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Good evening,
ladies and gentlemen. I appreciate this opportunity to be here
tonight to talk about Cuba and U.S.-Cuba relations.
It goes
without saying that this is a deeply personal topic for me and for
the many members of our organization. It is now almost twenty years
since my father, Jorge Mas Canosa, and a group of Cuban patriots
established the Cuban American National Foundation as a broad-based
organization dedicated to the reestablishment of freedom and
democracy in Cuba. It is with a great deal of pride and humility
that I recognize two of those individuals tonight: Francisco Hernandez and Domingo Moreira. And, as well,
someone who has recently lent his good name to help further the
goals of our organization, Ambassador Dennis Hays.
Nearly two
decades later, we as an organization have never strayed from our
principles or objectives: we stand for freedom of thought,
expression and religion; the right of the people to freely elect
their government; and the right to private property, free
enterprise, and economic prosperity with social
justice.
Because we
understand the value of the free flow of information into closed
societies like Cuba’s, we broadcast news and information into Cuba
daily on “The Voice of the Foundation,” our short-wave radio
station. Because we support the Cuban people, we send medicine and
humanitarian supplies into Cuba through a network of couriers. In
addition, we have opened our arms to support and resettle thousands
of refugees and exiles fleeing Castro’s tyranny.
Now, I wanted
to begin my remarks this evening by saying a brief word about what I
am NOT going to talk about—the U.S. economic embargo of the Castro
regime. The embargo has been, and must remain, a key component of
our policy toward an undemocratic Cuba. The pressure and isolation
of illegitimate, repressive, regimes is not novel nor exclusive to
Cuba. It has been proven effective historically—most recently in
South Africa, Chile, Haiti and the former
Yugoslavia.
U.S. resolve,
as manifested in this way, limits Castro’s ability to export
subversion abroad or to strengthen his repressive machinery at home.
It is because of this policy that the American taxpayer has not been
saddled with uncollectible
debts like our European and Latin allies continue to be—and for
those of you who closely track this, you have just seen the collapse
of a wheat-for-sugar barter deal with France because of the regime’s
unwillingness or inability to pay the millions it owes the
French.
Moreover,
U.S. economic sanctions are also a tangible sign of this nation’s
commitment to the Cuban people—that we have never, and will never;
accept a brutal, cruel dictatorship that steals dignity, hope, and
even bread from a proud people.
I am
heartened that President Bush has made it perfectly clear that his
administration will not weaken sanctions as long as Cuba’s leaders
stifle free speech, as long as political prisoners languish in
Castro’s jails, and as long as the citizens of Cuba are denied the
right to freely elect their leaders.
So, if U.S.
engagement with the Castro regime is unacceptable—not to mention
fruitless—does that mean we are satisfied with the status quo? My
answer is an emphatic NO. For too many years now, we have had a
static, sterile policy in which leading officials have paid lip
service to the goal of a free Cuba, but were actually more
interested in preserving what they called “stability” on the
island—content to allow the continued suffering of the Cuban people
in exchange for Castro’s willingness to serve as warden to eleven
million people. At the same time, many on our side have pretended
that if we just enforced U.S. sanctions against the regime, we could
achieve our objective of establishing freedom and democracy for the
Cuban people.
Ladies and
gentlemen, for the sake of the Cuban people—their hopes, their
dreams, their aspirations—and for the sake of our own national
interest—we need to aggressively move beyond this stagnant
situation—and that is what I am here to talk about, what we are FOR,
not against. What we are FOR is adding a separate, pro-active
component to our policy that will involve working on island—inside
Cuba—and engaging directly the Cuban people. However—and it is
important to emphasize—there is a very fundamental divide between
what we mean by this and what others have proposed.
We need a new
U.S. policy towards Cuba that actively seeks to empower the Cuban
people and promote their independence from the current regime. For
forty years, we have watched with great frustration as Fidel Castro
has chained the Cuban people to ration books and run Cuba as its
sole employer to ensure the political servitude of its people. His
dictum: “Comply with everything I say and do and you get to work and
eat.”
It is
painfully clear that peaceful, positive change can only come to Cuba
if we begin to break the shackles of dependence forced on the Cuban
people by the Castro regime.
To begin that
process, the U.S. would do well to emulate the Reagan and Bush
administrations approach to Poland in the 1980s, as the Chairman of
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Jesse Helms, also called for
in a recent speech at the American Enterprise Institute. That
greatly successful approach hastened Poland’s democratic
transformation by isolating the communist regime in Warsaw, while
actively lifting the isolation of the Polish people—supporting the
democratic opposition and cultivating an emerging civil society with
financial and other means of support.
Perhaps the
most important lesson to be drawn from the Polish experience,
however, is that it demonstrates what U.S. policy is capable of
accomplishing when the political will exists. Sadly, over the past
years there has been precious little political will to achieve the
stated goal of U.S. policy since the 1960s: to see a free and
democratic Cuba rejoin our hemisphere as a partner in good
standing.
We believe
there exists an opportunity today for the new Bush administration to
combine a reinvigorated political will with an activist policy to
make that long-professed goal a reality.
What would
such an activist policy look like?
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To begin
with, it would provide U.S. assistance to support peaceful,
pro-democracy activities by local Cuban independent entities,
non-governmental organizations and individuals. This means
developing and overseeing programs that provide direct financial
and material resources to Cuba’s democratic
opposition and independent groups and individuals fostering
the development of civil society, including independent
journalists and libraries or groups looking to protect Cuba’s
ravaged environment. Resources should include computers, printers,
cellular phones, fax machines, internet devices, and the very
latest in other communications equipment, such as wireless
technologies, satellites, and so forth.
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The U.S.
should move to provide funding to help establish or strengthen
true nongovernmental organizations in Cuba. Assistance would
include training, organizational help, and the establishment of
links with similarly focused international groups. As well, we
should encourage the participation of reputable international NGOs
to involve themselves in Cuba affairs. And here I think we can
draw a parallel with President Bush’s intention to encourage a
prominent role for non-governmental institutions in the carrying
out of his agenda domestically; we see no reason why that cannot
be expanded to the international sphere.
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We should
also provide direct aid to families of prisoners of conscience,
especially those denied access to jobs by Cuban authorities or who
have lost the wages of an imprisoned spouse or parent. This not
only for humanitarian reasons, but also to counter the regime’s
continued, systematic campaign to decimate Cuba’s peaceful
opposition.· And not only should U.S. policy be targeted towards
assisting those acting independently in the political and social
spheres; we also need to act in the economic sphere. A crucial
component of a new, activist U.S. policy towards Cuba should be to
promote free and independent enterprise in Cuba by strengthening
and expanding the heavily repressed and struggling privately owned
economic sector: the self-employed, home-based restaurants and
hostels, independent farmers, church-run clinics, private day care
centers, independent soup kitchens, and similar community
self-help enterprises.
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Another
initiative worth contemplating is to exempt from the U.S. embargo
goods produced by verifiably self-employed Cubans. While this may
have minimal economic impact in either country, it sends an
important political message. The U.S. should as well consider
allowing U.S. businesses to export raw materials, inputs,
semi-finished products, etc., to privately owned entities in Cuba,
provided guidelines are put into place to ensure the Castro regime
doesn’t exploit such transfers to its own advantage.
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Another
important political signal to the Cuban people would be to license
U.S. universities and private sector entities to establish
business management training and labor rights institutes in Cuba
on the condition that such entities will be made available to all
Cubans regardless of race, creed, or political affiliation. True
interaction with the Cuban people depends on this very elementary
requirement. Cuban students could also be awarded scholarships—by
universities or the private sector—to attend business school and
management training programs, as well as computer and Internet
programs, in the United States. This can be augmented by providing
Information Technology training and used computer equipment on
island.
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Again, this
has to be open to all Cubans in Cuba and cannot be allowed to
function with the Cuban government as an intermediary. A similar
program could also be considered in cooperation with the AFL-CIO
and other labor groups, to educate Cuban workers on
internationally recognized labor rights and the organizing of free
trade unions.
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It is
imperative that the U.S. work to effectively expand the free flow
of information to benefit the Cuban people, rather than the
totalitarian regime. Since the passage of the 1992 Cuban Democracy
Act, U.S. law has recognized that broadcasting accurate and
objective information to Cuba is an important goal of American
foreign policy. Accurate news about events inside and outside Cuba
is essential to a people bombarded on a daily basis by state
propaganda and disinformation. Through Radio and T.V. Marti, the
United States has sought to provide that access to Cubans.
However, since 1992, due to Cuban government jamming and internal
difficulties, the Cuban audience has been greatly reduced. A new
Presidential Advisory Board on Broadcasting to Cuba must be named.
In addition, any technological changes or improvements required to
permit unblocked transmissions of TV Marti to Cuba should be
adopted.
I note that
the recent presidential decision to aid the Iraqi dissident movement
will include satellite television broadcasts, 24-hour radio
broadcasts from a “high-power transmitter” and distribution of a
miniature version of an opposition weekly newspaper inside areas
under Saddam Hussein’s control. We need—we must have—this same
commitment and determination to get unfettered information into
Cuba.
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To expand
contacts with the Cuban people so that U.S. government
representatives can more easily move about Cuba, our government
should demand and enforce reciprocity in permitted activities for
diplomats of both countries. At present, an outrageous, completely
unacceptable, one-sided situation exists wherein Cuban diplomats
based in Washington freely visit Congress, federal departments and
agencies, the media, and business and social groups, while
American diplomats in Havana are denied access to government
offices, universities, the courts, the National Assembly, and
virtually all official facilities other than the Ministry of
Foreign Relations. This prevents the free exchange of information
and severely limits the scope of action and effectiveness of our
representatives. It also goes without saying that additional U.S.
personnel will likely be needed to staff the U.S. Interests
Section in Havana to oversee the initiatives we are proposing.
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To further
expand the free flow of ideas, we should push for more American
news bureaus in Cuba. The more news bureaus in Cuba, the less
likely it will be that self-censorship limits reporters to
meaningless stories on 1950s Chevys, the Tropicana, and cigars. We
need more reports on the dissident Dr. Oscar
Biscet, the independent libraries, and the alarming
environmental damage Fidel Castro’s policies are causing on the
island.
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Finally, to
demonstrate that our quarrel is not with the Cuban people but with
Castro’s dictatorial regime and to further promote independent
activity on the island, we encourage the U.S. government to
establish and fund a Food for Peace program (P.L. 480) for Cuba
whereby food donations would be sent directly to the Cuban
population through internationally recognized NGOs. A condition
for the continuation of the donations would be that the Cuban
government must not interfere with the direct delivery of the food
to the people. One would hope, as well, that family farmers in the
U.S. would be the beneficiaries of such a program, not the
agribusiness giants that hide behind the family farmer name to
pursue their voracious agenda of putting profit before principle.
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To
facilitate donations of food, medicine, and medical products, the
U.S. should issue licenses to private, religious, and
nongovernmental organizations to operate distribution centers in
Cuba free from Cuban government interference.
Ladies and
gentlemen, these initiatives I have outlined represent only a few of
the ideas that can animate an aggressive, reinvigorated U.S. policy
towards Cuba truly seeking to realize the long-professed goal of a
free and democratic Cuba.
This course
is risky—it is meant to radically alter the status quo and
aggressively promote change. Fidel Castro runs Cuba as his personal
fiefdom and penetrating the island with a message of freedom and
independence is naturally fraught with great difficulty. But as long
as there are Cubans willing to seize these opportunities, we as a
nation should do all in our power to support them. As they say,
build it and they will come; we should make it very clear to the
Cuban people that the assistance is there for those who want
it.
This new
approach will necessitate tremendous vigilance on the part of the
U.S. government. The Castro regime can be counted on to try and
exploit for its own benefit any outreach we make to the Cuban
people. Therefore, it is imperative that strict guidelines be
developed to carry out these programs. Civil and criminal penalties
should be imposed on any U.S.-based entity that knowingly cooperates
with the Castro regime for its financial or material
benefit.
Some will say
these initiatives will constitute a provocation and that instead we
need to engage the current regime to forestall the outbreak of
violence in a Cuban transition. There couldn’t be a more misguided
approach. For the bitter irony is that the longer the U.S. allows
Castro to remain in power—forcefully suppressing the dreams and
aspirations of the Cuban people—the longer the international
community continues to indulge and tolerate this reprehensible
regime, the more the conditions for a violent transition will
continue to grow. This is exactly what we want to avoid.
That is
because Fidel Castro’s uncompromising policies, his violently
shutting off any possibility of reform or honest debate about the
future of the country, serve only to further increase social
tensions and political instability on the island. The urgency of the
moment thus cannot be overestimated. It is plainly in the American
interest to arrest this spiraling situation by promoting peaceful,
positive change in Cuba NOW—not at some unknown point in the distant
future. The fact is that the U.S. national interest is most
certainly not served by having a strong Castro in the
hemisphere.
Let me
digress just for a moment on this issue. There is a body of thought
that contends that we shouldn’t upset Castro for fear he will
cynically unleash another chaotic refugee flow to American shores. I
believe it is imperative that the U.S. government makes it
unequivocally clear to Castro that any such move—endangering the
lives of thousands and causing sever dislocations in South
Florida—will be considered an assault on the national security of
the United States and will be dealt with accordingly. Of all the
things Fidel Castro is, he is not stupid—and I believe that a strong
demonstration of U.S. resolve on this issue will forestall any chaos
courtesy of the dictator.
As for the
cost of the initiatives I have outlined, I point out that only two
years ago the U.S. House of Representatives voted to allocate almost
$40 million to help build democracy in Serbia and Montenegro.
Surely, ladies and gentlemen, we can find the funds to promote
democracy on the doorstep of America in a country enslaved forty
years by a ruthless dictatorship. In fact, such an investment will
pay off many times over when Cuba can finally participate with the
rest of the hemisphere in a peaceful political and economic
alliance.
In this
context, let me just note an historical incident that every Cuban
knows but few Americans remember. In the dark hours of the
American Revolution—as the colonial troops were threatened with
annihilation by the British redcoats—a group of women in Cuba came
together and, in order to raise desperately needed funds to send
George Washington to help feed his army, sold their jewelry. Many
historians credit these "Ladies of Havana" with staving off the
collapse of the revolutionary army long enough for Washington to
defeat Cornwallis at Yorktown and ensure the birth of this great
nation. What we ask now is that in their time of continuing need, we
give the Cuban people the resources to take back their destiny
into their own hands.
Now, I would
like to add a word about open U.S. travel to Cuba. We oppose tourist
travel because we have seen time and again that it puts hard
currency into Castro’s pockets and does nothing—repeat, nothing—to
improve the lot of the Cuban people. In fact, it supports a
disgraceful system of apartheid, favoring foreigners while
humiliating the Cuban people. And it supports an enclave economy
designed to funnel foreign investment for the regime’s purposes
while limiting the dispersion effects of foreign contact with an
even stricter code of law for workers in the tourist industry. And
it encourages the exclusive privatization of capital—the only one
taking place in Cuba today—into the hands of the regime elites,
particularly the military; this will seriously hinder a stable and
just transition.
There is
another kind of travel, however, that we most certainly do
support—“purposeful travel”—the sort of travel that Czech
dignitaries Ivan Pilip and Jan Bubenik engaged in. Their actions,
which consisted of nothing more than meeting with peaceful
dissidents, are what shake the regime to its roots and leave Castro
sputtering in fear and rage. Purposeful travel does make a
difference.
I know this
organization sponsors travel to Cuba—but by accepting restrictions
on who gets a visa, meeting primarily with the very officials who
seek to perpetuate a rotten system and their own privileged
positions in it, failing to request meetings with jailed human
rights activists or, in the case of the Czechs, jailed foreigners
attempting to help the Cuban people—then, whatever you call your
delegation, you are just a tourist.
Let me make
one request of any of you who may be traveling to Cuba in the near
future: take but one peaceful action to make a difference. For
example, bring a big box of Spanish language books with you and give
them to one of the struggling independent libraries. Make a difference. Have a
purpose. Shine a light. Please look in your heart and ask what it is
you can do to provide some glimmer of hope for the Cuban
people.
In closing, I
would like to reaffirm that we at the Cuban American National
Foundation will continue our peaceful struggle in demanding the
Cuban people’s birthright to liberty. We do so in memory of the
thousands of our compatriots who have perished at the hands of this
un-elected and unaccountable regime—including at least 6,000
documented executions by firing squad and an estimated 80,000 men,
women and children lost at sea under horrific circumstances in their
quest for freedom—a regime that has forced more than a million of
its citizens into exile. Add to this the huge number of people who
have, over four decades, been thrown into political imprisonment
under the most appalling conditions.
In this
regard, we must enforce the rule of law in our approach to the
Castro. We must allow the U.S. judicial system to dispense justice
on behalf of American citizens and residents victimized by Castro’s
tyranny. I am referring specifically to indictments for the 1996
murders of the four Brothers to the Rescue pilots by the Castro
regime. A trial is currently underway in South Florida against Cuban
government agents in which evidence has been presented of a
conspiracy between those agents and the Castro regime to murder
those four men, and yet here we are five years later, and no one has
been held accountable for that cowardly crime.
Cuba will be
free, ladies and gentlemen. Cuba will be free because History is on
the side of those who stand for freedom, justice, and respect for
human dignity. And the historical record is incontrovertible in
demonstrating that appeasement of tyranny won’t end the suffering of
a people, it will only prolong and increase it. What the record
shows instead is that steadfast opposition and rejection of these
types of regimes is what brings suffering to an
end.
We are
committed to work towards that day when the vision of so many
patriots and martyrs of our homeland can at last be fulfilled. That
dream that my father envisioned—and to which so many have sacrificed
to achieve—can at last become a reality, when “Cubans, on the island
and in exile, will come together and become one in the noble effort
to accomplish…a lasting nation that enjoys freedom and the right to
the pursuit of happiness. A nation without bloodshed; with no
political prisoners; no exile; no misery; no injustice; and no
hate.”
In my heart,
I believe that day will soon be upon us, probably sooner than many
of us suspect, a day of triumph for the human spirit over adversity
and oppression, a day marking the rebirth and fulfillment of the
aspirations of the Cuban people for a legitimate and representative
government elected by the people.
Thank you
very much.
About Jorge Mas
Santos
About the Cuban Solidarity Act of
2001
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