this morning and asked me to
express to you his regret that he cannot participate. He is
visiting Haiti today with U.S. AID Administrator Natsios, but
he asked me to talk to you a little bit about what AID has been
doing over the past 7 years to help implement Section 109 of
the Libertad Act of 1996 in close cooperation with the
Department of State.
As you know, Mr. Chairman, the AID Cuba Program, which I
direct, attempts to build solidarity with Cuba's human rights
activists on the island. It gives voice to Cuba's independent
journalists, it provides food and medicine to the families of
political prisoners on the island, it defends the rights of
Cuban workers and provides direct outreach to the Cuban people.
Over the past 7 years, the Cuba Program working through U.S.
non-governmental organizations and U.S. universities, such as
the University of Miami, Rutgers University and Georgetown
University, has provided over 2 million books, newsletters and
other informational materials to the Cuban people, provided
more than 170,000 pounds of food and medicine and other
humanitarian relief to the families of political prisoners and
to other victims of repression in Cuba, provided almost 12,000
short wave radios to the Cuban people so they can listen
unhindered to international broadcasts from Radio Marti, the
BBC, Voice of America, or any other international broadcast and
published on the Internet via Cubnet.org the reports every week
from Cuba's independent journalists, the more than 100
independent journalists actively operating in Cuba today. Those
reports are also provided in hard copy newsletters to the Cuban
people every week and every month. Those reports are also
published in the United States and foreign press.
As Ambassador Kozak has said very clearly, the continuing
tragedy of Cuba's political prisoners is an outrage to the
conscience of the world. President Bush and Secretary of State
Powell have been very active in bringing this matter to the
attention of the world community and as Ambassador Kozak said,
the U.N. Human Rights Commission meeting in Geneva in April did
call Cuba to account. The Commission again urged Cuba to permit
a personal representative of the U.N. Human Rights Commission's
High Commissioner to enter Cuba and inspect the situation
there. The Castro regime again rejected this longstanding
request by the United Nations.
Amnesty International, from whom we will hear today, Human
Rights Watch, Freedom House and other independent, non-
governmental organizations continue to document the suffering
of Cuba's political prisoners. The Castro regime beats them,
deprives them of sleep, subjects them to filthy, crowded,
unventilated vermin infested cells, houses them with common
criminals and denies them proper food, potable water and
adequate medical care.
According to Amnesty International, Cuba has the highest
proportion of prisoners of conscience per capita of any nation
in the world. Many political prisoners, as Ambassador Kozak
indicated, are seriously ill, yet as a matter of regime policy,
they are denied appropriate medical treatment. He spoke to you
about Marta Beatriz Roque, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, Oscar
Espinosa Chepe, Raul Rivero, Manual Vazquez Portal, a very fine
poet and independent journalist, is also suffering from severe
medical difficulties.
Also, the number of political prisoners is increasing. A
little over 2 weeks ago, on Sunday, June 5, Cuban state
security broke into the houses of four peaceful activists in
the Cuban city of Santa Clara. Cuban officials arrested these
people and took them to state security headquarters and two of
these activists, the brothers Luis Enrique Junquera Garcia and
Yamil Sanchez Munoz are still being held in prison unable to
communicate with the outside world. What is their crime? They
are members of the Citizens Organizing Committee of Project
Varela, which as Ambassador Kozak indicated has collected more
than 30,000 signatures from Cuban citizens throughout Cuba
calling for a national referendum on basic political and
economic reforms. Such a petition is authorized even under
Cuba's communist constitution but Fidel Castro believes it will
subvert his totalitarian rule. For the past year, he has tried
and tried without success to eradicate Project Varela and his
frustration is becoming more and more evident. The Project
Varela organizers are under extreme pressure and the
international community must defend them.
As Castro's nervousness has increased over the past year
and his poor paranoia has increased, his moral collapse becomes
even more apparent. Last year, he returned to his long practice
of arbitrary summary executions in an action that outraged the
world. He ordered the death by firing squad of three young men
whose only offense was to steal a motor boat so they could
escape from Cuba. The Castro Government executed them within a
few days of their capture after kangaroo court trials from
which independent observers in the diplomatic community were
excluded. Not even their mothers were permitted to visit them
before they died. Their deaths ended a 4-year Cuban moratorium
on user of the death penalty. Castro suspended use of the death
penalty in the year 2000 after a huge outcry from the
international community in that year which shows that he does
respond to international pressure. In 1999, he executed an
estimated 20 to 30 people, placing Cuba third in the world in
state executions on a per capita basis, just behind Iran and
the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The Administrator of U.S. AID, Andrew Natsios spoke
recently at the University of Miami. He sent a clear message to
Fidel Castro and the members of his government. He told Fidel
Castro the Cuban desire for freedom cannot be extinguished and
he called on all the officials and operatives of the Castro
regime to stop the human rights abuses. He reminded them that
the Cuban people will soon hold all of them accountable.
The U.S. Department of State, I am told, has just placed on
a visa watch list each of the 300 individuals, judges, police
men, prosecutors, witnesses who participated in last year's
Cuban show trials that you referred to, Mr. Chairman, those
sham trials that convicted 75 human rights activists,
independent journalists and independent librarians, those
officials and others who perpetrate those and similar acts of
injustice will never find shelter in the United States. The
United States of America is committed to promoting a rapid,
peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba and as part of that
effort, U.S. AID, the U.S. Agency for International
Development, calls on all the people in Cuba and especially
those who work for the Cuban Government to prepare now for that
transition by refusing to carry out acts of violence and
repression and by beginning to show compassion for all those
whom the Castro regime has imprisoned.
Thank you for this opportunity to appear before you today.
I will be happy to respond to any questions you or other
Members may have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Adolfo A. Franco, as
presented by Mr. Mutchler, follows:]
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Mr. Burton. I think both of you have covered a lot of the
questions we had to ask to you. The thing that surprises me
about communist dictators is they don't learn from history. I
remember when Ceausescu in Romania finally fell and what
happened to him. I would think the people of Cuba will hold
Castro and his minions accountable maybe in the like manner
when there is freedom on that island. Castro can't live forever
and he can't prop up all those people who are perpetrating
these atrocities. When the bottom does drop out, Lord help him.
I have a couple questions and I will yield to my colleague.
I read the book by Armando Valaderos, Against All Hope, and
incidentally, I was on a plane and I started crying at the last
chapter. I think the guy next to me thought there was something
wrong with me mentally. That book was very vivid in the kind of
atrocities that take place in those prisons. You touched on
that a bit, Ambassador Kozak, but is there anything you could
tell us today that would be a bit more vivid than some of the
things you told us about? If not, that is OK but I think it is
important for the record and for history to know these
atrocities that are taking place are a heck of a lot worse than
we have seen in Iraq and elsewhere. They are pretty bad. I
think it is important that the world focus on that.
Mr. Kozak. You are right, Mr. Chairman. In addition to the
ones we know well, and I had the pleasure of meeting with
Armando Valaderos when he first got out. We had lunch at the
State Department, so I heard some of those stories firsthand.
Marta Beatriz has had all kinds of medical problems. They
basically don't treat them on time. One that strikes me though,
two cases, Gustalar, a long time human rights leader there, his
brother died because he developed cancer and it went untreated
for a long, long time. He finally was allowed to leave and come
to the United Stats but it was too far gone. That is an
interesting family because they fought with Castro. One brother
was killed in the Ranma assault, the other one died as a result
of being in the political prison in Havana.
I think probably the one that struck me during my time as
the worse was a lady who was a blind human rights activist and
they took her to the psychological hospital and gave her all
kinds of drugs and basically tried to torture her in that way.
They would use the psychiatric hospitals to harm the people.
Mr. Burton. But the torture continues even to this day?
Mr. Kozak. Absolutely.
Mr. Burton. Has it increased?
Mr. Kozak. I think that has been the pattern over the last
few years, with more and more dissidents going in. As David
mentioned, the more and more frustrated he becomes with not
being able to stop this kind of activity, the more extreme the
methods.
Mr. Mutchler. We also know that the regime harasses the
families of the prisoners and tries to create confusion in the
prisoner's mind about the safety and welfare of their children,
their wives and other members of their families while they are
held in jail, incommunicado without any access to them. So they
spread rumors, they cause severe psychological damage as well
as physical damage.
Mr. Burton. When they had the human rights vote in Geneva,
Frank Calzon was beat up by one of the members of the Cuban
delegation. Can you tell me a little about that real quickly?
Mr. Kozak. I did not see it myself because I was making a
statement at the chair but our Ambassador, Kevin Moley, was
right there as it turned out and observed the whole thing, so I
had a very reliable source. From what he described to me, Mr.
Calzon was standing at the bottom of an escalator that leads
down to where the meeting room is in Geneva, the Cubans had
just lost the vote, they were very upset. They had a whole
gaggle of their crew that they had there who were yelling and
screaming and making threatening gestures against anybody on
the pro-democracy side. U.N. security guards were standing
there and were between Mr. Calzon and these Cuban
demonstrators. All of a sudden, someone comes running down the
escalator at top speed, a guy who was a member of the official
Cuban delegation, Calzon's back was to the escalator and this
guy hit him at full stride right in the back of his head,
knocked him to the floor, knocked him unconscious. Kevin and
the U.N. security guards took off after the Cuban, the security
guards had to use mace to subdue this Cuban guy who was
fighting them and at that point, the Cuban ambassador, a
permanent representative, came up and said, let him go, he is
one of my guys, I will take care of the problem.
Mr. Burton. Diplomatic immunity?
Mr. Kozak. Yes.
Mr. Burton. We have to do something about that when there
is intentional atrocities or attacks made wherever they occur.
Mr. Mutchler, just a couple quick questions and I will
yield to my colleague. How successful are we? They are having
some success in talking directly with the Cuban people but not
anybody who is in prisons?
Mr. Mutchler. Not directly with people in prison. The Cuban
Government has forbidden even the churches to send clergy to
the prisons on a regular basis. So it is very difficult to get
access. Of course the prisoners are imprisoned hundreds of
miles away from their homes so that their family members find
it very difficult even when they are permitted to visit to
arrange transportation and pay for a long trip to the prison.
That is done deliberately it seems, so it is difficult to get
contact but some prisoners have been able to smuggle out
diaries and their writings. Portal, for example, has published
several on articles that we published on the Internet about
what his conditions are like inside.
Mr. Burton. Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, do you have questions?
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you, Mr. Burton, and I thank the
panelists for being here.
I know that Mr. Fisk has been working around the clock
after the Commission report came out about the new regulations
and we will be hearing a lot about them. There is a great deal
of interest in our community about the regulations and we thank
you for the work that you have done and the work the Commission
members have done and President Bush as well.
What the Commission has tried to do, as all of us know, is
to not provide all of those funds that Fidel Castro has been
receiving from folks who come to the United States, supposedly
freeing political persecution in Cuba, come to the United
States and immediately go back and many of them are on
legitimate family visits because they have a problem with their
family, someone is ill, but some other people do it to
celebrate their daughter's 15th birthday party and they plan
these elaborate parties while the Cuban people are suffering
and they are staying in these wonderful hotels and essentially
having family vacations in a country where apartheid is still
very much the norm because there is one set of life for the
Cuban natives and another lifestyle for everyone else. Everyone
else goes to the hotels and enjoys the restaurants and the
beaches and the pools, and the Cuban people can't even afford
any of that; but even if they were able to afford it, they
can't use any of those facilities. So there has been a lot of
abuse of the travel regulations, a lot of illegal activities
and folks transporting money back and forth and not for
humanitarian needs whatsoever.
The Bush administration has been very strong in always
saying that humanitarian aid is in no way curtailed. If you
want to put a container outside of the Rayburn House Office
Building and fill it with food and medicine, the State
Department and the folks right in front of us will be more than
happy to help you transport the food and medicine to Cuba.
There are no restrictions on sending humanitarian aid to Cuba.
So those folks who say these new regulations hurt the Cuban
people, that is totally incorrect because you can help the
Cuban people all you want and in fact, the Cuban people know
that there is no country more generous than the United States
when it comes to food and medicine. If you put all the
countries together, you sum all the humanitarian aid they send
to Cuba and it does not equal the amount of humanitarian aid
that the United States sends to Cuba, so that tells you about
the true spirit of the American people toward the Cuban people.
We hate the Castro regime and we love the Cuban people. That is
shown every day when people come to the United States in
desperate measures to try to reach these shores of liberty,
even though they have heard the propaganda for sadly over 40
years of how the United States is a terrible place and how we
discriminate against blacks so terribly, we beat up African-
Americans on a daily basis, that is the new line he has been
using a lot. Then you see the young people who have grown up
knowing only communism, knowing no other frame of reference and
they come to the United States because they know that Castro
has been lying to them all the time.
Just as we saw with the very moving ceremony of Ronald
Reagan last week in his memorial service where speaker after
speaker talked about how he drew the line and he said, Mr.
Gorbachev, tear down this wall and open up this gate and he
spoke on behalf of freedom and liberty, so we will see that
opening taking place in Cuba soon.
That leads me to my question to Ambassador Kozak because he
has served in Cuba, he has served in Belarus, he knows about
the experiences of communist governments. I wanted to ask him,
based on what you have seen in Eastern Europe and the former
Soviet Republic as they transformed into democracies, what
lessons can be learned from that, what can better prepare us in
supporting Cuban pro-democracy forces and in preparing for the
inevitable day when freedom will reign in Cuba because who
thought that Berlin Wall would come down, who thought that the
Soviet Union would disband? Ronald Reagan had that vision and I
believe that is the same vision President Bush has. Could you
tell us about the experiences that you have had in former
communist governments and how they have evolved?
Mr. Kozak. Actually one thing that strikes me was one of my
colleagues in Havana was a Romanian diplomat who had been a
member of Ceausescu's secret police. Why was he a diplomat with
a democratic government? He was supposed to spy on the
dissidents in Romania and instead befriended and helped them,
so he was OK with the new government.
He told me the mechanisms of control here are very familiar
to me, they are exactly as the same as were used in Eastern
Europe, the Stalinist cookie cutter type mechanisms, but the
degree of control in Cuba was far greater than anything he had
seen in the former Soviet Union. He said they control things
here that we wouldn't have thought of controlling and the
degree of detail of control is just unbelievable.
Maybe one lesson I would draw from being in both a country
still under that kind of oppression and ones coming out of it
is, people in Cuba love the United States. The chairman is a
very popular guy because Castro made all the school children
read the Helms-Burton Act and they don't focus so much on
Titles 3 and 4, they are looking at Titles 1 and 2 about
freedom and democracy. So it is not a question of having to
convince them that their situation is bad, they know it is. It
is not a question of trying to convince them that a more free,
open society is a good thing, but I find they have a really
hard time relating to something like the United States. You see
people in Eastern Europe and for them, like the people in
Belarus, the United States is like Mars or something, it is
such a dream world for them that they can't think of how do we
get from here to there. I found it useful to use other
countries that had recently undergone the same kind of
transition and they would listen. If somebody came from
Lithuania, right next door, and said we were in the same boat
as you 10 or 15 years ago and here is what we did and it
worked, that made sense to them. They could see how do you get
from here to there whereas if you show them the final result, a
country that has been democratic for 200 years, they can't make
the connection. That might be one thing we could do, to try and
engage more of the newly independent countries that had similar
experience and learn lessons that way.
Mr. Fisk. On the diplomatic side, we have found that our
best friends in discussing freedom for the Cuban people happen
to be those countries of the former Soviet Bloc makes sense.
They experienced it firsthand, they know what it is like to
search around on a radio to hear Voice of America or Radio
Liberty just as a Cuban tries to find Radio Marti. I have heard
those anecdotes and Mike has heard them, so we are doing what
we can to reach out and work with the Central and Eastern
Europeans in terms of how do we further work to build an
international community that is focused on the plight of the
Cuban people? They have been our allies in Geneva, they also
have been our allies diplomatically working in this hemisphere
and reaching out to Latin American which I will say in this
forum has been somewhat missing in action in terms of
responding to the human rights abuses on the island. That is
definitely an area in which we would like to see more voices
speaking out on behalf of Cuban civil society.
If I can also say this is one reason why when we were
working on the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, we
focused on our first two recommendations in the area of
hastening dealt with the need to empower Cuban civil society
and second and of equal importance, how do we break the
regime's information blockade on the Cuban people? Those have
to go hand in hand. It is not just a matter of the United
States doing that. Again, it is finding willing friends and
allies around the world.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Speaking of that, Mr. Fisk, to break that
filter of propaganda of Fidel Castro, radio and TV Marti
transmissions are so important and I know that we have them
with us here now. How are the plans going for the C-130 so that
we can broadcast without Castro's jamming? Many say if the
signal doesn't get through, then we should not transmit which
is so ludicrous. It is just saying we are going to give up. If
he does A, then we have to stop doing B. The whole reason we
are having those transmissions of freedom and information is
because he has those filters and he jams our signal, so we need
to get that information out. Just because he jams them does not
mean that we should give up, that means we should try harder to
improve the technology.
I know the Bush administration has done a great job in
doing that. We had that one fly over and how are the changes
coming in the technology?
Mr. Fisk. This is one reason why the Commission focused on
that and did not just focus on one or two instruments or
assets, but talked about the range of how we get information,
better get information into and onto the island, including how
do we augment and enhance radio and TV Marti? We are in the
midst of discussions now with the Broadcasting Board of
Governors and the Department of Defense about that exact
recommendation on the C-130 deploying it, as well as the
follow-on recommendation which I would focus the subcommittee's
attention on, a dedicated airborne platform, something that the
Office of Cuba Broadcasting and Radio and TV Marti have regular
access to in terms of getting the signal there.
Again, I would reemphasize that it is not just that one
instrument. We are looking at a range of other options to
increase the information flow to the island because ultimately
I think the two most potent instruments we have are
broadcasting and what is referred to as a Section 109 program
in the Libertad Act. Those are the means that I think will
ultimately help the Cuban people and hasten the day of freedom
on the island.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Speaking of Section 109, that leads me
then to the question for David. Could you elaborate on the
success we have had with the Section 109 programs administered
by U.S. AID? We thank you for that. Explain to the audience
what that means.
Mr. Mutchler. Under Section 109, the President is
authorized to promote democracy building efforts in Cuba by
providing resources to U.S. non-governmental organizations,
universities and other non-governmental organizations who have
expertise in this area and who have contacts on the island,
throughout the island with the thousands of human rights
activists who are active in Cuba as well as the hundreds of
independent libraries on the island, so working very closely
with the Department of State we have been able to provide
books, videos, video recorders, VCRs and other informational
materials to the Cuban people so that they can have access to
outside information because the Cuban Government blocks or
tries to block all outside information. That has been
successful.
The short wave radios are very successful. I have been to
Cuba four times, traveled throughout the island and I can tell
you people really appreciate a small short wave radio with
rechargeable batteries and a recharger, a very small package,
but one that gives them instant access to the outside world. I
have listened myself to these radios in the morning, at night,
throughout the island, you can get Radio Marti on these radios.
I have done it. You can get the BBC, you can get Voice of
America, you can get a whole range of international broadcasts.
That is very powerful technology for the Cuban people right
now.
The Cuban people do not have access to the Internet. We
want them to have access to the Internet. We are trying to work
on ways to get them access to the Internet. The interest
section of the United States in Havana developed a multimedia
room so that Cubans coming in for visas or other reasons can
access and surf the Web, can access the Internet, can watch a
video, can get access to newspapers and that is very, very
important for the thousands of Cubans who come through the U.S.
Interest Section every year. We have been participating in that
program as well.
These are all important things as well as providing very
simple food stuffs, medicines, children's Tylenol, children's
Aspirin to independent organizations on the island and to the
families of political prisoners and others who share these with
their neighbors as well as use them for themselves.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. As we know, if you are a tourist in Cuba,
you don't need to bring your own Tylenol or Aspirin or
anything, there is plenty of that in all the drugstores. It is
the Cuban people who have trouble getting all those medicines
because Castro does have them for the tourists and not for the
Cuban people.
One more question, and thanks for your indulgence, Mr.
Chairman. I wanted to ask Mr. Fisk about the new regulations.
What is the time line that he thinks they will be implemented,
the ones the Commission presented to President Bush and that
President Bush has implemented but as we know, you have to
publish them and they have to be implemented. When will all the
regs be done and what will happen next?
Mr. Fisk. I will get you a more precise answer on this but
they are to be published this week. We are looking at a June 30
effective date for the regulatory changes to go into effect.
That is in the section we talked about in terms of hastening.
The focus is how do we deny resources to the regime. Castro has
built up a structure to milk and exploit what are humanitarian
policies. That is something that came to the Commission's
attention and we brought that to the President's attention, so
you will see those going into effect over the next 2 weeks if
my calendar is right.
If I can add one other thing to build on David's comment
because the other part of this isn't just the regulatory side
or the regime resources, it is looking at how we can increase
our support to civil society. One of the recommendations the
President approved was providing up to $29 million more in
assistance for civil society programs in addition to the
current $7 million. So we are talking about a fourfold increase
over 2 years of exactly the kind of programs to get information
and aid to the Cuban people.
There we are looking for innovative, cutting edge programs.
We wanted the ability to complement what AID was currently
doing but also to see how we can expand that and provide more
resources because clearly the goal and the mandate from the
President is an immediate impact, we want to see change as soon
as possible so none of us have to wait any longer, especially
the Cuban people, for the aspirations of the Cuban people to be
fulfilled.
Ms. Ros-Lehtinen. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman, for the time.
Mr. Burton. Ms. Watson, do you have any questions?
Ms. Watson. I just have a brief statement because I came in
late and probably a lot of the testimony I wanted to hear has
already been given but we are here because we are concerned
about the human rights conditions in Cuba and the U.S. policy
that results. I saw a new policy issued by the White House
recently and I had some concerns. To put a complete chokehold
on Cuba's economy is the wrong approach because it does affect
the people. The U.S. sanctions of today do not take into
account changes in the world's power structure.
Fidel Castro's government is not in line with the U.S.
doctrine, but without the former Soviet Union as a partner, the
communist threat has been severely diminished. We can be
critical but not force our will upon other cultures. Continued
economic sanctions perpetuate poor conditions for the general
population in Cuba. In my last visit there, I was very
interested as to their corporate, agricultural approaches so
that there could be food for all.
Although I have some reservations on current U.S. policy, I
have deep concern over recent human right abuses in Cuba. In
March 2003, the Cuban Government, as you all know, began a
massive crack down that resulted in the imprisonment of
independent journalists and librarians, leaders of independent
labor unions, leaders of opposition parties and other democracy
activists. Seventy-five activists were arrested, subjected to
summary trials, persecutions and given long prison terms.
On April 11, 2003, the government executed three men who
had hijacked a ferry in an attempt to reach the United States.
The executions conducted after a swift and secret trial had
been condemned around the world and I join in that
condemnation. On July 14, 2003, the Havana-based Cuban
Commission for Human Rights in national reconciliation issued a
report asserting that Cuba held 336 political prisoners
including the 75 arrested in the March 2003 crackdown.
Human rights issues and their resolutions are important to
the relationship between the United States and Cuba. The angst
between Fidel Castro's government and the United States has
continued for too many years. The Cuban Government must bring
its policies in line with international human standards so that
the human rights of all Cuban citizens are protected. Cuba is
responsible for the treatment of its citizens but the United
States has a responsibility to pursue a foreign policy that
promotes human rights and avoided worsening human conditions.
The United States 2004 quest for a resolution at the United
Nations is indeed a fresh approach. I support the inclusion of
the United Nations in the pursuit of acceptable guidelines for
relations between different cultures.
For the rest of the time, I will be listening to see if I
can gather pertinent information toward those points I raised.
I yield back the rest of my time and thank you very much.
Mr. Burton. Thank you, Ms. Watson.
I think that is all the questions we have for you. I want
to thank you all very much for being here today. We appreciate
your testimony.
Our next panel consists of Jamie Suchlicki, Omar
Montenegro, Eric Olson and Miguel Reyes. Would you please come
forward?
[Witnesses sworn.]
Mr. Burton. Mr. Suchlicki, we will start with you. We are
not too strict but if you could stay close to 5 minutes, we
would appreciate it.
STATEMENTS OF JAMIE SUCHLICKI, DIRECTOR, CUBAN TRANSITION
PROJECT, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI; OMAR LOPEZ MONTENEGRO, EXECUTIVE
DIRECTOR, CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION; ERIC OLSON,
ADVOCACY DIRECTOR, AMERICAS, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL; AND MIGUEL
REYES, STEPSON OF RAUL RIVERO, A POET IMPRISONED IN THE MARCH
2003 DISSIDENT CRACKDOWN
Mr. Suchlicki. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the
committee, for the opportunity to be here to discuss Cuba with
you.
There are instances in the past where dictators and
retiring leaders have mellowed with age or have mellowed
because of incentives or pressures from other governments.
There is no evidence that this is the case with Fidel Castro.
As he has become older, he has become more difficult, more
authoritarian, more repressive of the Cuban people. Cuba is
undergoing right now, and I think this is important to
understand the context of what is happening in Cuba now, what I
call the Chinese type cultural revolution, not unlike that
revolution that Mao carried out in China before his death in an
attempt to purify his revolution to make sure that China would
remain on the path he wanted. That it didn't is a lesson of
history but Fidel Castro continuously thinks and attempts to
make sure that once he passes out of this world, his revolution
will remain within the communist doctrine, not friendly to the
United States, supporting international terrorism and
supporting the worst causes in the world.
The succession, to a certain extent, has taken place in
Cuba by Fidel Castro passing significant amount of power to the
military. Today, 60 to 65 percent of state enterprises are run
by the Cuban military, so the succession to that institution,
the military, is already affecting Cuba. Raul Castro, Fidel's
brother, not too young by age, but 3 years younger, controls
the military and is the heir apparent in Cuba. So it is within
this kind of cultural revolution, maybe not as violent as the
Chinese or may be not as public as the Chinese, is that Fidel
Castro in the past 3 or 4 years has been repressing civil
society, has been trying to reindoctrinate the Cuban population
in the ideas of Marxism and Leninism. Cuba is undergoing now
what Fidel Castro calls the battle of ideas, to try to
indoctrinate, to rejuvenate, to try to reinvigorate his
revolution with Marxist-Leninist ideas. So the whole society
has been reorganized, restructured, reemphasizing the values
Fidel Castro would like to leave to the future generations and
prevent any change in Cuba once he disappears.
I think it is important to emphasize that neither
punishment, nor inducements have worked with Fidel Castro. The
Europeans, the Canadians, the Latin Americans have been engaged
with Cuba for a number of years, hundreds of thousands of
tourists from those countries have visited Cuba and Cuba is no
more democratic now than it was 20 years ago. As a matter of
fact, I am arguing that it is probably more authoritarian, more
totalitarian now than it was before. So neither engagement nor
punishments have worked. Unfortunately, there are leaders in
the world that we cannot negotiate with and cannot make a deal
with, that they are not subjected to either bribery or
pressures and therefore, we need to have the patience to stay
the course, wait until there is a change there and then
implement our policies.
I think the preceding members of the panel have discussed
in detail the numerous abuses that have taken place in Cuba and
are taking place. One of the ones I would like to point out,
and in my testimony I expand on all these, in the written
testimony, is the Internet. Fidel Castro now is clamping
further the use of the Internet and in a decree he passed a
week ago, he prohibited state enterprises from importing
computers, fax machines and spare parts. In other words, he is
so paranoid about the possible influence of outside forces and
his mindset is on succession and not permitting any change in
Cuba that he is repressing even the spare parts for computers
and fax machines.
The challenge that we face is how do we try to prevent this
regime from continuing to abuse the Cuban people? It is a
difficult challenge. Part of it has to be mobilizing public
opinion, part has to be working with our allies in Europe, part
has to be in trying to bring information to the Cuban people.
So there are a number of measures and I think the
administration is beginning to introduce some of those that
will try to influence internal developments, try to bring
information to the Cuban people and try to put greater pressure
on the regime not to continue to abuse the Cuban people.
At the University of Miami, we have a project looking at
transitions in Eastern Europe and looking at all aspects of
transition. All of these studies which are more than 40, we
have created data bases, information, all of these things have
been sent to Cuba through various means. We want the Cuban
people to understand the problems of transition, we want them
to understand what has happened in Eastern Europe and in the
Soviet Union so we are trying to help penetrate that barrier of
information that Fidel Castro has created. It is not an easy
job, it is a very complex job but I think it is important to
stay the course. I don't think a change in American foreign
policy now in terms of providing Castro with tourism or aid or
trade is going to change the course he has set for the Cuban
people. Castro's policies are independent of American foreign
policy. What he does is his own interest, in the interest of
maintaining his revolution even if he disappears and dies
because he is looking far ahead.
So succession in Cuba unfortunately is going to be somewhat
easy and quick, transition is going to be long and difficult
and that is the challenge we face.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Suchlicki follows:]
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Mr. Burton. Thank you. I have some questions about that
when we get to the question session.
Mr. Lopez.
Mr. Montenegro. Thank you.
I want to thank you first for the opportunity to be here to
testify about what it is like to be living in fear in the
country where I was born and raised, Cuba.
When I started in the human rights movement inside Cuba 16
years ago, this was one of my dreams, to be here 1 day to speak
on behalf of my brothers and sisters still living in Cuba.
Thank God I am able to fulfill this part of my dream because
unfortunately there are a lot of people in Cuba for whom
freedom of speech is still a goal, an aspiration.
In a country where people can be sentenced to 28 years in
prison for speaking their minds, fear is not a feeling to cope
with from time to time but a permanent condition and an
effective tool of repression used to stay in power by the most
repressive system our hemisphere has endured. It instills fear
because it lacks the ability to inspire hope. This statement
can be measured in figures and also by the most prestigious
human rights institution around the world. The Cuban regime
holds a very objectionable record in this matter which includes
the following statistics.
The highest number of prisoners of conscience per capita,
84, recorded by Amnesty International; the highest number of
inmates per capita, 888, for ever 100 inhabitants registered by
the Center for Peaceful Studies; second place on the list of
the 10 worse places to be a journalist compiled by the
Committee to Protect Journalists; 1 of the 10 most repressive
regimes in the world appeared in the Worst of the Worst report
by Freedom House; second from last, 165th place among 166
countries on the World Press Freedom Index compiled by
Reporters without Borders; 153rd place among 166 countries on
the Index of Economic Freedom prepared by the Wall Street
Journal and the Heritage Foundation, that is the record of the
Cuban Government and the facts speak for themselves. They tell
the story of a society with no chance or to say in the regime's
own words, only two options, socialism or death. That was the
message the dictatorship tried to send with the March 2003
crackdown when 75 activists were sent to prison because they
challenged the system by standing up for their rights. The
regime was afraid because they challenged the culture of fear,
opening spaces and creating new options against the will of the
government.
In Cuba, fear does not only mean people being afraid of the
government, but also the government being afraid of those who
will not fear any more but at least are capable of moving
beyond fear. That is the story to be stressed out in Cuba, how
more and more people are showing they can overcome fear and
move ahead for a better future.
Six months after the March crackdown, 14,000 new signatures
were presented to the national assembly in support of the
Varela Project. More than a year after the crackdown, the Santa
Rita Mothers, a group of mothers, wives and relatives of
political prisoners marched every Sunday in the streets of
Havana asking for freedom for their relatives in prison. Last
May 9 on Mother's Day, they gathered in a public park and read
out loud the names of more than 300 political prisoners in
Cuba. That is citizenship in motion looking for ways to make
their voices heard in a repressive society but they cannot do
it alone. They need our help and support in practical and
effective ways.
We need to increase the aid to civil society inside Cuba
and make sure that this aid gets to the island into the hands
of the most needy, those who are facing repression, the
political prisoners and their relatives, the activists, the
human rights activists and the opposition leaders. Some
practical ideas can be sending paper, pens, food, clothing and
medicines to help satisfy their needs and create dissident
networks. Send a laptop, cellular devices and other advanced
communications technology to overcome the regime's efforts to
divide and silence those dissident networks. Radio and TV Marti
needs to be heard and seen in Cuba in an effort to ensure that
the Cuban people have access to uncensored news and
information.
Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, fear is always
fueled by mistrust and isolation, the feeling of being alone
facing a gigantic and overpowering enemy. I know that by
experience. The regime knows that and that is why they make
every considerable effort to divide the internal and external
opposition. I remember that in those early days when not many
people knew about the so-called dissident movement, every time
I was detained and questioned by officers of the political
police, they always said they can kill me and nobody would know
about it because nobody really cares. That wasn't true then and
that isn't true now but we need to remove the base of that
culture of fear which is still trapped in a large part of the
Cuban population.
The Noble Peace prize winner, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma's
best known human rights leader, once said, ``The only real
prison is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from
fear.'' If we want to really free the Cuban people, we must
help them to stop living in fear and we must provide them ways
to start overcoming fear.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Montenegro follows:]
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Mr. Burton. Thank you, Mr. Lopez. I will have a couple of
questions for you in a moments.
Mr. Olson.
Mr. Olson. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your
organizing this hearing and thank you to the members of the
subcommittee for their continued interest in this very
important issue.
It is my pleasure to appear today before the subcommittee
to discuss the human rights situation in Cuba and in
particular, the status of 82 Cubans designated as prisoners of
conscience by Amnesty International. I would like to submit to
the record an Amnesty International report released in March
2004 entitled, ``One Year Too Many, Prisoners of Conscience
from the March 2003 Crackdown.'' The report details the current
physical and mental state of 75 of the 79 prisoners of
conscience arrested during the March 2003 crackdown in Cuba.
Given our rather limited time, I would like to briefly
summarize parts of this report and other recommendations from
Amnesty International.
Last October, I had the opportunity to appear before the
subcommittee to analyze the crackdown in Cuba on Cuban
dissidents that began on March 18, 2003. Allow me to highlight
briefly a few of the main observations we made at that time.
The March 2003 crackdown was the largest in recent Cuban
history. Arrests were followed by summary trials and long
prison sentences, in some cases up to 28 years. The crackdown
broke what appeared to be a trend away from long term
detentions for political dissidents in Cuba. What distinguishes
this crackdown from many previous massive arrests is not the
number but the laws used to convict dissidents in Cuba. This
was the first time that the Cuban authorities used the so-
called Law 88 in criminal proceedings. Law 88 officially known
as the law for protection of national independence and the
economy of Cuba is a direct response to the perceived U.S.
aggression with the adoption in the United States of the Cuban
Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996, well known as
the Helms-Burton Act.
Let me briefly highlight some of the issues of the
prisoners of conscience arrested in March 2003. In March 2004,
Amnesty issued a new report that reviewed the status of 75 of
the 79 prisoners of conscience arrested in March and called
attention to a number of troubling issues related to their
incarceration. Among Amnesty International's findings I would
like to highlight the following.
Amnesty International has denounced the Cuban Government's
practice of deliberately incarcerating the 75 individuals in
prisons located at extreme distances from their homes and
families. This makes access to families and legal assistance
particularly difficult and can be construed as an additional
penalty imposed upon the prisoners and their families. This
practice contravenes the United Nations body of principles for
the protection of all persons under any form of detention or
imprisonment, known as Principle 20.
For example, Normando Hernandez Gonzales, who lives in
Vertientes in the province of Camaguey is serving his sentence
in Pinar del Rio province, nearly 700 kilometers away, while
Eduardo Diaz Fleitas from Pinar del Rio is being held in Kilo 8
prison in Camaguey.
Amnesty has also received scattered allegations of ill
treatment by prison guards or by other prisoners reportedly
with the complicity of prison guards. Such instances would
contravene Article 4 of the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights which states that ``No one shall be subjected to torture
or to cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment or punishment.''
In one such case, reports indicate that a prisoner of
conscience, Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, was taken from his
cell by three prison guards on December 31, 2003 and dragged to
the floor while reportedly being struck in the face and body.
Guards also allegedly trapped his leg in a door to immobilize
him during the beating.
There are other incidents of abuse but I won't take time
now to highlight those. I wanted to just say a bit about health
issues which is also a major concern for prisoners.
Amnesty International is concerned at numerous reports of
illnesses among the prisoners which have reportedly been
aggravated by prison conditions, insufficient access to
appropriate medical care and at times hunger strikes. The U.N.
body of principles for the protection of all prisoners under
any form of detention and imprisonment states that, ``A proper
medical examination shall be offered to a detained or
imprisoned person as promptly as possible after his admission
to the place of detention or imprisonment and thereafter,
medical care and treatment shall be provided whenever
necessary.''
According to reports that we have received, at the time of
his arrest, Oscar Espinosa Chepe had already been diagnosed
with chronic cirrhosis of the liver and liver failure and
bleeding from the digestive tract among other illnesses. Since
his arrest, his health has reportedly deteriorated. According
to family members, the deterioration has been due in part to
the poor conditions in which he is being held including lack of
running water and lack of clean drinking water as well as by
inadequate medical attention. While in detention, he has
reportedly been hospitalized several times due to liver
problems. In July 2003, his family presented a judicial request
for his release on the grounds of his ill health. They have
reportedly received no response from the authorities.
I would like to say a brief word about some recent releases
of prisoners. According to information we have received, five
prisoners of conscience were released from jail just last week.
Most of them appear to have been released on humanitarian
grounds for health reasons. Leonardo Bruzon Avila had been in
declining health for some months because of repeated hunger
strikes. He along with Carlos Alberto Gonzales, Emilio Leyva
and Lazaro Rodriguez also were released and have been in prison
without trial for 27 months. They were not part of the 75
arrested beginning in March. Miguel Valdez Tamayo, reportedly
suffering from serious cardiovascular problems, was apparently
given what is called a ``licencia extrapenal,'' which means he
continues serving his sentence under house arrest. The others
have been granted immediate freedom or ``cambio de medidas.''
Leonardo Bruzon has reportedly accepted refuge in France but
has not departed the island.
While these releases are welcome, they do not satisfy
Amnesty International's call for immediate and unconditional
release of all prisoners of conscience. In addition, Amnesty
International urges the Cuban Government to ensure that the
newly released prisoners have access to any necessary health
care services.
I have a few recommendations but I realize the time has
expired.
Mr. Burton. You can submit those for the record and we will
take a look at them.
Mr. Olson. I would be glad to.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Olson follows:]
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Mr. Burton. Mr. Reyes.
Mr. Reyes. Good morning to all of you.
I thank the committee for allowing these Cubans to speak on
behalf of the Cuban political prisoners.
In Cuba, freedom of speech and thinking is most horrible.
The truth is the criminal they fear the most. The United
Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, ``Nobody
should be prosecuted for the content of speech.'' I doubt that
any one of you could support any U.S. Government regulations
establishing that people write in favor of the government
cannot speak their mind but people criticizing or denying the
government cannot. However, that is one of the reasons given by
the Cuban Government to send the writer, Raul Rivero, to jail
for the next 20 years. The second reason is that Raul Rivero
met with top U.S. diplomats in Havana. In the trial, Raul
Rivero admitted that he had not only met the U.S. diplomats in
Havana, but also met diplomats from other countries, political
leaders, journalists, dissident professors at their request
because they want to know more about Cuba not only the official
version.
I hope everyone here agrees that choosing our friends or
who we invite to our homes or not is a very personal decision.
However, in Cuba, 75 dissidents are suffering for doing exactly
that. Since March 18, 2003 when he was arrested, my stepfather
has lost over 80 pounds of weight because of the bad conditions
and the small portion of food he receives. For 1 year, he was
confined in a 6 x 4 cell in which he had to wipe the walls and
the floor every day because of the humidity. A few weeks ago,
he was transferred to another location within the same prison
where he is staying now along with criminal robbers and
murders. Recently, he was announced with pulmonary emphysema.
After that, four political prisoners were released due to
health conditions. Many people in Cuba think they were released
only because the government feared they could die in prison. My
stepfather is not the only political prisoner under these
conditions. There were 74 others arrested between March 18 and
20 of last year. They joined the more than 250 that were
already in jail.
Today, I want to present the answer to Cuban Prime
Minister's speech before the International meeting in Havana on
March 24, 2004 by a letter sent by Senor Reyes, president of
the Center for Social Studies who was condemned to 25 years of
prison for the same crime as Raul Rivero. First, do you know
how many prisoners are disabled because they have ingested salt
and other chemicals because of the rigorous prison system. They
say that they don't beat the prisoners. I invite them seriously
to come here and I will show them of the beaten prisoners which
is known by everybody here including the state security. The
evidence is here.
I can't believe that food given to prisoners is adequate.
The food served here is not even good for the dogs that watch
the prison perimeters. In most case, it is rotten. There is a
big business with the food that belongs to the prisoners and
when someone complains about it and asks for better quality
food, he takes a chance to be beaten. I have many examples of
this for whoever wants to know. This is what Mr. Peraser was
writing to Mr. Rocas in Havana.
Fortunately, Cuban dissidents are not alone. They have the
solidarity of many human rights and political organizations
around the world and this body as well. Many political
dissidents and their families have food because public and
private funded organizations are taking care of them.
I respectfully ask this body to increase the funds for the
civil society in Cuba. It is true that more than 300 people are
imprisoned because of their political ideas. It is true also
that more than 11 million Cubans are suffering but there are
also thousands of Cubans fighting for democratic change. They
live in a totalitarian society that controls the media and the
transportation. The more independent they are, the more of a
threat they can be. They need international support to spread
the ideas to the island. They need to update and maintain the
political conduct with the rest of the world. They need to keep
an active and efficient representation outside the country. The
Cuban people need their true friends to liberate our people.
Only a combination of solidarity, material support and more
political pressure can achieve that.
Thank you very much and God bless America.
Mr. Burton. Thank you, Mr. Reyes.
Mr. Suchlicki, some of the things you said in your opening
statement were troubling. You said that you thought there was
going to be continuity after Fidel Castro dies because he is
turning over about 65 percent of the state-owned businesses to
the military. That is very depressing because we have been told
many times by dissidents and others that when he goes, Raul
Castro couldn't hold the communist regime together. You don't
agree with that?
Mr. Suchlicki. There are two levels of analysis here. One
is the level of leadership analysis where you look at the
leadership of Cuba and say, does Raul have the charisma, the
support, is Raul a good successor for Fidel Castro. Then there
is another level of analysis which looks at the institutional
strength of Cuba, the military, the Communist Party, the
security apparatus. Based on that second type of analysis which
is the one I follow and look at, we have a unified military in
Cuba, we have a military that is involved in the economy and
like I said is running 65 percent of the economy, doing well,
making money, so how do you get that military out of power and
back to the barracks? How do you transform that kind of
society? So I am not so optimistic that once Fidel dies, this
thing is going to fall apart.
All of the officers at the higher echelon of the military
have been nurtured by both Fidel and his brother, Raul. The
second echelon have also been nurtured by Raul. So you do have
a military that is loyal to Raul and will support him in a
succession and a change.
Mr. Burton. That is the officers in the second tier maybe.
What about the rank and file military personnel? All they are
getting is their pay.
Mr. Suchlicki. You can assume a lot of scenarios. One, that
the military will collapse or split, that the population of
Cuba the day Fidel dies, jumps in the street, that there is
another crisis with the United States and there is a
confrontation with the United States, but I provide low
probability to any of those scenarios. My high probability
scenario, although it is pessimistic and not very optimistic is
that once Fidel dies, the Politburo of the Communist Party will
meet, Raul will be appointed and would become Secretary General
of the party, will continue to be head of the armed forces, the
Politburo will appoint some civilian leader of Cuba to continue
to run the government and we will have a joint leadership.
Whether the population at that point will support it, whether
that leadership will be willing to provide significant changes,
what policy initiatives does the United States take at that
moment to try to encourage change, is the dynamic.
I don't foresee and I hope I am wrong that once Fidel dies,
this whole thing will fall apart and we will have an Eastern
European type revolution in Cuba.
Mr. Burton. I am one of the senior members of the Foreign
Affairs Committee in the House and if you have suggestions on
how we could see positive change down there, any of you for
that matter, I would like to have you submit those to us so we
could take a look at them long term.
Mr. Suchlicki. I would be happy to.
Mr. Burton. Mr. Lopez, you said something in your remarks
about getting the proper items, humanitarian aid and other
things, to the people. One of the problems we have seen in the
past was when we got stuff down there, even through NGO's, the
government controls them and Fidel Castro doesn't let those
products that are very important get to the people. He uses
those instead for commerce and for bringing tourism to the
island. The things like Tylenol and others, the people don't
get.
You suggested we need to do something to get those items to
the people. How do you suggest we do that?
Mr. Montenegro. We are doing it through the Cuban-American
National Foundation. We send medicines, food, anything to
dissidents or political prisoners. As a matter of fact, we sent
a package to Miguel's mother, Ms. Reyes, every month. You have
to use your own channels, you have to create your own network.
That is what we are doing.
Mr. Burton. So you are doing it in a kind of covert way to
make sure it gets to the people?
Mr. Montenegro. Yes. You have to avoid the official
channels because that is what happens, exactly what you said.
The Cuban Government uses them, selling in the stores, but you
can use people who are going to Cuba every day on a daily
basis, tourists from Latin America, from Europe, NGO's that are
working in Europe and also in Latin America, they are working
inside Cuba and you can use those channels to send the material
aid to Cuba.
The technological devices are also very important because
inside Cuba, and I have another perspective because I was
living in Cuba for a long time, the Cuban population admires
everything that is technological advanced because it is such a
closed society that when somebody sees a laptop.
Mr. Burton. But are they allowing the people to get those
things? I thought Castro was clamping down, saying the people
couldn't get computers, fax machines and so forth?
Mr. Montenegro. Yes, but you can send the computer. For
example, we sent laptops to Vladimir Roca and some of them are
still working. Some people have cell phones, satellite phones
in Cuba right now.
Mr. Burton. But they have to keep that kind of quiet?
Mr. Montenegro. Yes.
Mr. Burton. Mr. Reyes, I didn't get from you why your
stepfather was arrested. He is a poet but what did he do to
make Castro want him incarcerated?
Mr. Reyes. His only crime was writing and saying his
beliefs.
Mr. Burton. Did he write some poetry that criticized the
government?
Mr. Reyes. No. He just was telling the truth, just telling
what the Castro media, the Castro government doesn't want to
hear from the people, telling what is happening in Cuba which
they know what is happening in Cuba but they don't want one
person saying to the rest of the Cuba, listen I can say this,
you can follow me. I believe that is why Raul was condemned to
20 years.
Mr. Burton. Ms. Watson, do you have any questions?
Ms. Watson. I am just wondering as Fidel Castro ages and I
think he has been in office for 44 years and the changing
circumstances in the world, let me liken this to CARICOM and
Haiti, could not a group of the nations down in that area along
with us have the kind of deliberation sessions and meetings
with Fidel Castro. We were down there toward the end of last
year and he met our delegation, I guess he is famous for this.
We started at 9 p.m., he was 6 hours on the television and came
to meet with us. We got into such a meaty discussion where he
talked about his detainees and he said, he turned around to us
and said, well, you have a Constitution and when somebody
violates the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, what do you
do? He said, the people I have detained have done A, B and C. I
don't know how much that could be backed up with fact but we
had an open discussion which I felt he was very sincere. He has
a vision for where he wants to take his country and that has
been the vision of the revolution ever since.
Since there is no longer a Soviet Union and the other
countries that were supportive of him, would you think it would
be effective to bring these neighboring countries together in a
negotiated dialog with Fidel Castro? Certainly human rights
offenses cannot be accepted in our hemisphere or anywhere, so I
think we have some ways of really putting pressure on him. I
don't think the sanctions are working and they are hurting many
people.
I was really big on going back until the atrocities that I
mentioned before were committed but I do think maybe it is now
time to seriously get into ongoing discussions. We just lost
President Ronald Reagan and he was famous for saying tear down
that wall and then going into some discussions. What do you
think?
Mr. Suchlicki. I think it is not an issue of discussions. I
think we have had discussions with Fidel. The question is, is
he willing to provide meaningful concessions in exchange for a
change in American foreign policy. The answer has traditionally
been no. So we do have a leader that is not really that
interested in relations with the United States. He would like
unilateral concessions with the United States, unilateral
lifting of the ban without him having to provide irreversible
concessions on Cuba.
Ms. Watson. So what am I hearing you say, that is not the
route to take?
Mr. Suchlicki. Europeans have tried, the Europeans have had
engagement with Cuba for the past 20 years, have tried to talk
to Fidel Castro.
Ms. Watson. That is the past, what do you think will work
in this climate, in this era, in the present?
Mr. Suchlicki. I don't think there are leaders that are not
willing to provide change.
Ms. Watson. No, no. I would like you to help us. What would
you suggest, what do you think would work?
Mr. Suchlicki. I think maintaining the policy, not changing
U.S. foreign policy, not providing unilateral concessions to
Fidel Castro unless he is willing to provide reciprocal
concessions. Hold the policy of the embargo and the ban for the
time there is a leader there willing to open up Cuba and
willing to provide concessions. Work with the international
community to bring about pressure. The Caribbean countries are
small, poor. Castro is not interested in them. They are not
going to help. Maybe Brazil would help a little bit, maybe the
Europeans can help. Try to highlight the violations of human
rights publicly, keep the spotlight on the violations of human
rights so the world sees what is happening in Cuba and then you
have a plethora of overt and covert policies that the U.S.
Government can follow to accelerate a process of change.
At the invitation of the chairman, I will be submitting a
list of suggestions for the U.S. Government to handle. So I
don't think it is the moment to change policy. Fidel Castro
hasn't earned anything, so why should we change the policy?
In Latin America, since the Carter administration, we have
been consistent in advocating civilian government, human rights
and democratic government. President Carter intervened in Haiti
to try to create a democratic government there. President
Reagan intervened in Grenada to get rid of the thugs that had
created the communist regime there. President Bush, the first,
intervened in Panama to bring and restore democracy to that
country. I am not saying we should intervene militarily in
Cuba, I am not advocating that but aren't the Cubans deserving
of the same support on the part of the United States or are the
Cubans less than other Latin American countries and therefore
we should resign to have a long term dictatorship in Cuba and
provide money and tourism and trade and aid which will continue
the present structures of Cuba, will consolidate the present
structure of Cuba and commit the Cuban people to a much longer
dictatorship.
Ms. Watson. I think you missed something in my query and
that was what were the benefit.
I am going to go on to Mr. Lopez. In my query, I said would
it be worth sitting down having a negotiated kind of
discussion. When I say negotiated, that means both sides have
to play. You have to give to get.
Mr. Montenegro. The Varela Project was a negotiation
between the Cuban people and Fidel Castro, 25,000 signatures.
Ms. Watson. Let us broaden it from just the Cuban people to
the countries.
Mr. Montenegro. Based on the constitution. Fidel Castro
says these people were detained by violating the constitution.
These people who signed the Varela Project were enforcing the
constitution. They submitted this proposal to Fidel Castro.
What was the answer? First of all, communism or socialism is
nonrevocable or nonnegotiable. That is what they put on the
constitution and after that, they cracked down. That is the
answer to Fidel Castro to negotiations.
You asked what we can do right now. I think the dissident
movement created a basis for what we can do. We have to help
the civil society because that is becoming a force inside Cuba.
That is a force that Fidel Castro cannot understand. As I said,
the government is afraid of people overcoming fear in Cuba
because the system is based on the culture of fear. By helping
civil society, helping the human rights activities, we can get
more and more people involved in asking for change in Cuba.
That eventually would get into the structure of power that Mr.
Suchlicki is talking about and maybe we can break the system
they are trying to create.
I don't believe Raul Castro has the charisma to be the
successor of Fidel Castro. I think they are trying to do that.
Jamie is right on that, they are trying to promote a secession.
The only way we have to promote peaceful, democratic change in
Cuba and break that scheme for secession is helping civil
society, creating another political force in Cuba which is the
human rights movement, which is nonviolent.
Ms. Watson. Mr. Olson.
Mr. Olson. I wanted to address two issues you raised. One
was the statement of President Castro that the prisoners
violated the law and therefore it is normal that they would be
imprisoned. I wanted to look at the case of Raul Rivero as an
example of why we have a problem with that. On the surface, he
is right, there is a law, Law 88, that defines certain crimes
and they are accusing him of violating Article 91 of that penal
code. The indictment against him, based solely on official
documents not our interpretation, accuses him of subversive
activities aimed at affecting the territorial independence and
integrity of Cuba. It offers no specifics about the actions he
has taken. It is a very open-ended accusation.
In other places, it states he disseminated what they call
false news to satisfy the interests of his sponsors of the
North American Government. In other words, he was spreading
news, peacefully, never accused of doing it violently, offering
an opinion and also in his sentence, it says, ``The accused in
addition to the facts already described, from 2000 began
disseminating information via the Inquintro and Abred webpage
belonging to the International Press Society.'' That is his
crime, offering news, posting stories on the Web. They are not
even accusing him of inciting violence or asking for the
overthrow of the government. They are merely saying he is
sharing information on the Web and this is their own words.
For us, those laws themselves do not make international
standards for freedom of expression. Therefore, we believe Mr.
Rivero and 82 others are prisoners of conscience because they
have expressed themselves, whatever their opinion is and I have
no opinion about their opinion, but they are doing it openly,
they should be doing it freely and they are making no appeal to
violence. So we differ strongly with Mr. Castro's
interpretation of the law. These people are wrongfully
imprisoned and should be immediately and unconditionally
released.
Ms. Watson. Are you an attorney, Mr. Olson?
Mr. Olson. No, I am not but this is the analysis of our
organization and I represent the organization here today.
Ms. Watson. It is very hard to question an individual case
because we don't know all the circumstances but I am thinking
in a broader sense and I just asked my staff to research
Article 91 and let us take a look at it.
Mr. Olson. If you like, it is quite extensively reviewed in
our report of last March, essential measures which outlines the
content of that law and why it is not consistent with
international standards.
Ms. Watson. If you have something in writing, I will have
my staff take a look. If you have a copy, I would appreciate
it.
Mr. Olson. Certainly and I would recommend you look at
that.
On your other question, I think you are asking a valid
question. We have recommended among many things that the United
States reexamine its policy toward Cuba. We do not think it has
been particularly effective in promoting human rights in Cuba
and we among our recommendations are not negotiation but
building a broader and more effective coalition amongst
European and Latin American nations, including Caribbean
nations as you said, to both engage and confront the Cuban
Government on all of these human rights issues.
What stung Fidel Castro after the March 2003 crackdown was
not criticism from the United States, that did nothing to hurt
him. In fact, in many ways, it plays into his hands. What stung
him was the criticism from longtime allies, Mexico, other Latin
American nations, other so-called leftists, European
governments who have maintained close relations. The United
States should work effectively with them and allow them to take
the lead because they clearly have much more influence if you
will over what Mr. Castro does and says.
I acknowledge that is not negotiation, we are not calling
for that. That will take a lot of patience and time but in our
estimation that approach is more likely to be effective than
the current approach of the U.S. Government.
Ms. Watson. Thank you. Mr. Reyes.
Mr. Reyes. Just to give you the last news I have from my
stepfather, my mother is asking for the last 2 or 3 weeks for
the Cuban authorities to allow him to have a fan because the
degree in the cell is 100 degrees. This is hard anywhere and
the Cuban authorities don't allow him to have the fan. We are
trying to explain to the friends of Castro, not talking bad
about Castro himself but just show him the face of those
people, why they were condemned to 20 years, why they were
condemned to 25 years, what is the crime. That is the way we
are trying to approach these governments that still believe in
the Castro regime and the Castro revolution.
Ms. Watson. I think what you said, Mr. Olson, was very
compelling. Those nations, and I know in our conversations,
Russia was mentioned most often, nations that have helped us
when you wouldn't help us, that is what he said to us, maybe it
is those nations we gather together along with CARICOM and
surrounding nations and have them step up to the plate.
My staff just handed me the information on Article 91 and
he seems to be a brilliant mind and I think there is some
reasoning that needs to be done with him. We call ourselves a
nation of laws and he said to us, are you aware that we have a
constitution? It made us look less informed than we should have
been but yes, I guess we were aware, so I heard the legal mind
come out. That is why I asked if you were an attorney. He is an
attorney and he is very clever. I would think we would use his
own law as the basis for a discussion that would have the input
from other nations that he cares about who have helped him in
time of need.
I would like to see us do something with that approach. I
guess it was Mr. Suchlicki who said he was going to give us a
list of proposals he thinks would work. If we consider ongoing
talks and really using his rule of law, his constitution as a
basis, I think we could shed some light on does the punishment
fit the crime, 25 years for publishing something you didn't
like reading. I think working through his knowledge of the law
and his own constitutional laws might be one way to broaden the
conversation and to have it involving other nations he has
dealt with in the past might be one way to go.
Mr. Montenegro. I agree with the idea to create an
international coalition. I think Europe should have a role and
also CARICOM should play a role even though they are poor,
small countries because Castro is always trying to portray the
image that the Cuban problem is a conflict between Cuba and the
United States. In recent months or in the past 2 years, it has
become an international problem and that is hurting Castro. I
agree with Mr. Olson and you can argue with Castro about that
because he is always going to say the same thing. This is our
law, we have our own interpretation of what democracy is and
anything else is interfering with internal affairs in Cuba. So
this international coalition should be created to put pressure
on Castro for human rights and civil liberties in Cuba.
Mr. Burton. Let me add a couple comments. My colleague and
I sometimes are in very strong agreement with one another and
other times we have a little disagreement. When I participated
in writing the Helms-Burton law, the Libertad Act, we did a lot
of study and research on that and it went on for a couple of
years. One of the things we found was that he does not adhere
to international law, he may claim to follow a constitution,
but the fact is whenever he has a whim about somebody, they go
into the slammer and they are tortured. I would hope my
colleague, if she has the time, would read Against All Hope by
Armondo Valadarez and I will be glad to get you a copy of that
book because he spent 27 years in a Cuban prison for virtually
nothing except opposing Castro's views.
The other thing is a lot of my colleagues have been talking
about ending the embargo because they say when you end the
embargo, the people will have a better standard of living. What
most of my colleagues don't realize is that if a person works
for a company like one of the big hotel chains there on the
beaches and are paid $400 in U.S. currency, that money does not
go to the people working there, the money goes to the
government and then the government pays the people back with
$400 pesos which are worth less than $5-$10 a month. So even if
the embargo were lifted and we started paying people a living
wage, the money has to go to the government and it is
recirculated to them in the form of pesos, so the standard of
living remains the same, $5-$10 a month and that is why they
are living pretty much in the dark ages.
We have this debate on the floor of the Capitol all the
time on whether or not the embargo should be lifted. I would
love to see the standard of living for every Cuban lifted to
where they are making $400-$500 a month which could be done if
there were a free Cuba but as long as the government controls
the currency, controls where the money goes, the people are
going to be subservient to the government and they are going to
have to follow Fidel Castro's edicts. That is where we stand
today.
With that, I want to thank you very much for your comments.
This is not the end of this. I would like to have any
recommendations you have on how to solve the problem. It is a
Gordian knot but we are going to continue to work on it until
we see freedom in Cuba.
Thank you very much.
[Whereupon, at 12:27 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned,
to reconvene at the call of the Chair.]
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