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Testimony of Frank Calzón

Executive Director

Center for a Free Cuba

Submitted to the

Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness

Committee on Government Reform

> U.S. House of Representatives

Congressman Dan Burton, Chairman

October 16, 2003

Chairman Burton, thank you for the opportunity to appear before the
Subcommittee today. I appear on behalf of the Center for a Free Cuba, a
nonpartisan, nonprofit, independent human rights organization. I am glad
to testify before Chairman Burton, a hero to Cuban Americans and to
Cubans on the island. I am also pleased to appear before Congresswoman
Watson, whose experience as an ambassador provides an important
dimension to her work in Congress.

The Cuban people had great expectations of the 1959 revolution, but
instead they endured a totalitarian regime based on denial of human
rights and the destruction of civil society for over 40 years.

Fidel Castro's regime has done everything possible to keep Cuba under
total political paralysis, but the Cuban people continue to struggle to
regain the political and economic space denied to them by the
dictatorship. Cuba today is not the Cuba of ten years ago, indeed is not
the Cuba of one year ago. Cubans, taking heed of Pope John Paul II's
advise, began to act despite repression and fear.

On May, 2002 in accordance with Cuba's socialist constitution, Oswaldo
Payá turned in more than 11,000 petitions asking for a plebiscite on
democratic change to Cuba's National Assembly. Paya's initiative, the
Varela Project, was endorsed in an unprecedented Cuban TV broadcast by
President Jimmy Carter. Payá was honored by the European Parliament and
met with world leaders including Secretary of State Colin Powell.

Castro responded by declaring Cuban socialism "irrevocable and
untouchable." The regime sentenced 75 independent journalists,
independent librarians and human rights activists in summary proceedings
(about 40 of them were Varela Project activists). Most sentences ranged
between 15 to 25 years. The dictator also executed three Cubans who
hijacked a ferry, without injuring anyone.

The world took notice. The European Union called for the immediate
release of the dissidents. Sweden called the developments
"unacceptable." Germany, France, and Canada, among others, spoke out.
The AFL-CIO condemned the arrests of labor leaders; the Inter-American
Press Association called for the released of detained journalists, the
*Los Angeles Times* reported, "After years of calling for the lifting of
sanctions against Cuba, now we must ask U.S. policy makers to step on
the brakes." Nobel Laureate Jose Saramago, a long time supporter of the
revolution, said the executions "had robbed him of illusions and this is
as far as I go." *The Washington Post* reported that perhaps this is not
the time to soften pressure on the Cuban government and Uruguay's
Chamber of Deputies condemned Havana's repression.

*Granma*, Cuba's official newspaper, called Peru, Uruguay and Chile
"miserable puppets and a paradigm of abject treason." *Granma* called
Uruguay's president "a robot at the service of imperialism" and both
countries severed diplomatic ties.

Havana said *The New York Times* "is neither serious nor liberal." A
Spanish TV reporter was beaten by Cuban embassy staff at a demonstration
before the Cuban embassy in Paris. Ninety percent of Spaniards,
according to a survey, believe Fidel Castro should leave power. More
than 200 Czechs demonstrated before Castro's embassy in Prague.

Castro called Spanish President Jose Maria Aznar "a little fuher with a
little mustache." He called Italian Prime Minister Berlusconi, "Benito,"
and President Bush "a barracuda, an animal to which one should never
turn his back."

Castro withdrew Cuba's request for admission into the Cotonou Agreement
with the European Union, which provides tariff benefits to third world
countries. The regime closed Spain's cultural center in Havana, and
rejected European humanitarian assistance due to the Europeans'
continued reference to human rights.

The European Union said it would reduce contacts with Cuban government
officials and increase ties with Cuba's internal opposition. Germany
withdrew from Havana's book fair and Holland from Cuba's biennial art
festival. Greece has yet to decide whether to grant Castro a visa to
attend the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens. Meanwhile, Washington said
Cuba, Burma and North Korea have failed to take steps to stop "human
trafficking." In March 2002, the Protection Project at Johns Hopkins
University reported that "reports further indicate that Canadian and
American tourists have contributed to a sharp increase in child
prostitution and in the exploitation of women in Cuba."

If in the political sphere the regime is going through some rough times,
its economic performance is not better. Castro closed one half of Cuba's
sugar mills, a Mexican bank, Bancomext, (owed more than \$400 million)
froze Cuban assets in Europe. The most recent official figures available
(for 2001), as reported by *Reuters,* indicate direct foreign investment
"plummeted to \$39.8 million in 2001 from \$488 million a year before."

Castro is simply broke, and as Secretary Powell has said, Havana pays
some imports with the money it owes others. Several of Castro's most
important trading partners have suspended credits and export insurance.
Yet, like the second to last scene in a bad Hollywood western, some are
out trying to muster a cavalry to save his regime. This time, it is a
cavalry of American tourists and special interests whose objectives will
only strengthen the Western Hemisphere's most enduring dictatorship.

The question remains, what can the United States do? I answer that
question with thirteen modest proposals:

**One**: Do no harm. At a time of a widespread international awakening
about the nature of Castro's regime and the failure of the policies of
engagement and business as usual, American tourist dollars, U.S. credits
and export insurance would be, as President Bush has said, "foreign
assistance in disguise."

Let there be no confusion. American companies can sell food and medicine
on a cash and carry basis. What [is]{.underline} at issue is not U.S.
sales to Cuba, but asking the U.S. taxpayer to replace the lost Soviet
subsidies. If Washington could not rescue Enron, why rescue a bankrupt,
cruel, and hostile regime 90 miles from Florida? Many governments are
confronting Castro's insolvency. On January 4, 2003, John Turley-Ewart
wrote in Toronto's *National Post:*

"While tourist brochures tout Cuba as a vacation paradise of sandy
beaches, the Castro government has refused to pay millions of dollars it
owes to Canadian companies and Canadian taxpayers have subsidized
further millions in foreign aid that has done little to alleviate the
country's desperate poverty."

**Two**: Listen to the suggestions of former presidents Vaclav Havel
(Czech Republic), Arped Goncz (Hungary), and Lech Walesa (Poland) "to
put aside transatlantic disputes about the embargo on Cuba and to
concentrate on direct support for Cuban dissidents, prisoners of
conscience and their families." (*The Washington Post*, September 18,
2003)

**Three**: Be cautious about the implementation of U.S. policy. As
Theresa Bond has written in *Castro's Crackdown*, a recent article in
*Foreign Affairs* "in other totalitarian states, from Burma to Zimbabwe,
American and other diplomats provide similar assistance to local
dissidents, but they do it much more covertly---so discreetly, in fact,
that the programs rarely reach the public eye."

**Four**: Members of Congress and their staff should continue to
pressure the regime, either privately or publicly, to release all
political prisoners.

**Five**: Allow the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit
Cuban political prisons.

**Six**: Grant Cubans the same rights and opportunities foreigners enjoy
in Cuba today.

**Seven**: The Congress could, as Senator Bill Nelson indicated at a
recent Senate hearing, look into the need for additional U.S. funds to
promote a democratic transition on the island. Why not review U.S.
funding levels to promote democracy in other countries and bring the
Cuba programs' outlays to similar levels?

**Eight**: In line with statements by the President, the United States
should enforce the law by closing loopholes which allow the flow of
dollars to Castro which he uses for repression at home and anti-American
mischief abroad. The Administration should fully enforce the
Helms-Burton Law, particularly Title III which would permit U.S. courts
to hear suits brought against companies who traffic in stolen properties
in Cuba and Title IV which denies visas to enter the U.S. to such
traffickers.

**Nine**: The Administration should deploy a C-130 aircraft on the
Florida Straits once a week to broadcast TV Marti in order to overcome
"the information embargo that the Cuban government has imposed on its
people." The aircraft has been used as "an airborne transmission system"
in Haiti, Panama, the Balkans, and recently on May 20^th^, a U.S.
broadcast to Cuba.

**Ten**: The Administration should continue to warn Havana that a
massive refugee outflow (which, as in the past, would be manipulated by
Castro) would be considered "a hostile act." This is important to
prevent Castro's blackmail of the U.S.

**Eleven**: The Administration should provide more information to the
American people and the Congress about murderers of American police
officers and other FBI fugitives who have been granted safe haven in
Cuba.

**Twelve**: The Administration should also consider declassifying
information about Havana's capacity for research and development of
biochemical weapons.

**Thirteen**: And finally, the United States could ask its friends and
allies, many of whom have denounced repression in Cuba, to put in place
pro-democracy programs on the island.

In addition, there is much that the American people and NGO's (human
rights groups, churches, labor unions, etc) could do- which is not the
same as drinking *mojitos* in Cuba's beaches, palavering with the
bearded dictator and patronizing hotels, beaches, stores, restaurants
and clinics set aside for foreigners where Cubans are not allowed.