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HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA:

A SQUANDERED OPPORTUNITY

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, 

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND 

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED FOURTEENTH CONGRESS

FIRST SESSION

FEBRUARY 5, 2015

Serial No. 114–13

Printed for the use of the Committee on Foreign Affairs

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.foreignaffairs.house.gov/ or

http://www.gpo.gov/fdsys/

(II)

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS 

EDWARD R. ROYCE, California, Chairman 

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey 

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida 

DANA ROHRABACHER, California 

STEVE CHABOT, Ohio 

JOE WILSON, South Carolina 

MICHAEL T. MCCAUL, Texas 

TED POE, Texas 

MATT SALMON, Arizona 

DARRELL E. ISSA, California 

TOM MARINO, Pennsylvania 

JEFF DUNCAN, South Carolina 

MO BROOKS, Alabama 

PAUL COOK, California 

RANDY K. WEBER SR., Texas 

SCOTT PERRY, Pennsylvania 

RON DESANTIS, Florida 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

TED S. YOHO, Florida 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

REID J. RIBBLE, Wisconsin 

DAVID A. TROTT, Michigan 

LEE M. ZELDIN, New York 

TOM EMMER, Minnesota 

ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York 

BRAD SHERMAN, California 

GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York 

ALBIO SIRES, New Jersey 

GERALD E. CONNOLLY, Virginia 

THEODORE E. DEUTCH, Florida 

BRIAN HIGGINS, New York 

KAREN BASS, California 

WILLIAM KEATING, Massachusetts 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

ALAN GRAYSON, Florida 

AMI BERA, California 

ALAN S. LOWENTHAL, California 

GRACE MENG, New York 

LOIS FRANKEL, Florida 

TULSI GABBARD, Hawaii 

JOAQUIN CASTRO, Texas 

ROBIN L. KELLY, Illinois 

BRENDAN F. BOYLE, Pennsylvania

AMY PORTER, Chief of Staff THOMAS SHEEHY, Staff Director

JASON STEINBAUM, Democratic Staff Director 

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND

INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS

CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, Chairman 

MARK MEADOWS, North Carolina 

CURT CLAWSON, Florida 

SCOTT DESJARLAIS, Tennessee 

TOM EMMER, Minnesota 

KAREN BASS, California 

DAVID CICILLINE, Rhode Island 

AMI BERA, California 

(III)

C O N T E N T S 

Page

WITNESSES 

Mr. Jorge Luis Garcı ́a Pe ́rez, Secretary General, Cuban National Civic Resistance Front ............................................................................................................. 15

Ms. Berta Soler Ferna ́ndez, leader, Ladies in White (Damas de Blanco) ........... 19

Ms. Sara Martha Fonseca Quevedo, member, Ladies in White (Damas de 

Blanco) .................................................................................................................. 24

Mr. Geoff Thale, program director, Washington Office on Latin America .......... 28

LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING 

The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from 

the State of New Jersey, and chairman, Subcommittee on Africa, Global 

Health, Global Human Rights, and International Organizations: Prepared 

statement .............................................................................................................. 4

Mr. Jorge Luis Garcı ́a Pe ́rez: Prepared statement ............................................... 17

Ms. Berta Soler Ferna ́ndez: Prepared statement .................................................. 22

Ms. Sara Martha Fonseca Quevedo: Prepared statement .................................... 26

Mr. Geoff Thale: Prepared statement .................................................................... 31

APPENDIX 

Hearing notice .......................................................................................................... 54

Hearing minutes ...................................................................................................... 55

The Honorable Christopher H. Smith: Statement of Christopher J. Burgos 

of STFA ................................................................................................................. 56

The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress from the 

State of Florida: Letter from the International Committee of Former Cuban 

Political Prisoners ................................................................................................ 64

Mr. Jorge Luis Garcı ́a Pe ́rez: Agreement for Democracy in Cuba ....................... 71

Ms. Berta Soler Ferna ́ndez: 

IAC precautionary measure for the Ladies in White ........................................ 72

Report by Cubalex ................................................................................................ 77

The Honorable Christopher H. Smith: 

Cuba Section of Trafficking in Persons Report .................................................. 83

Letter to President Obama from the STFA ....................................................... 86

Statement on the human rights of all ................................................................ 88

(1)

HUMAN RIGHTS IN CUBA:

A SQUANDERED OPPORTUNITY 

THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 5, 2015

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES,

SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH,

GLOBAL HUMAN RIGHTS, AND INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,

COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS,

Washington, DC. 

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:03 a.m., in room 

2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith 

(chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. 

Mr. SMITH. Good morning to everyone. And welcome to this very 

timely and important hearing on human rights in Cuba. 

We are here to examine the state of human rights, which is a 

very timely topic indeed, given the Obama administration’s sea 

change in policy toward Cuba announced at the end of last year. 

We are here to ask whether, in undertaking this change in policy, the Obama administration used the considerable leverage that 

it wields to seek to better the condition of the Cuban people or 

whether, as I fear, an opportunity that was squandered in its haste 

to achieve a diplomatic breakthrough and even create a legacy for 

the President. 

Thus this hearing is not only about Castro regime accountability, 

but also the Obama administration’s accountability, with Congress 

exercising its role of both oversight and as a bully pulpit for reminding the world that Cuba remains a Communist dictatorship 

which continues to arrest political dissidents—and I would underscore an estimated 178 political dissidents in the last month 

alone—and one whose caudillo, Raul Castro, has declared would 

not change, even in response to the Obama administration’s concessions. 

This Castro regime continues to harbor fugitives from justice, 

such as Joanne Chesimard, who was convicted in the 1973 murder 

of a state trooper in my own home State of New Jersey. Officer 

Werner Foerster was gunned down gangland style after she escaped from prison. Indeed, just yesterday we had the Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere, Roberta Jacobson, appear before the Committee on Foreign Affairs. I asked her what the 

response of the Cuban Government was when she raised the issue 

of the return of Joanne Chesimard to justice. She replied that the 

Cuban Government stated that it was, ‘‘Not interested in discussing her return.’’ That is absolutely unacceptable. 

2

I have in my hands a statement, which I ask to be submitted for 

the record, from Christopher Burgos, the president of the State 

Troopers’ Fraternal Association of New Jersey, wherein he states 

on behalf of our Jersey state troopers that, ‘‘We are shocked and 

very disappointed that returning a convicted killer of a state trooper was not already demanded and accomplished in the context of 

the steps announced by the White House regarding this despotic 

dictatorship.’’

I would also point out, as an aside, that both President Burgos 

and New Jersey State Police Superintendent Colonel Rick Fuentes 

both very much wanted to be here, and we will have another hearing to hear from them. And I look forward to that follow-up hearing. 

But, fortunately, we do have with us and it is a tremendous 

honor and a privilege to have with us today three extraordinarily 

brave and uniquely qualified witnesses to the brutality of the 

Cuban dictatorship, three human rights activists who at great personal cost to themselves and their families have and continue to 

stand up for human dignity. 

We will hear about the deplorable state of human rights in Cuba. 

Just read the State Department report on human rights as well as 

reporting that has been done by other NGOs and it couldn’t be 

more clear that human rights are violated with impunity by the 

Castro brothers and their regime. 

I would note parenthetically that years ago, during the Reagan 

administration, I met with Armando Valladares, who spent almost 

two decades in the Cuban gulag system. And I will never forget, 

when I read his book—he actually led the delegation from the 

United States to the U.N. Commission on Human Rights. As a 

matter of fact, Ileana and her staff—we went time and time again 

to that Commission, asking them to look at the deplorable state of 

human rights in Cuba. 

When I was with Armando Valladares, I was in awe of his courage as well. He was able to get the U.N. to look at, pass a resolution condemning the deplorable situation in Cuba, and to deploy a 

team to go to the prisons and investigate these terrible abuses of 

human rights. 

There were promises made by Fidel Castro that there would be 

no retaliation whatsoever against those who spoke in prison and 

the family members who came forward and friends to bear witness 

to a terrible set of truths. 

Everybody was retaliated against, the people in the prisons as 

well as their families. And, regrettably, the U.N. was unable—perhaps unwilling, but certainly unable, to do anything to mitigate or 

to stop that retaliation. 

I have pushed for years to go to Cuba. I have been denied a visa 

for two decades or so. I want to go to the prisons. Of course, I will 

meet with Fidel if I am able to lead a delegation or even go on my 

own with my staff. We can’t get that visa. Both Frank Wolf and 

I tried a number of times, and it got so bad that, at one point, Fidel 

Castro said that we were provocateurs. I want to go meet with the 

dissidents. 

Frank Wolf and I got into prisons in the Soviet Union, the infamous Perm Camp 35, where people like Natan Sharansky suffered 

3

and were tortured by that Communist dictatorship. When Xanana 

Gusma ̃o, who became the President of East Timor—I went and saw 

him when he was in Jakarta and went to prisons all over the 

world, but we can’t get into Cuba. We even got into Beijing Prison 

Number 2, where 40 Tiananmen Square activists were being forced 

to do gulag labor, heads shaved, gone, they looked like concentration camp victims. 

And, yet, Mr. Wolf and I could not and I cannot get into those 

prisons. So I will be asking the government again—I have already 

asked, and I have asked our Government to help facilitate it—to 

go to the prisons. 

And even on the ICRC, yesterday the Red Cross—I asked Secretary Jacobson—I said, ‘‘You know, much has been made that the 

ICRC might be able to get into the country.’’ That is unacceptable. 

Get into the prisons. And, again, there needs—there has to be absolutely no retaliation to those who speak out. 

I would point out that, after testifying here today in public—and 

I thank C–SPAN especially and the journalists for taking this story 

and making Americans aware of what is actually happening in 

Cuba. Right now, as we meet, they will be returning to Cuba—and 

this committee and I know the entire Congress will be watching—

to ensure that their safety and well-being and health is not further 

jeopardized. 

But the courage to come forward to congressional hearings—our 

friends over on the Senate side received compelling testimony as 

well—and to bear witness to an ugly truth of torture—I would ask 

everyone to go back and reread ‘‘Against All Hope,’’ Armando 

Valladares’ famous book. He talked about tortures that I don’t even 

want to mention in public, they are so despicable, of putting dissidents in vats of excrement so bad that it went into their ears and 

nose and they got infections. 

Armando Valladares told me that, when he and his wife—when 

they finally got to the United States and got asylum—that he 

couldn’t even change his children’s diapers because the smell of excrement brought back instantaneously, like, PTSD, remembrances 

of that kind of degrading cruelty imposed upon them. 

The Castro brothers and many in this regime ought to be at The 

Hague for crimes against humanity. That is how bad it is. These 

are among the worst abuses of human rights in the entire world. 

So, again, I want to welcome our brave and courageous witnesses. 

I want to thank Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart. 

Ileana has been such a leader for so long in raising the truth of 

what is going on in this gulag island. 

I have much more to say, but I will put the rest of it into the 

record. 

But I do want to thank our witnesses again, and I look forward 

to hearing their testimony. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Smith follows:]

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93159o-2.eps
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Mr. SMITH. And I yield to my good friend and colleague, Ms. 

Bass, the gentlelady from California. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Chairman, if——

Mr. SMITH. Sure. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Mr. Chairman, I would ask unanimous consent to 

address the committee for about a minute or so. 

Mr. Chairman, I just want to take a brief moment before we turn 

to the very serious topic of human rights in Cuba to respond to a 

statement from this subcommittee’s last hearing that had troubling 

interpretations. 

While discussing your position on marriage equality, you made 

comments and engaged in a line of questioning that some understood as suggesting that lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender 

people do not have basic human rights. 

After exchanging letters with you, I think it is important to note 

that, while we do have very different opinions on marriage equality—you strongly oppose it; I strongly support it—we both agree 

that, unequivocally, LGBT people have the same rights as all other 

people to live lives free from violence and persecution. 

In your letter and your public statement, you said that you—and 

I quote—‘‘unequivocally oppose acts of violence against anyone and 

believe that human rights apply to all’’ and that—and I quote 

again—‘‘all individuals, including LGBT persons, should be treated 

with respect and compassion.’’

I want to thank you for the opportunity to clear up the confusion 

over your statement and to reaffirm our shared passion for protecting the human rights of all people. The policy of the United 

States is absolutely clear. LGBT rights are human rights, and 

LGBT people are entitled to live lives free from violence, intimidation, discrimination, and harm. 

And I thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Cicilline. 

I would just again say we do have a fundamental difference. I 

don’t support homosexual marriage. I know you do, and I certainly 

respect your views. 

And I do want to point out that I am for universally recognized 

human rights for all. And there is no treaty that recognizes a right 

to marriage for homosexuals. But, again, I am glad we were able 

to work together. 

Okay. Why don’t you go. Okay. Go ahead. 

Ms. BASS. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chair. 

And I do appreciate the clarification of that because I know, with 

your long record on human rights, that you would never be okay 

with the egregious human rights violations that are taking place 

around the world in the LGBT community and that there is a fundamental difference between marriage, which many people have a 

difference around, but I know that there is no difference around 

LGBT rights and the violence and opposing the violence against 

LGBT people. So thank you for that. 

Today’s hearing on human rights in Cuba is in the context of 

President Obama’s recent announcement. I said yesterday in our 

Foreign Affairs Committee that sometimes, in talking about Cuba, 

it is difficult because two of my colleagues that are on the other 

side of the aisle right now in this hearing have family history and 

7

personal situations that make it very difficult if one does have a 

difference of opinion. I want to, one, respect and acknowledge what 

my colleagues have been through and what their families have 

been through and, with no disrespect or disregard for those histories, want to take a few minutes and propose a different viewpoint. 

You know, the President’s policy of opening up relations with 

Cuba I actually think is a very good thing, especially for people 

who are concerned about human rights. 

During the five decades that we have not had relations with the 

Cuban Government and the Cuban people, the Cuban economy did 

experience multiple economic shocks which really produced hardships for the people, but none of it really produced the kind of popular uprisings or internal resistance that might have led to a 

change in government. 

I also think that the embargo prohibited diplomatic and economic 

engagement between the U.S. and Cuba. And I think that that 

many times is the ways in which societies become more open and 

accountable and democratic and trade and cultural exchange becomes mutually beneficial. 

I think the embargo has impeded U.S. relations throughout the 

Western Hemisphere, as many Latin American nations viewed the 

embargo itself as a human rights violation against the Cuban people. 

I have to say that, as a U.S. citizen, I definitely consider it my 

human right to be able to travel to any nation on the Earth, and 

I have resented the fact that it has been difficult—Americans can 

go to Cuba, and I have been to Cuba, but it is very, very difficult 

to go there. 

And I don’t believe—and I might be wrong—but I don’t believe 

that we have that restriction against any other nation in the world, 

including Iran, North Korea, and Saudi Arabia, all of which have 

extremely troubling human rights records. 

Such travel restrictions, as well as those of trade, also violate the 

freedom of U.S. citizens, and recent polling by CBS, ABC News and 

the Washington Post revealed that a majority of Americans are 

supportive of moving away from the policy of disengagement and 

toward reestablishing ties with Cuba. 

I also think that engagement would be good for the Cuban people, as people-to-people exchanges and the Cuban-American family 

travel would increase cultural engagement, assist in family reunification. And this opening of space will provide improved access to 

Cuba for nongovernmental organizations that are focused on governance and human rights as well as facilitating technical assistance to Cuban civil society groups concerned with improved standards of economic and personal freedoms. 

I do have to say—Mr. Chair, you mentioned about visiting prisons in Cuba. When I did go, I did visit Alan Gross and I visited 

him in prison. And I think that it was important that, during the 

time that Mr. Gross was incarcerated, that a number of Members 

of Congress went over and visited him and pushed for his release, 

and I think that that was a contributing factor. 

Again, I just feel that you really can’t change people and governments whom you refuse to engage with. And so increased engageVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:32 Apr 28, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\020515\93159 SHIRL
8

ment, to me, seems like it would be a contributing factor to improving the human rights situation on the island of Cuba. 

And I look forward to the testimony from our witnesses today. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Karen. 

I would like to now yield to the chairwoman emeritus of the 

Committee on Foreign Affairs, Congresswoman Ileana RosLehtinen. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you very much. 

And I also am glad that Mr. Gross is home. But if by visiting Mr. 

Gross you believe that you have been to a Cuban jail, maybe these 

dissidents here could tell you what a Cuban jail is really like. But 

we are thankful that he is home. Or we could ask someone like Mr. 

Basilio Guzman, who is in the audience today, he served 22 years 

in Castro’s prison. 

And, Mr. Smith, I would like to request unanimous consent to 

submit into the record a letter from the International Committee 

of Former Cuban Political Prisoners based in Union City, New Jersey, documenting a list of the many Cubans who are still languishing in Castro’s gulag. 

And thank you to Mr. Guzman for pointing that out. 

Mr. SMITH. Without objection, so ordered. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you. 

Mr. Smith, I want to thank you so very much for convening this 

important hearing for your unyielding and passionate commitment 

to human rights, to freedom, not just for the oppressed people of 

Cuba, but for all people everywhere who suffer under oppressive 

regimes and who continue to seek the most basic and fundamental 

rights for many people that they take for granted. Everywhere 

there is an oppressed person, a political prisoner, there you will 

find Mr. Smith. So we thank you for that. 

I also want to welcome our wonderful witnesses: Berta Soler, 

Sara Fonseca, and Antunez, all champions of freedom on the island 

and the face of what the democratic future of Cuba will look like—

look at those faces—that is the Cuba now. That is the free Cuba 

of tomorrow. 

These are brave pro-democracy activists who have seen firsthand 

the brutality of the regime by the constant arrests and beatings 

that they have had to endure, the isolation that they have had to 

endure while in jail, they did not have food prepared especially for 

them. They were starved. And after this hearing, they will be going 

back to Cuba, amazingly enough, as you pointed out, Mr. Smith, 

to continue the fight for freedom and democracy. 

Berta, as a matter of fact, she will be marching with her sisters, 

the Ladies in White—Las Damas de Blanco—this very Sunday. 

And, by the way, while all these negotiations are going on, there 

were 13 detentions of the Ladies in White just last Sunday. So if 

you think everything is rosy and bright and terrific and all wonderful, just ask these three dissidents what life is like for them. Very 

unlike what we hear from others. 

Our witnesses are just three of the countless faces of Cuba who 

represent the future, who the administration has shut out of the 

negotiations. And rarely are they invited to meet with visiting digVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:32 Apr 28, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\020515\93159 SHIRL
9

nitaries. We are glad that they get the chance to go to Cuba. Rarely do they invite dissidents who disagree with this administration. 

These are the people who have to suffer the consequences of the 

administration’s decisions. It is easy for the President to change 

this policy in his ivory tower. These are the faces who must now 

suffer under a Castro regime reenergized by President Obama’s 

policies, by its injections of cash. 

The President’s December 17th announcement serves to embolden the regime by implying that it can continue its repressive 

machinery with impunity. Raul Castro said, ‘‘We will not change,’’ 

and we look the other way. It undercuts and it demoralizes the 

brave freedom fighters in Cuba who rightfully believe that the U.S. 

has turned its back on them. But don’t confuse the U.S. people 

with the administration, just like we don’t confuse the Castro regime with the people of Cuba. 

And for what are these negotiations? So that more Americans 

can travel to Cuba and see what the regime wants them to see, all 

the while the regime fills its coffers and we ignore the truth. Because who owns the hotels? The Castro regime. Who runs the hotels? The Castro military. The truth about the Cuban regime is 

that it is a regime that severely punishes dissidents even to this 

day. 

El Dkano was sentenced to 1 year in prison just last week, a 

young rapper. A rapper is a threat to this regime. Did he committee a crime? No. His charge was dangerousness which could 

lead to a crime. It is the precogs of that movie. They predict that 

you are going to commit a crime; so, they arrest you before you 

commit it. This regime forbids reform and will do anything to 

maintain its grip on power. 

The censorship apparatus, one of the most comprehensive in the 

world. It forbids Cubans from listening to independent, private, or 

foreign broadcasts and even censors the signal of its own allies’ 

televised propaganda. 

It is important, Mr. Chairman, that we understand exactly the 

kind of murderous regime we are dealing with in Cuba and that 

President Obama wants to normalize relations with. 

On November 4, 1999, the House Committee on International Relations convened a congressional hearing entitled, ‘‘The Cuban Program: Torture of American Prisoners By Cuban Agents.’’ At that 

hearing, you remember, Mr. Chairman, we heard testimony from 

American POWs—prisoners of war—who were tortured at a prison 

camp in North Vietnam known as the ‘‘Zoo’’ during the period of 

August 1967 to August 1968. According to reports, 19 of those courageous servicemen were psychologically tortured and beaten by 

Cuban agents working under orders from Hanoi. 

And while the State Department led the negotiations last month 

in Havana, its very own Country Reports on Human Rights for 

2013 states this: ‘‘The following additional abuses continued: Harsh 

prison conditions, arbitrary arrests, selective prosecution, denial of 

free trial’’—this is from the State Department, our State Department; they are still negotiating with Castro while this is going on—

‘‘authorities interfered with privacy, engaging in pervasive monitoring of private conversations. The government did not respect 

freedom of speech and press, severely restricted Internet access 

10

and maintained a monopoly on media outlets, circumscribed academic freedom, and maintained significant restrictions on the ability of religious groups to meet and worship’’—our own State Department—‘‘The government refused to recognize independent 

human rights groups or permit them to function legally.’’ They can 

tell you about that. ‘‘In addition, the government continued to prevent workers from forming independent unions.’’ Where are these 

voices who are so much for independent unions here in the United 

States? ‘‘But not for you. You are not good enough. I’m sorry. No 

union for you.’’

‘‘Human rights abuses were official acts committed at the direction of the government.’’ Our own State Department says this. ‘‘Impunity for the perpetrators remained widespread.’’ Because I could 

continue. 

Mr. Chairman, we cannot be The Land of the Free across the 

world if this administration doesn’t defend democracy right here in 

our own hemisphere. We cannot call for democratic reform and values throughout the world if we abandon them 90 miles from our 

shores. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for this time. 

Welcome to our panelists. 

Mr. SMITH. Chairwoman Ros-Lehtinen, thank you for that extraordinarily powerful statement and for your consistent support, 

again, not only of the Cuban people, but people who are dealing 

with tyrannies all over the world. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I hope you get your visa. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Don’t hold your breath. 

Mr. SMITH. I would like to now yield to my friend and colleague, 

Mr. Cicilline. 

Mr. CICILLINE. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I want to thank 

you and Ranking Member Bass for calling today’s hearing on this 

very important issue. 

I particularly want to thank the witnesses who are here today 

and thank you in advance for sharing your insight and your experiences. And I know that some of you are bravely joining us today 

to share very personal stories of very difficult and painful experiences, and we are really indebted to you for your willingness to do 

that. 

As I discussed yesterday with the administration witnesses during our full committee hearing, I, like many, continue to have deep 

concerns about how the Cuban Government treats its citizens. But 

it is clear that the United States policy on Cuba over the past several decades has not worked either. 

And I am hopeful that President Obama’s effort to engage in 

real, substantive negotiations toward a more honest cultural exchange, economic trade, and diplomatic ties with Cuba will ultimately benefit the United States and, more importantly, the Cuban 

people. 

I hope the Cuban Government will come to the negotiating table 

with a real desire to work with the United States toward a more 

free, open, and tolerant society for the Cuban people. And it is very 

important for us to pay close attention to the ongoing negotiations 

to make sure that any changes are implemented in a way that 

11

maintains our commitment to promoting basic values and human 

rights. 

So I thank the witnesses again for being here and look forward 

to your perspective as the relationship between the United States 

and Cuba begins to change. 

And, with that, I yield back, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Cicilline. 

Now I yield to my good friend and colleague who has been a very 

powerful voice, Mario Diaz-Balart, and thank him for joining us. 

He is a member of the Appropriations Committee, and he does us 

the honor of being here today. 

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Mr. Chairman, let me first thank you for the 

opportunity to sit in for a few minutes. I will not be able to stay 

for the entirety of the hearing because I do have other meetings to 

go to. 

But I could not let this moment pass without first thanking you, 

sir, for your just steadfast leadership and your consistent leadership, whether it has been fighting for freedom and supporting the 

opposition in Vietnam and Communist China and North Korea. 

Wherever there has been oppression, Mr. Chairman, you have always been consistent, just like Chairwoman Emeritus Ileana RosLehtinen. I want to thank both of you. 

And I just want to make a couple of comments. And the ranking 

member, who was very kind in her introduction, mentioned about 

how some of us might have some family history. The issue of 

human rights has nothing to do with family history. Because I, for 

one, am opposed to oppression in Communist China, in North 

Korea, in Vietnam. 

And I don’t know. I was a very young man when we had sanctions against South Africa, and I supported the sanctions in South 

Africa. I am assuming that the ranking member was also opposed 

to sanctions in South Africa because I am assuming, obviously, that 

she is also as consistent as the chairman is on these issues. 

I supported as a young man those sanctions against South Africa 

because doing business with the apartheid regime was not helping 

the folks who were struggling for freedom in South Africa. All it 

did was help prop up that regime in South Africa. 

So, Mr. Chairman, I couldn’t let this time slide by without being 

here. 

Ms. BASS. May I ask the gentlemen to yield for a second? 

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. Of course. With all pleasure. 

Ms. BASS. You know, I really was only trying to acknowledge the 

fact that I realize people had personal situations. 

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. And I appreciate that. 

Ms. BASS. I wasn’t trying to say that, you know, that is the only 

reason you are concerned about Cuba. It is just hard if you have 

a different opinion. I just wanted to respect what I knew you and 

Ileana’s family had been through. That was all. 

Mr. DIAZ-BALART. And I thank the ranking woman, as I said, for 

your kind statements. I took it as a kind statement. So I want to 

make sure of that. But I am just saying that the issue of human 

rights and the consistency on that is important. 

12

When we look at the folks that are here today—I mentioned 

South Africa—in front of us today are the Mandelas, are the 

Havels, are the future leaders of the free and democratic Cuba. 

When folks talk about Cuba, they sometimes confuse the regime 

with Cuba. No. This is Cuba in front of us today, they who have 

spent years in prison. Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, Antunez, 17 years 

in prison. By the way, ask him about the conditions of the prisons. 

Ask Iris Aguilera about how well the Cuban people are treated. 

Ask Sara Marta Fonseca. Just go to YouTube and look at her videos to find out how respected and how well the Cuban people who 

dare just speak out for freedom are treated. 

Ask Berta Soler about what happens when you just walk peacefully with a flower in your hand going to church and asking for 

freedom of their relatives. Ask her how the Cuban people are treated. 

So at a time when during the State of the Union our President 

spoke about Cuba—and, by the way, for the first time in my recollection did I see a President speak in the State of the Union about 

Cuba and not even mention, not even mention, human rights, not 

even mention democracy, not even mention, not even give lip service, to elections in Cuba. 

I am grateful to you, Mr. Chairman, for bringing these heros, the 

future leaders, them and others—the future leaders of Cuba, to 

this, the United States Congress, to testify. 

Because, again, at a time when our President has decided to ignore the repression, the arrests, heck, even the sending of arms to 

North Korea from the Castro regime, this House, as it always has, 

will continue to stand with you, with the future leaders of Cuba, 

with the people of Cuba, and not with the regime. 

I am grateful for the opportunity, Mr. Chairman, to be able to 

sit in here for a few minutes. Thank you, sir. I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Diaz-Balart, thank you so very much for your 

very powerful statement, which has been consistent throughout the 

world. 

I would like to now recognize Mr. Emmer, the gentleman from 

Minnesota. 

Mr. EMMER. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair. 

And it is difficult to follow that from a new colleague. So I won’t. 

I won’t try to follow that. All I will do is say thank you for this 

hearing, Mr. Chairman, especially in light of the President’s decision to somehow restart diplomacy with the regime currently in 

charge in Cuba. 

And there are still concerns for some of us about why the President would have used the process he used, side-stepping the State 

Department, having over a year of secret meetings that didn’t involve normal process. 

But that part aside, it really is all about the human rights and 

the Cuban people, which is why it is so interesting to me. The discussion about normalization of the relationship is really what we 

are here about today. 

And I appreciate that you and the ranking member have decided 

that we are going to bring in some people to talk about some basic 

freedoms, the situation, exercise the oversight that is the jurisdiction of this committee. Because, thankfully, the President has acVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:32 Apr 28, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\020515\93159 SHIRL
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knowledged that he does not have the authority to dismantle, as 

he suggested, the embargo and start to normalize relationships 

with Cuba. That is up to Congress. And, hopefully, it starts here 

today. 

And we can talk about how people can have basic and fundamental rights to assemble with people that they want, to speak 

freely on their own behalf and, God forbid, even against their government and that people can actually practice their faith in public 

and be proud of it. 

I am looking forward at being part of the process, and I thank 

you again for holding this hearing. 

And for the witnesses, I look forward to your testimony today. 

And I yield back. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Emmer. 

I would like to yield to Mr. Pittenger. 

Mr. PITTENGER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. SMITH. A leader on religious freedom especially in this Congress and on Chinese human rights. 

Mr. PITTENGER. Well, thank you, Mr. Chairman. I deeply appreciate being here. And forgive me for being late. But I want to come 

to pay tremendous respect to those who have come to testify today. 

Each of us are still searching on the merits of why the President 

would make the unilateral decision that he made to provide a diplomatic relationship with Cuba against the wisdom of a dozen previous Presidents. 

What he has done is elevate a terrorist state. Along with Cuba 

is Syria, Sudan, Iran that are terrorist states. And now he has declared to the world that this state is acceptable to the United 

States. It is a very sad day. 

I have worked for the last 30 years with missionaries in Cuba. 

They tell me the plight of the religious inequities and the challenges that they face in people trying to live out their faith. 

So I am deeply concerned over the impact of what will happen, 

the elevation we have given to the Marxist doctrine that will be encouraged throughout the world. We have dealt with Cuba on an ongoing basis in the United Nations. They have sought to engage 

those who oppose the United States and our closest allies, including Israel. 

So I am here to pay respect to you and thank you for your commitment and to clearly say to you that we stand with you, fully engaged, on behalf of the wonderful people of Cuba. 

Thank you and God bless you. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much, Mr. Pittenger. 

It is now a very distinct honor and privilege to welcome our very 

distinguished witnesses. They are doing here today in Washington 

that which they would not be able to do in Cuba, especially before 

that rogue congress where there is really no real election, there are 

no free and fair elections. 

Let me begin first with Mr. Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, Antunez, 

who is a leader in the Cuban democratic movement. He was inspired early in life by reading the Universal Declaration of Human 

Rights, rejecting the Communist indoctrination that he was receiving in Cuba’s schools. 

14

Antunez, as he is known to us all as, is a leader of a nonviolent 

movement to promote human rights and democracy. He was arrested in 1990 for peacefully protesting the Castro brothers’ oppressive regime and spent the next 17 years, 17 years, in jail as a political prisoner. He endured horrific torture, beatings, solitary confinement, and denial of needed medical care that almost cost him 

his life. 

Since his release in 2007, Antunez has continued to advance the 

cause of freedom and human rights in Cuba. He also knows firsthand the discrimination suffered by Afro-Cubans on a daily basis, 

an underfocused-upon, aggressive racism employed by the Castro 

regime. 

We will then hear from Ms. Berta Soler, who has been the leader 

of the Ladies in White movement following the death of the group’s 

founder, Laura Pollan, in 2011. The Ladies in White is a movement 

of wives and female relatives of Cuban political prisoners, but now 

has evolved into a potent, powerful human rights group open to all 

Cuban women. 

Ms. Soler and four other members of the Ladies in White received the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought by European 

Parliament in 2006, but the Castro brothers barred them from attending the award ceremony. 

She and her husband have remained in Cuba since his release, 

rejecting, rejecting, an offer of immigration from Spain in order to 

continue their struggle for human rights and democracy in Cuba. 

I would also note that the Ladies in White have been nominated 

by Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and I and others in a joint request to the 

Nobel Peace Prize committee, along with Dr. Biscet, another AfroCuban and medical doctor who has been tortured horrifically as 

well. 

He testified here, as you know, by way of a phone hookup and 

told us, Do not, do not, end the embargo. Get the conditions first. 

Get human rights and durable human rights at that before that 

embargo is lifted. And he said it even though there is great risk 

to himself in articulating that. 

He pointed out, as many others have pointed out, that the Europeans have been trading with Cuba for decades with no amelioration whatsoever and have been a lifeline, frankly, to a dictatorship 

which Russia first provided, then Venezuela, and, unfortunately, 

trade coming from Europe and Canada. 

Then we will hear from Ms. Sara Fonseca, who grew up in a 

household that opposed the Communist system based on their principles and their deep religious beliefs. Due to her family’s faith, she 

was denied the right to complete her studies. 

In 2004, she became a member of the Pro-Human Rights Party 

affiliated with the Andrei Sakharov Foundation. In 2009, she 

joined the Rosa Parks Civil Rights Women’s Movement, for which 

she became the delegate in the city of Havana. That same year, she 

also began participating with the Ladies in White as a lady of support. 

She and her family have experienced numerous state-organized 

mob attacks, and her house has been vandalized and searched by 

government agents dressed in civilian clothes. As a result, she has 

sought refugee status in the United States. 

15

Then we will hear from Mr. Geoff Thale, who oversees the entire 

range of the Washington Office on Latin America’s research and 

advocacy in Latin America policy and human rights issues. Along 

with a focus on specific countries and themes, Mr. Thale led the 

team that authored, ‘‘Forging New Ties,’’ WOLA’s recommendations 

for new directions in U.S. policy toward Latin America. 

Mr. Thale has studied Cuba issues since the mid-1990s and traveled to Cuba more than a dozen times—wish I could get that visa—

including organizing delegations of academics and Members of Congress. He coordinates WOLA’s advocacy of this issue with a coalition of business, agricultural, and human rights groups who favor 

lifting the general travel ban on Cuba. 

I would like to now yield the floor to Antunez. 

STATEMENT OF MR. JORGE LUIS GARCI ́A PE ́ REZ, SECRETARY 

GENERAL, CUBAN NATIONAL CIVIC RESISTANCE FRONT 

[The following statement and answers were delivered through an 

interpreter.] 

Mr. GARCIA. Honorable Congressman Christopher Smith, good 

morning to all participating members. 

My name is Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, Antunez. I am a former political prisoner who spent 17 continuous years of political imprisonment for the sole supposed crime of calling out in a public square 

in my hometown of Placetas for the implementation of reforms 

such as those that were taking place back then in Communist Europe. 

Within the prisons, I remained steadfast in my condition as a political prisoner. And due to my constant struggle to denounce 

human rights violations from within prison walls, I was subjected 

to the most refined forms of torture and cruel punishment. 

For example, on the morning of 14 October 1994, high-ranking 

officers from the political police, in spite of the fact that my hands 

were handcuffed behind my back, sicced dogs on me. Because I did 

not accept the regime’s indoctrination program within prison walls, 

I was sent to the most inhospitable and rigorous prisons. 

Later, together with very courageous brothers from the prison, 

we founded the Pedro Luis Boitel Political Prisons Organization, 

which, in spite of repression, managed to unify hundreds of political prisoners in order to carry out civic resistance within the prison walls. 

After I was released in 2007, I have continued with the struggle 

inside Cuba where I think it is most important. I am currently active in the Orlando Zapata Tamayo National Civic Resistance 

Front. This is a national organization which carries out protests in 

the defense of human rights throughout Cuba. 

Today I am here in the name of my brothers and sisters of the 

resistance and most especially in the name of those who are imprisoned for their ideas, which there are dozens of. They have remained in prison in spite of the unconvincing process of release 

agreed upon by President Barack Obama and dictator Raul Castro. 

Among my imprisoned brothers, I want to mention Ciro Alexis 

Casanova Perez, Ernesto Borjes Perez, Armando Sosa Fortuny, 

among others. These men are part of a long list of heros whose only 

16

crime has been, first of all, to oppose the dictatorship and, second 

of all, to continue resisting within prison walls. 

A few days ago we learned that the President of this great and 

hospitable Nation had agreed with dictator Raul Castro to reestablish diplomatic relations as well as steps leading to the elimination 

of the embargo. And as if this were not enough, three confessed 

spies who participated in the murder of four U.S. citizens were exchanged for innocent contractor Alan Gross. 

These agreements, which are considered by an important part of 

the Cuban resistance as a betrayal of the hopes for freedom of the 

Cuban people, are unacceptable because the principles and the 

freedom of a country do not belong to any government, no matter 

how powerful or influential this government may be. 

There is underway an international effort expressed by the 

Obama-Castro accords to promote a supposed evolution within the 

Castro regime. This is a fraudulent change promoted by Castro regime in order to perpetuate itself in power. 

This illusion is manipulated by the dictatorship in order to perpetuate itself in power. The Castro dictatorship cannot be reformed. The Castro dictatorship is based on the negation of democratic society and everything this represents. The Castro dictatorship not only seeks to control the Cuban people, it also seeks to export this repression. It seeks to export this repression to other 

countries such as Venezuela. 

What does real change in Cuba mean? It means the restitution 

of all civil rights. It means the general amnesty for all political 

prisoners. It means the right to organize political parties and independent labor unions. 

Real change in Cuba means free, real elections, internationally 

supervised free elections. It means the separation from power of 

the Castro brothers. This is recognized in current U.S. law toward 

Cuba, and it should remain so because it constitutes the best possible support for the Cuban resistance. 

A majority of the Cuban resistance has signed onto the agreement for democracy in Cuba. This is a road map of 10 elemental 

points toward democracy in Cuba. We ask recognition from the 

Congress of the United States for this document and for what it 

represents as a clear path toward democracy in Cuba. I ask the 

American people and its freely elected Congress that it maintains 

its firm support for the right of the Cuban people to be free. 

We may be close to true change in Cuba. The drop in the international price of oil, the instability of the Maduro regime in Venezuela which has been the main support of the Castro regime, the 

civic resistance which is widespread throughout the island, and 

how this resistance is increasingly coordinating itself, as is taking 

place with the forum for freedoms and rights, all indicate this. 

This is the moment to demand real concessions from the Castro 

regime. Only this can mean normal relations between the United 

States and Cuba. Cubans can be as successful on the island as they 

have been abroad. What we need is freedom. The Cuban resistance 

struggles for this freedom. We need your understanding and your 

support. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Garcia follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Antunez, thank you so very much for that very powerful testimony. 

We do have a series of votes on the House floor. We will have 

to take a short recess. 

So, Ms. Soler, if you wouldn’t mind, we will just break and then 

come back for questions. 

And I do hope that members of the press and our audience will 

stay because we have very powerful testimony that awaits. 

So we stand in short recess. 

[Recess.] 

Mr. SMITH. The subcommittee will resume its hearing. 

I want to apologize again to our distinguished witnesses for that 

delay. We did have a series of votes on the House floor. But we are 

looking forward to your testimony. 

We will begin with our second witness, Ms. Berta Soler. 

If you could proceed. 

STATEMENT OF MS. BERTA SOLER FERNA ́ NDEZ, LEADER, 

LADIES IN WHITE (DAMAS DE BLANCO) 

[The following statement and answers were delivered through an 

interpreter.] 

Ms. SOLER. Honorable Congressman Smith, distinguished members of the subcommittee, above all, I want to thank you for listening to me and, also, to thank all of the people and organizations 

who have made it possible for me to testify on the human rights 

situation in my country, Cuba. 

We are presently living through a particularly defining moment 

for the future of our country in the wake of the recently announced 

reestablishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the 

United States. 

I am appearing here as the leader of the Ladies in White, a 

group of women activists who support change toward democracy in 

our country through nonviolent means, inspired by the example of 

women such as Rosa Parks and Coretta King, among others, who, 

with courage and determination, blazed paths for full enjoyment of 

civil rights in this great Nation. 

Now, 50 years after the events in Selma, Alabama, and testifying 

before a subcommittee whose mandate includes global human 

rights, it is a great honor and historic opportunity for me to appear 

before you. 

I also speak on behalf of numerous leaders and activists from 

Cuban civil society who have entrusted me with speaking for them 

before you. It is a civil society that is particularly repressed by the 

intolerance of a government whose exercise of power consists of the 

systematic violation of the human rights of the Cuban people. 

Just before I left Cuba to be here, last January 28, the day we 

celebrate the birth of our founding father, Jose Marti, dozens of activists were arrested in Havana and other provinces for attempting 

to place offerings of flowers at statues of Jose Marti. 

In its totalitarian vision, the dictatorship seeks a monopoly on 

our national identity through use of force against all independent 

activists. The most respected international human rights organizations have documented violations of human rights in Cuba. 

20

On October 28, 2013, the Inter-American Commission on Human 

Rights issued an injunction on behalf of the members of Ladies in 

White to afford protection in the face of systemic repression by 

Cuban authorities. 

I submit the official precautionary measures issued by the Commission for these purposes, as well as a report by Cubalex, which 

initiated the case before the Commission. I request that these reports be made part of the record of this hearing as documentary 

evidence for our testimony, as proof of what we are exposing in our 

testimony today. These documents demonstrate that the subject of 

political prisoners continues to be one of the most sensitive issues 

in Cuba today, reaching far beyond occasional or periodic release 

of some of them. 

Resolving this matter requires the unconditional freeing of everyone who has been jailed for political reasons on the island and the 

elimination of all legal restrictions used to repress those who think 

differently from the regime. 

Cuba continues to be a country with a one-party government 

where fundamental freedoms that are an absolute right in North 

American society are crimes against what they regard as state security. 

Separation of powers does not exist in Cuba. Freedom of expression and association continue to be repressed, and the Constitution 

establishes the Communist Party as the driving force for society. 

The right to strike is regarded as a crime with workers on and off 

the island, subject to conditions of labor slavery which has been denounced by international organizations at the international level. 

While these conditions prevail, it is not possible to speak of a 

willingness to change on the part of the Castro regime. That same 

January 28, during his appearance before the third summit of the 

CELAC held in San Jose, Costa Rica, the dictator Raul Castro stated that Cuba will not give up 1 millimeter. 

For us, this signals the continuation of beatings, jailing, forced 

exiles, discrimination against our children at school, and all manner of patterns of intimidation and abuse that we suffer daily for 

wanting to see a pluralistic, democratic, and inclusive Cuba. 

Our aspirations are legitimate because they are underguided by 

the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Cuba is a 

party, and the signed international pacts on civil and political 

rights which have not been ratified by the dictatorship. 

Our demands are quite concrete: Freedom for political prisoners, 

recognition of civil society, the elimination of all criminal dispositions that penalize freedom of expression and association, and the 

right of the Cuban people to choose their future through free, plural elections. 

We believe these demands are just and valid. Even more importantly, for us, they represent the most concrete exercise of politics, 

a step in the direction of democratic coexistence. 

Cuba will change when the laws that enable and protect the 

criminal behavior of the forces of repression and corrupt elements 

that sustain the regime change. 

In the name of those that have been executed, in the name of 

Cuban political prisoners, in the name of the pilots from the humanitarian organization Brothers to the Rescue murdered on the 

21

orders of Fidel Castro, in the name of the victims from the March 

13 tugboat, in the name of the victims of Cuba’s Communist regime, Cuba, yes, Castro, no. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Soler follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Ms. Soler, thank you very much for that very powerful testimony and for providing very specific benchmarks that the 

Cuban dictatorship needs to follow if Cuba is truly to be free. 

Thank you so very, very much. 

And I would like to now yield the floor to Ms. Fonseca for such 

time as you may consume. 

STATEMENT OF MS. SARA MARTHA FONSECA QUEVEDO, 

MEMBER, LADIES IN WHITE (DAMAS DE BLANCO) 

[The following statement and answers were delivered through an 

interpreter.] 

Ms. FONSECA. Good morning. 

My name is Sara Marta Fonseca Quevedo. I was born in 1970 

into a Cuban family that, since 1959, had been branded as a dissident from the state. We were classified as counterrevolutionaries 

because we were opposed to the incipient Castro regime. 

For over half a century in Cuba, the Castro regime has violated 

and violates human rights. From the beginning, there have been 

crimes, murders, political prisoners, and people discriminated. All 

those who speak out against the regime are brutally repressed, imprisoned, or murdered. In spite of having been raised within communism, they were never able to convince us that that is the right 

way to live. 

As a human rights activist, I participated in organizing demonstrations in Havana, among them, a historic demonstration in 

2011 in the old Capitol building in the center of Havana. On that 

day, four women, in spite of repression, opened a banner displaying 

a slogan calling for the release of all political prisoners. 

Hundreds of Cubans witnessed this protest. We inspired many 

Cubans who began to shout along with us for freedom. Others carried out their own protest. At all times we felt the support of the 

people. This protest was well worth the repression that we later 

suffered. 

I have been repeatedly arrested. They have beaten me senselessly in police stations to the point that they thought they had 

killed me. On one occasion, three female police officers dragged me 

by my hair from one cell to another. While they dragged me by my 

hair from one cell to the other, they kicked me in my back and in 

my head. 

Once I was in the cell they were taking me to and while I was 

still handcuffed behind my back, a male police officer kicked me 

with all his strength in my head. As a result of this, I suffered permanent damage to my right kidney and serious damage to my spinal column. To this day, as a result of this beating, I still suffer 

from dizzy spells. 

It is with this brutality and much worse that the Castro regime 

controls the Cuban people. They do this to constantly show the people what the cost of rebellion is. 

I want to emphasize that this type of repression continues today 

right now in Cuba. Cubans cannot elect their leaders. Children are 

indoctrinated in the schools, and those who do not follow the brainwashing cannot finish their studies. The people have been condemned to scarcity, hunger, and misery by the regime. 

25

A people without freedom of expression, with all the media controlled by the government, and hungry, are easy to manipulate. 

People think only about how to feed their family and although they 

do not like the way they are living, they can only think about survival. 

The Cuban people are tired of imposition and dictatorship. In 

order to escape, they venture out to the sea on makeshift rafts. It 

is for these reasons that we do not agree with the negotiations between the President of the United States Barack Obama and dictator Raul Castro. 

Why negotiate with a dictatorship without taking into account 

the people and their resistance? What about all the years of suffering, of beatings dealt out by the political police to the opposition 

and the people when they demanded freedom and democracy? 

What about the political prisoners, the murdered, the disappeared? 

What has Raul Castro given in exchange? 

Only when all political prisoners are released, only when all 

independent political parties and labor unions are legalized, only 

when free multiparty democratic elections are carried out, only 

when human rights are respected—only then should the embargo 

be lifted. 

I thank God for having been raised by a family which taught me 

truth, for saying what was on my mind. For stating what was on 

my mind, I was not able to finish my studies and neither were my 

sons. My family and I have been repressed, beaten. We have been 

thrown into cells. My house was destroyed by those using sticks, 

stones, who hurled all types of paints, tar, waste, excrement, chemical liquids. This attack against my house was carried out by paramilitary thugs hired by the political police. 

To lift the embargo means to legitimize dictatorship, to provide 

them with oxygen so that they stay in power while repressing, 

jailing, and murdering. The Cuban people will not benefit from lifting of the embargo. Only the regime will benefit. The Castro dictatorship owns every company that exists in Cuba. No Cuban can 

own their own business. The Castro family owns Cuba. 

We have faith in the future of Cuba because we have faith in the 

struggle of the Cuban resistance. There is only one resistance inside and outside Cuba. The Agreement for Democracy, a historic 

document signed by a majority of the Cuban resistance, lays out a 

clear road map toward democracy. 

We want freedom, justice, and democracy for Cuba now. God 

bless Cuba and the United States. 

Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Fonseca follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you so very much, Ms. Fonseca. 

And thank you for reminding us that these atrocities continue to 

this day, again underscoring the appalling lack of respect for fundamental human rights by the dictatorship. 

So thank you for that great testimony. 

Mr. Thale, please proceed. 

STATEMENT OF MR. GEOFF THALE, PROGRAM DIRECTOR, 

WASHINGTON OFFICE ON LATIN AMERICA 

Mr. THALE. Thank you. I am Geoff Thale, Program Director of 

WOLA, the Washington Office on Latin America. 

I want to thank Chairman Smith and Ranking Member Bass for 

convening this hearing on these human rights issues in Cuba. 

WOLA is a nongovernmental organization. For 40 years, we have 

done research and advocacy on human rights issues in the Americas. I have followed Latin American human rights issues since the 

mid-1980s, and I have directed WOLA’s Cuba program since 1995. 

I travel there regularly. I try to meet with a wide range of Cubans, academics, Catholic and Protestant church leaders, government officials and government critics, government employees, and 

people in the small business sector. 

I have met with the late Oswaldo Paya. I regularly meet with 

and have met with activists like Elizardo Sanchez. I have had the 

pleasure of meeting here with visiting Cuban dissidents, including 

Miriam Leiva and Manuel Cuesta Morua, who spoke in a panel the 

other day with Ms. Soler in the Senate. 

So the question before us today really is: Has the United States 

squandered an opportunity to promote human rights in Cuba following the December 17 announcement? 

And I think our basic position is that, far from squandering an 

opportunity, our new posture toward Cuba will open new paths to 

improve the human rights situation and the living conditions of 

Cubans. 

It will provide opportunities to advance U.S. values and interests, opening new avenues of engagement through travel and trade 

for U.S. citizens, for churches, for academic and cultural institutions and businesses. Overall, it will enhance the prospects for freedom of expression and for reform on the island. 

I want to very briefly comment on three issues. One is the 

human rights situation, the general situation in the country;the 

second, what I see as the failures of a policy of isolation; and the 

third, kind of quickly, the opportunities for the ways in which engagement can advance the human rights situation and our interests. 

So on the first question, there is very little doubt—and my colleagues on this panel have talked about it—that there are serious 

human rights problems in Cuba. No one is unrealistic about that, 

and no one has a rosy view of the situation. 

In addition to the human rights situation, I think it is clear that 

the Cuban economy is overall fairly stagnant. Many people, especially young people, are yearning for real opportunity and don’t feel 

they have it. 

And, in fact, the modest economic growth in Cuba in the last few 

years has led to increases in inequality. And one group in parVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:32 Apr 28, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00032 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\020515\93159 SHIRL
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ticular that has not benefited from some modest economic growth 

is Afro-Cuban families and youth. 

At the same time, I want to be clear on the other side. The picture in Cuba isn’t uniformly grim. Life expectancy in Cuba is about 

what it is in the United States because of public health measures 

and medical care. 

Literacy levels in Cuba are very high, as high as in the United 

States overall, reflecting universal public education. Cuba just 

passed legislation this past summer to prevent discrimination 

based on sexual orientation. 

So very serious problems. But for all its very serious and very 

real problems, Cubans probably don’t face the kind of issues citizens face in a country like Saudi Arabia or other repressive regimes. 

So, overall, the question isn’t whether there is a real human 

rights issue in Cuba. Everyone agrees that there is. The question 

is: What can the United States do to improve that situation? 

For the last 55 years, we have pursued a policy of isolation. And 

I think it is fairly clear, if you hear the testimonies of the other 

panelists, that policy has failed to do anything to improve the 

human rights situation on the island. 

It has created hardships for Cuban citizens, for normal Cubans. 

But it has not forced the Cuban Government to change its policies 

or its direction. And, in fact, in many ways, it has offered the government a rationale to crack down on dissent. 

So the policy hasn’t succeeded in bringing change in the Cuban 

Government. At the same time, it has relegated the United States, 

both U.S. Government and U.S. society, to the sidelines in Cuba 

itself. 

And so, if the policy of isolation has failed—and I think it pretty 

clearly has—the question is: What about a policy of engagement? 

Now, no one thinks a policy of engagement is a magic solution 

to the human rights problem in Cuba. But I think it is clear that, 

historically, periods of engagement with Cuba are periods in which 

we have seen political relaxation, particularly the release of prisoners. 

Under President Carter, during the time Pope John Paul II visited, during the 2012 talks with the church and the Spanish Government, all three of them saw significant prisoner releases. And 

just this past month, following the extensive talks between Cuba 

and the U.S. Government, 53 political prisoners were released, 

completing the release of everybody on Amnesty International’s list 

of prisoners of conscience. 

So other international actors as well—the Government of Spain, 

the Government of Canada, the Government of Norway, a number 

of international groups, including European churches—have seen 

specific benefits to efforts they have made for engagement with the 

Cuban Government rather than policies of isolation. 

Beyond the dialogue with Cuban officials, I think there are some 

really important things that greater engagement will do. It will 

help reformers inside the Cuban system. It will provide them more 

space and opportunity. It will benefit Cuban families and the Cubans who interact with people-to-people travelers. It is going to 

benefit religious interaction and expand contact between U.S. and 

30

Cuban churches. Telecommunications is going to offer new opportunities for Internet access and information on the island. 

So, overall, I think it is pretty clear that the policy of engagement is likely to expand family visits and remittances, assist a 

small, but growing, private sector, increase cultural and religious 

contacts, and help Cubans connect to the outside world. And if the 

United States is interested in helping ordinary Cubans in promoting democratic values, that is the path we ought to pursue. 

We shouldn’t be naive in our expectations about Cuba’s political 

leadership. This is the beginning, though, of a long-term process to 

reduce tension between the governments and build bridges between 

the American and Cuban people. Over time, that is going to help 

empower Cuban citizens and open political space on the island. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Thale follows:]

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Mr. SMITH. Thank you very much for your testimony. 

We are joined by a member of the subcommittee who had a previous engagement at the opening part of this hearing, Mr. Clawson, 

the gentleman from Florida. So I yield time for his opening statement. 

Mr. CLAWSON. Thank you. Thank you for coming today. 

Mr. Thale, I want to start by thanking you for coming. 

I just want to say for the record I am in a bit of a disagreement 

here. I think that, if foreign direct investment was a good way to 

get these folks to come around, we would be in a better place right 

now. 

The Spaniards have had nice hotels on Varadero for a long time 

and it just hasn’t had enough of an impact. And so I am worried 

that we are just casting a lifeline to murderous folks that were 

really about to go under. 

Senor Garcia, Senora Solera and Senora Fonseca, bienvenidos. 

[Speaking foreign language.] 

You have my full admiration, my full respect, [speaking foreign 

language] for what you are doing and the fight that you are waging, an example not only for your country, but for my countrymen 

as well. 

And anything that I can do to help you in this sacred fight, I am 

willing and enthusiastic to do so. I am so sad, sometimes brokenhearted, for your suffering and your injuries,and I can’t imagine 

what it would be like. 

[Speaking foreign language.] 

And so I want to tell you wholeheartedly how much I support 

what you are doing. 

[Speaking foreign language.] 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Clawson, thank you so very, very much. 

If you would like to respond—Ms. Bass does have a plane to 

catch and asked if she could say a few words. 

Ms. BASS. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

And thank the witnesses for their testimony. 

I have a couple of questions. I sit on the board of the National 

Endowment for Democracy, and there is about 27 organizations 

that are funded to help with activists in Cuba. Some of the organization are funded in Cuba and some of them are funded in Miami. 

I just wondered, one, if you thought that the funding was helpful. 

And then, also, the three of you are here today, and I just wondered how you were able to come—are you here for a long time?—

or how you were able to get out of Cuba. Do you travel back and 

forth? 

Those are the questions I wanted to ask the three of you. And 

then I would like to direct a question to the other witness. 

Ms. FONSECA. Yes. All types of aid received by the opposition in 

Cuba is very important. I can tell you that, thanks to the aid we 

have received in Cuba, we have been able to save at least one life. 

And I will give you an example. 

When you have a cell phone in your hand, you have a weapon 

with which to defend yourself. Without the aid we get from abroad, 

we couldn’t pay for that cell phone. On many occasions, we have 

been able to transmit from one corner of the island to the other 

about an activist who has disappeared or been arrested who otherVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:32 Apr 28, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00041 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\020515\93159 SHIRL
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wise there would be no news about. And thanks to that kind of 

communication, we are able to go out into the streets and to demand freedom for those who have been arrested. 

Ms. BASS. You know, I am relatively new on the board. So I was 

just learning about the funding. But given that we don’t even have 

mail exchange—not much, I don’t think—between our two countries, I was surprised that you were even able to get any aid from 

the United States. 

Ms. FONSECA. Yes. It is very clear that you can receive aid from 

one family member to another. That is why the Cuban exile community is so important. 

Ms. BASS. And then, also, about your travel, are you able to go 

back and forth between the—I mean, I know you are here today 

for this. I don’t know if you have been here for a while. But you 

are able to go back and forth? 

Ms. FONSECA. In my case, I am a refugee in the United States. 

Ms. BASS. Okay. I see. 

But you guys are going back. Right? Didn’t you mention that you 

were——

Ms. SOLER. At this moment in time, some activists are able to 

leave Cuba and come back thanks to the aid that we receive from 

some NGOs. This doesn’t mean we are free, because there are 

many activists who are impeded from leaving Cuba by the regime. 

Ms. BASS. Sure. No. I mean, I was just surprised anybody was—

you know, I understand, especially financially. But the fact that 

you were able—because they know what you are doing. Right? 

Ms. SOLER. I want to give you an example. There are former political prisoners—there are at least 12 former political prisoners 

who are part of a larger group of 75 who were released from prison 

that are still under house arrest and they can’t leave Cuba. 

And I give you a more recent example. One of the Ladies in 

White, Sonia Alfonso Alvarez, she was released on December 9 and, 

when she went to request her passport, it was denied to her. 

I label the change that Raul Castro did in 2013 as a petty reform. As long as they can determine who leaves, who enters, there 

is no freedom to travel. 

Ms. BASS. Okay. And then, finally—because I promised the chair 

I would be quick—I wanted to ask, Mr. Thale, if you could talk 

about some of the—in the President’s proposals, it is going to allow 

more economic exchange between our two countries. 

And I am wondering what impact you think that might have, especially on the freedom or lack thereof, of people to open up their 

own businesses. I mean, I understand there is some businesses, 

like people that have restaurants in their homes and stuff like 

that. I don’t know to what extent there is extensive free enterprise. 

But do you think that that is ultimately going to assist the development of that? 

Mr. THALE. Thank you for the question, Congresswoman. 

So Cuba in 10 years ago, about 90 percent of the population of 

the Cuban workforce worked for state or state businesses. Today 

that is probably down to about 70 percent. 

The number of people who work for themselves in small businesses has gone up from about 150,000 4 years ago to about 1⁄2 million now. So there has been a substantial increase. 

39

Some of those businesses are quite successful and have a dozen, 

15 employees. The vast majority of them are small vendors, small 

restaurants, people selling and dealing out of their home. 

I think that the opening we have offered to the private sector—

it is going to take a while for that to work through. But it is clear 

that it will strengthen the capacity of those businesses and the creation of a small private business sector. I think we will see change 

in that area over time. 

Ms. BASS. Thank you. 

I yield back my time. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Ms. Bass. 

First of all, let me introduce Basilio Guzman, who was a political 

prisoner for 22 years and was subjected to heinous torture, unbelievable acts for brutality. 

Thank you for joining us at today’s hearing and for your courage. 

I would also like to introduce Iris Tamara Perez Aguilera, who 

is the wife of Antunez, if you would, and a leader in her own right. 

She founded the Rosa Parks Civil Rights Movement and has spoken out bravely along with her husband. 

Thank you for joining us at today’s hearing as well. 

I would like to ask a few opening questions and then yield to my 

distinguished colleagues. 

First of all, if you could, Mr. Antunez, if you wouldn’t mind, 

speaking to the issue of the mistreatment of Afro-Cubans. 

I have learned over the last several years—and I have been 

working on Cuban rights issues—I have been in Congress 35 years. 

I have been working on Cuban human rights issues for 35 years. 

But there has been, I think, a lack of attention given to the additional mistreatment endured by Afro-Cubans. 

All people who aspire to freedom and democracy, the full weight 

of tyranny comes down upon them. But there also seems to be a 

further differentiation and focus—negative bias—prejudice against 

Afro-Cubans. 

If you could speak to that. 

Mr. GARCIA. I appreciate your concern and your interest that all 

of you have shown today for the cause of Cuba,and I appreciate 

that concern even from those who are in agreement with Barack 

Obama’s policy. 

Before I answer your question directly, I would like to reflect on 

something. And with all due respect for one of the panelists, I felt 

great pain a few moments ago. 

I felt ill at ease to listen from you that the Cuban situation is 

bad, but not that bad, the situation in Cuba is bad, but not that 

bad. I really don’t understand, with all due respect, what you mean 

by a situation that is bad, but not that bad. 

And when you say this, I think about Cuban mothers who go to 

sleep crying because they have no food for their kids the next day. 

I think of those thousands of young women who have had to become prostitutes so they can feed their families. I think of the fact 

that Cubans can barely afford to live. I think about the gross inequality between the regime leaders and the people. I think about 

the moral, spiritual, and economic poverty of the people of Cuba. 

There may be some educational achievement in Cuba, but we are 

talking about a system of education which consists of indoctrinaVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:32 Apr 28, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00043 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\020515\93159 SHIRL
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tion. When all three of us who are here were discriminated from 

pursuing higher education as youth because we had different political ideas, I think that invalidates, with all due respect, your argument. 

It is true Cuba is a medical power. But Cuba is not a medical 

power for Sara Marta Fonseca, for Berta Soler, or for Jorge Luis 

Garcia Perez. 

Cuba has many sophisticated hospitals and clinics which are first 

world-class. But those clinics, like the Fiera del Silla and Simex, 

are only for people who can pay with dollars. They are only for 

tourists or for the elite. 

I also heard you say that the human rights situation is not that 

grievous. How hard it must be for someone like Sidro Alexis Garcia 

to listen to—is it not that bad to be in prison merely for displaying 

a sign and calling for freedom? 

Is it not that bad to be in prison like Ernesto Borges? And I want 

to emphasize this case. Mr. Barack Obama released three confessed 

spies from the U.S. who were conspiring against the stability and 

the security of this country. However, this young man was sentenced to 30 years in prisonand he spent 18 years in prison because 

he passed on information to the U.S. about 26 Cuban spies who 

were being sent to the U.S. to conspire against the U.S. It is not 

that Cuba’s situation is not that bad. It is extremely bad. 

And if you will allow me, I want to comment on your reflection 

and I want to address directly what you asked. 

I want to ask: Why is it that you can’t go into Cuba? Why is it 

that you can’t travel to Cuba? Because if you are allowed to go into 

a Cuban prison, all you will see are black people, hundreds of black 

men. You will see men who would rather jump from a rooftop and 

commit suicide or you will see men being bitten by dogs. You will 

see the beatings. You will see the persecution. You will see these 

very far-flung sentences, these very high sentences. You will see 

dozens and dozens of political prisoners who weren’t even mentioned in these negotiations. 

If you want to go to Cuba, simply tell them that you are not 

going to visit prisons and that you don’t want to meet with dissidents. 

I think this addresses what you asked about discrimination in 

Cuba. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Antunez, thank you very much. 

You know, the Washington Post has done several editorials very, 

very critical of President Obama’s moving toward opening up diplomatic relations or further relations. And they made a very, very salient point that I would just like to underscore here, and that is 

that we are repeating mistakes that have been made in the past. 

When Bill Clinton went to Vietnam and opened up relations with 

Vietnam, which followed very quickly with the Bilateral Trade 

Agreement under President Bush, many of us said it was a mistake 

not to get human rights reforms, durable reforms, first and then 

move to the diplomatic recognition, followed by an economic relationship. 

The Post points out that it is the way Mr. Obama has gone about 

this that is a mistake, not reform first, but moving in to provide 

a lifeline, as one of their editorials pointed out—a lifeline to a dicVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:32 Apr 28, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00044 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\020515\93159 SHIRL
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tatorship at a time when Venezuela is less capable to provide funding. 

And we know that several years ago that funding from what was 

then the Soviet Union ceased to exist. A very opportune time to 

press the case for human rights and we blew it when it came to 

Vietnam. 

I have had passed in this Congress, three Congresses and counting, the Vietnam Human Rights Act. Harry Reid, the majority leader, now minority leader, would not put it up for a vote. But three 

times bipartisan legislation with clear benchmarks toward Vietnam 

because they are in a race to the bottom with China and North 

Korea. 

Cuba is already there. And, yet, having not learned a single lesson from those failed openings where they get stronger, the dictatorship becomes further empowered. 

I firmly disagree, Mr. Thale, with your comment about isolation. 

We are talking about financially enabling a lifeline, to quote the 

Washington Post. 

And one of their editorials was President Obama’s betrayal of 

Cuban Democrats. Many of those—some have already been re-arrested that were let out. And, of course, as I pointed out, there 

were just under 200 that we know of that have been arrested in 

the last several weeks alone. 

So that has been the game that Fidel Castro plays. He lets people in and out, but always has this sword of Damocles hanging over 

the entirety of this dictatorship. 

But I have a question, if I could, on an issue. And then I will 

yield to my good friend and colleague, Chairwoman Ileana RosLehtinen. 

I have been working and I am a leader in the area of combatting 

human trafficking. I am the prime author of what is known as the 

Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. It is our landmark law 

to combat modern-day slavery. 

Well, the State Department has a Trafficking in Persons office 

created by my law. And they put out an annual listing of countries 

using what we contained in the law called minimum standards. 

The worst designation is Tier 3. 

Cuba, again, is a Tier 3 country, an egregious violator of trafficking with full complicity of the Castro brothers and the rest of 

that government, making money hand over fist by forcible prostitution and by child prostitution. 

In 2004, Frank Calzon had documentation and was working on 

the Human Rights Commission in Geneva. He had documentation 

of the complicity of this dictatorship with child prostitution and 

child exploitation. And he was knocked out cold, hit in the face, by 

Cuban so-called diplomats, thugs. 

Freedom House came to his defense and made a very strong 

statement against it because he was bearing witness to that ugly 

truth of child prostitution. And, again, the State Department 

chronicles this. Cuban citizens have been subject to forced prostitution outside of Cuba as well. And then child prostitution and child 

sex tourism continues. 

In the hotels that were mentioned by Mr. Clawson and other 

places, renting children, that is the reality of what this barbaric reVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:32 Apr 28, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\020515\93159 SHIRL
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gime is all about. They make money by child sex tourism. Again, 

it is not an open society. I would love for investigators to be able 

to go there and, of course, look to bring charges against those, including higher-ups in the government. Tier 3 country. 

I would like to ask any of our witnesses if they would like to 

speak to the despicable record of Cuba when it comes to the modern-day slave trade. 

Ms. SOLER. It is very important for you to know that the Cuban 

Government promotes child prostitution in Cuba. The Cuban Government knows that there are many youths who don’t go to school, 

but who are on the streets looking for ways to make money to feed 

their families. 

It is shameful to say, but I must say just last week there was 

a group of young women saying that they were organizing themselves and preserving themselves for when American tourism arrives so they can sell themselves to American tourists. 

If we call the prostitution of hundreds of Cuban youths empowerment, if we call Cubans who are going to try and steal and take 

from their places of work in order to feed their families—if we call 

this empowerment, if we call empowerment that women, like the 

Ladies in White, who go out in the streets to demand freedom and 

respect for human rights and are beaten—if we call this empowerment, if we call empowerment the Castro regime filling schools 

with teachers who are poorly trained, the children of human rights 

activists are failing their tests, and they are damaged or harmed 

in their studies because their parents are involved in human rights 

activity, this is not what we want for Cuba. 

The Cuban Government is trying to build a Chinese model in 

Cuba. The Cuban regime wants oxygen and needs air. The Cuban 

Government wants a capitalist economic system and a Communist 

political system. We can’t tolerate this after over half a century. 

Human rights first. Economy second. 

The Cuban people are suffering, hungry, not because of the 

American Government. The Cuban people are hungry because the 

Communist system doesn’t work. 

We don’t want a succession in Cuba. We don’t want a continuation of the regime. We don’t want a dynasty in power. We want 

free elections. The resources that are meant for the Cuban people, 

Raul Castro will take to strengthen the repressive apparatus. 

Thank you. 

Mr. SMITH. I yield to the chairwoman, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much, Mr. Smith. Thank you 

for calling this important hearing. Thank you to our witnesses, who 

are victims of the Castro regime, for being here today. 

Antunez, Berta, Sara, Iris, I am humbled to be in your presence. 

Some of you live in Cuba. Others are here now but have family in 

Cuba so I know that you are very brave for being here today. 

This is sort of an insurance policy that you have offered them, 

Mr. Smith, because by being here today, perhaps they will have 

some degree of protection that those other figures, as brave as you 

are, won’t have. So I know you worry about them. Thank you for 

holding up their photos. 

43

Thank you for describing the current dismal human rights situation in my native homeland of Cuba. And I wanted to just give this 

statement and then ask you some questions. 

How has the regime’s treatment of its critics changed since December 17th? Do you think this announcement will force changes? 

I will ask you to respond in a minute. 

How does the regime manipulate the press here in the United 

States and elsewhere and visitors and tourists on the island that 

may come back here with a distorted picture of what is going on? 

This morning, I did a radio interview, and the reporter says, ‘‘I 

know Cuba; I was there for a week.’’

Antunez and Berta, you will hear—you have heard from some 

today that Castro’s Cuba is a picture of equality, that the regime 

supports everyone’s rights, including the rights of Afro-Cubans. 

Thank you for pointing out the kind of apartheid government that 

exists there, especially the medical apartheid and the prison apartheid. Thank you for pointing out the mistreatment of the Afro-Cubans. 

And, Mr. Thale, you testified that the picture in Cuba is not a 

uniformly grim one. The fact that you essentially say, ‘‘Hey, look, 

it could be worse,’’ I suppose so. It can always be worse. And it is 

particularly disgusting and it is an affront to the panelists who sit 

beside you and the countless number of people who have been 

jailed for expressing their God-given and fundamental human 

rights, to thousands who have died trying desperately to flee Cuba. 

This is such a workers’ paradise where the situation is not that 

bad that I have people—I see people in my district that wash 

ashore trying to flee Castro’s Cuba. Even now, as all of these negotiations have taken place, there is a 40-percent increase in the 

number of Cubans fleeing this situation that is ‘‘not that bad.’’ People who live in constant fear because the regime is watching them 

closely or the millions more who have managed to flee over the 

years. 

You are repeating the Castro propaganda about good public 

health care. These are the constituents that I represent now. They 

fled Cuba. You should come to Miami and meet with my constituents and have them tell you about this great medical care. I have 

seen it in the Michael Moore documentary, ‘‘Sicko.’’ Where does 

that exist? Where is that medical care for these folks? 

I know that if you are a tourist, you will certainly be treated 

well. It is good propaganda. Public education, advancement of 

LGBT rights. The real truth is that the good medical care is just 

a show for the Castro regime reserved only for the regime officials 

and the tourists. I know because I represent that community. My 

district is overwhelmingly Cuban-Americans. I don’t know how I 

got elected. It is just a fluke, I guess. But these are the folks who 

vote for me and will vote for Mario and vote for Carlos Curbelo, 

vote for Marco Rubio, vote for Bob Menendez and Albio Sires. 

But we know that the system of medical in Cuba, for all, most 

vast majority of Cubans, they have no access to this system. Please 

interview the people as they get off the planes from Cuba. Dr. 

Oscar Elias Biscet, thrown in jail for disclosing the truth about 

abortions being committed and the poor hospital conditions. And 

Mr. Smith has brought that out time and time again. 

44

Life expectancy rates and other healthcare statistics in Cuba, 

where do we get those from? You are doing a survey in Cuba? They 

are manipulated by the regime. It is unbelievable that we swallow 

this. 

And you have fallen into the trap, Mr. Thale, that Castro set for 

you, willing to swallow the regime propaganda, spread it to them 

to give it legitimacy. They are utter falsehoods and repeated over 

and over again to the detriment of the truth, of the public, and especially the Cuban people. 

It is such a great system, the public education system. As these 

witnesses have pointed out, it is a public indoctrination program. 

Have you seen the textbooks? Meant to stymie free thinking and 

free will. 

Progress on sexual discrimination? Please, I have met with 

prominent Cuban LGBT advocates, Wendy Iriepa Padilla and 

Ignacio Estrada Cepero, and they have vigorously dismissed the 

claims of progress on LGBT. They have condemned the continual 

denial of human rights for everyone. The Castro regime will project 

LGBT rights if you agree with the Castro regime. They will protect 

anyone who agrees with the Castro regime. But be an LGBT individual in Cuba and speak out against the regime, see how far that 

gets you. 

So my first question to you, Mr. Thale, is: Can you honestly look 

at your copanelists in the eye and tell them that the picture in 

Cuba isn’t a particularly grim one—it is not that bad—and that the 

torture, the beatings, the imprisonment, the harassment that they 

have had to endure isn’t particularly grim? 

Your 17 years in prison, not particularly grim, not that bad. The 

beatings of Ladies in White, including 13 who were detained on 

Sunday, but the press doesn’t cover that anymore because they 

want to have their bureau in Havana. And you talk about how the 

engagement has led to the release of political prisoners. You point 

to this false list of 53 as part of the December 17th announcement. 

But what happens the next day when we are not looking, when 

people aren’t looking for Cuba, when the press has done their 

standups and they have got their bureau? They don’t want to lose 

that bureau. Oh, no. How many more of these dissidents are rearrested? How many more are detained? 

How many more—how many of the 53 have been released prior 

to the agreement, or are you under the fallacy that that 53 list is 

authentic? Haven’t some of them been rearrested? And what about 

those other ones who never made it to the list? Why 53? There 

were 9,000 imprisoned last year, according to reports. And how 

about those individuals that Mr. Antunez held up? What has happened to them? 

The modus operandi of the regime is to do this bait and switch, 

to release some prisoners out of expediency, to promulgate its propaganda and then, when the spotlight is off, rearrest those people 

or find new ones to throw in jail. But now they don’t even have to 

wait until the press attention is out. 

Like I said, just on Monday, a young rapper was put in jail for 

a year for dangerousness which could lead to a crime. How can you 

justify that? How can you say, oh, we have liberated these 53, and 

it is not that bad? 

45

I want to ask you—to our panelists here: Mr. Antunez, has it not 

been that bad for you? When you were in jail, not that bad? Not 

that grim? 

And Berta and Sara. 

Mr. GARCIA. I think that the situation with the violation of 

human rights in Cuba is much worse than we can describe. It has 

been written about in some documentaries that have been made. 

But none of them capture the full reality. They can’t capture the 

brutal reality of imprisonment in Cuba. 

Maybe those who don’t have a real good idea or don’t have all 

the information about what a Cuban prison is like could come to 

think that a prisoner in Cuba is merely deprived of their freedom. 

They could ignore that Cuban political prisoners are injected with 

water and told that they are being injected with some kind of sedative. There have been cells throughout Cuban prisons where murders and beatings have taken place. There have been clinically induced suicides which have taken place in Cuban prisons. 

I will never forget Samuel Simpson Gonzalez when he was manipulated by the prison authorities to jump off a third-story rooftop. I will never forget the use of Shakira, a device for torture, in 

Cuba. I don’t want to consume too much of your time telling you 

about all the horrors of the prisons because I have so many examples of torture that we wouldn’t have enough time for me to go over 

all of them. 

If you ask me how I could describe political imprisonment in 

Cuba, I would ask you to ask Dante and find it in his great work. 

You can’t talk about process of engagement, of dialogue, of understanding if you ignore something as important, as crucial, as essential as political prisoners. 

We often talk about the embargo, and we hear it mentioned in 

different forums. Eloquent voices speak out against the embargo. 

However, one of the Members of Congress who is not present right 

now, blames the embargo for not being able to go to Cuba. But it 

should be mentioned—perhaps they should mention that the only 

real embargo, the only real blockade that the Cubans face is the 

cruel criminal Castro dictatorship that does not limit itself and on 

a weekly basis beats women on the streets, a regime who murdered 

in the hospital a courageous woman like Ladies in White founder 

Laura Pollan or who murdered Orlando Zapata Tamayo by not letting him drink water for 18 days. 

Yeah, there will be changes. There will be improvements, but not 

for the people. It will be for that regime that has imprisoned so 

many Cubans, that has repressed Cubans, and that is frankly taking the lead in these negotiations. 

Those of us who are sitting here are not extremists. We are not 

backward-looking people. We are not against policies of engagement and understanding. And we think that the best way to solve 

a conflict is by approaching. But what we can’t accept is that you 

confuse Cuba with the regime that oppresses Cuba. What we will 

not accept and we have no reason to accept is that the Cuban opposition be ignored in these negotiations. 

The Castro regime has found in Barack Obama’s engagement 

policy part of the incentives it needs in order to continue repressing. In order to maintain itself in power, as well as to legitimatize 

46

itself internationally, these accords have been very strong. The 

Cuban resistance does not recognize these accords, and we do not 

count for moral authority or executive authority, no matter how 

powerful they may be. 

We are appreciative of international solidarity, and we accept it. 

We respect those who think that President Obama’s policies will 

benefit Cuba. But all that we ask, please, is that you recognize us 

and that you take us into account. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Berta. 

Ms. SOLER. It is very important for you to know that the Cuban 

Government uses state terrorism against defenseless women. The 

Cuban Government is not a sovereign government. The Cuban Government has not been elected. Therefore, we Cubans are the sovereignty of Cuba. We have the right to express our opinion. 

It is very important that you know we have no problem with the 

Government of the United States because they have always tried 

to support the people of Cuba. What we are against is the way in 

which these negotiations are being conducted because we are the 

sovereignty of the people of Cuba. 

The secrecy surrounding the list of political prisoners who were 

going to be released was another deceit of the Cuban Government. 

Fourteen prisoners had already been released. But these 14 were 

not free men like those three spies that President Obama unconditionally handed over to the Castro regime. These political prisoners 

that were released by Castro regime have been released on parole. 

You must take us into account. We can help in how the U.S. Government deals with the Cuban Government. You can’t do business 

with criminals, and if you do, you must have conditions. 

You can see how Raul Castro himself is already setting conditions. But which are the conditions that we are demanding from 

the Cuban Government? How can it be possible that so much violence is exerted against women simply because they are trying to 

practice their religious freedom? 

How can it be possible that you are peacefully walking on a sidewalk in your country and the regime hurls pro-government thugs, 

paramilitary thugs against you? How can it be possible that the police take us to faraway parts of the city and that they fracture our 

wrists with their pistol butts? 

It is a suffering people. It is a people that needs freedom. Freedom depends on us Cubans, but we need the material and spiritual 

support of other governments. 

I am going to go further back. In 1980, 100,000 Cubans left 

Cuba—teachers, engineers, physicians. Castro called them scum 

and said they were leaving due to economic reasons. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Now, Berta, I am going to interrupt you a 

second because I know that you have got a flight to catch. I just 

want to say something before you leave. 

This is the news from today: ‘‘Dissidents Arrested for Protest 

Near Cuban National Assembly this Morning.’’ So much has 

changed. A group of 12 dissidents were arrested as they tried to 

stage a protest near the Havana headquarters of the Cuban regime’s National Assembly. The dissidents, part of the Orlando Zapata Tamayo Civil Resistance Front took out a sign demanding the 

elimination of Castro’s draconian laws—that ever wonderful social 

47

dangerousness—and the ratification of the U.N. human rights covenants. Their whereabouts remain unknown. 

In stark contrast, this release says, Cuban democracy activists 

Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, Antunez, and Sara Martha Fonseca, both 

leaders of this group, are freely and openly testifying before the 

U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, DC, this morning. 

What a contrast. 

Berta, you have got to hop on a plane. And I know that you will 

be marching with the Ladies in White on Sunday. We will pray for 

you. We will pray for all of the people of Cuba. You make us proud. 

You make freedom and liberty shine. 

[Speaking foreign language.] 

Ms. SOLER. [Speaking foreign language.] 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much. Thank you. Now move 

your butt over to the airport. Because that is free commerce in action, they won’t hold that plane. Only in Castro’s Cuba will they 

hold it. 

[Speaking foreign language.] 

Sara, and then I don’t know if Mr. Thale could speak as well. 

[Speaking foreign language.] 

Ms. FONSECA. If you allow me, I would like to speak about the 

private sector in Cuba. There is no private sector in Cuba—where 

there is no freedom to negotiate. The so-called cuentapropistas or 

self-entrepreneurs, who are a very tiny minority, are constantly 

blackmailed and manipulated by the regime. 

They must respond to the interest of the regime in order to keep 

their businesses running. They can’t have their own unions. They 

can’t defend their rights. That is why I insist, no type of commerce 

with Cuba benefits the people. Whatever money enters Cuba remains in the hands of the regime. 

I also want to say I feel a deep sadness every time I think of political prisoners. It is very hard that in the 21st century, there are 

still people in my country who are imprisoned for their ideas, that 

there are so many marginalized people who can’t even finish their 

studies because of their ideas. But it is not only this. Many youth 

who are not directly involved in opposition activity also suffer from 

persecution and also suffer from discrimination because they are 

the children of opposition activists. It is a crime that youth cannot 

pursue their studies and that they desperately seek in prostitution 

a means of which to maintain their families. 

We condemn the Castro regime. We demand that there be no impunity for the regime. We want a free, just, and democratic country. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much. 

And, Mr. Chairman, I regret that I have a plane to catch as well. 

I did not give Mr. Thale a chance to respond. I don’t know if you 

will be able to, and I will hear it on C–SPAN radio. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. Thank you so very much. 

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much. Thank you. I am on 

Berta’s flight, I just remembered. It is not going to wait for me either. Thank you, sir. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you. 

Mr. Thale. 

48

Mr. THALE. Only briefly. Thank you. Thank you for the series of 

questions and comments. 

Without wanting to enter into a whole debate about exactly how 

you characterize the human rights situation in Cuba, which I don’t 

think is particularly profitable, I think it is clear—no one denies 

that there are serious human rights problems on the island. The 

question is how to address them and what the United States Government can do. And I think that the policy of engagement that 

was announced on the 17th—the policy has been supported by others in the Cuban dissident community, some of who testified before 

the Senate the other day, that is supported by the Catholic Church 

in Cuba, that is supported by the U.S. Catholic Conference, that 

was endorsed by the Pope, that a number of Republicans as well 

as Democrats in this Congress have endorsed, that Freedom House 

has endorsed—I think the message is there is a very strong view 

that the best way to address the human rights situation in Cuba 

is engagement. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you, Mr. Thale. 

Let me just—and I will give—if any of you want to make any 

final comments as we conclude the hearing. 

I will, again, respectfully disagree, Mr. Thale. And I thank you 

for your candor. 

We have tried that before, and it seems to me it is not about isolation. It is about meaningful engagement where steps that we 

take are predicated on just observing universally recognized human 

rights. We are only asking that the Universal Declaration of 

Human Rights, the treaties that have been enacted, for want of a 

better word, with concurrence and full all-in by the countries of the 

world—be followed and certainly the convention against torture, 

which has been violated with impunity by Castro and is one of the 

most egregious violations. Torturing people is one of the most heinous acts one human being can commit against another. 

I would just very quickly, Mr. Thale, have you ever asked to 

meet with a political prisoner in prison? 

Mr. THALE. [Shakes head no.] 

Mr. SMITH. No? I hope you would. I have made it my business, 

in 35 years as a Member of Congress, to meet with dissidents everywhere and anywhere I go where there is a repressive regime. 

But I always seek to go to the prisons to try to show some solidarity, some empathy with those who are suffering the daily acts 

of torture and brutal mistreatment that Mr. Antunez articulated. 

You know, the book that got me into fighting for religious freedom, frankly, in 1981 was ‘‘Tortured for Christ,’’ by Richard 

Wurmbrand, who talked about the Securitate and, just like in the 

prisons of Cuba, where torture is commonplace. And then when I 

read Armando Valladares’ book, as I mentioned earlier, he talked 

about these tortures that just never ended. He even talked about 

Ho Chi Minh poles that would be jabbed as people tried—and there 

was no sleep. Talk about sleep deprivation. Just no sleep. But you 

never know when you are going to get another shot in the face, the 

nose, the solar plexus, the groin area, as the guards shifted from 

one guard shift to another. They would use these Ho Chi Minh 

poles. And then the—some of the things that Mr. Antunez talked 

about always designed by sadists to get the worst—extract the 

49

worst possible pain on women and men and then, of course, the 

sexual abuses that are visited upon people as well. 

Dr. Biscet talked about how they punched his teeth. You know, 

major, major problems. Just beatings, beatings, and more beatings. 

I honestly believe Castro and those who have committed these 

atrocities ought to be held to account by the world for crimes 

against humanity rather than invited in as partners. 

Yes, you have got to deal with dictators as a country. Ours does, 

as do many others. But to have human rights as, you know, an 

issue, maybe an issue, not THE issue, is a serious mistake. 

And again, the embargo, I would just say for the record—and 

perhaps some of our witnesses want to speak to this—there has 

been robust trade with the European Union, Canada, and other 

countries of the world with Cuba for decades. And there has been 

no diminution whatsoever in torture, child sex trafficking. If anything, the trade has facilitated, particularly with convicted 

pedophiles and others who travel the world to abuse little children, 

to rent a boy or a girl when they go to Cuba. I just had passed on 

the floor of the House of Representatives for the third time the 

International Megan’s Law. So that convicted pedophiles—that we 

will notice countries of destination when they are leaving to go on 

sex tourism trips. How horrific is it that the Government of Cuba 

actually benefits financially from that. And if that is not accurate, 

then, allow a full-scale investigation because we have so many stories and so much information. And, again, I have to say this—and 

I will put this, major parts of this into the record—the Trafficking 

Victims Protection Act has established—will be called the TIP Report. It comes out every year. And Cuba, again, has been designated an egregious violator, a Tier 3 country when it comes to 

modern day slavery. 

So, you know, the idea of trade and somehow there will be a matriculation with more trade with a dictatorship toward democracy 

didn’t work in Vietnam. They have gotten worse. Has not worked 

in China. Xi Jinping is in a love affair with Mao Zedong. He longs 

for the day of the Mao, and he is taking that country further down 

the road of torture as more trade occurs with the People’s Republic 

of China. 

And even many of our businesses are learning that if you don’t 

respect human rights, intellectual property rights and the like are 

another casualty of a dictatorship. 

And when people talk about the Internet being open, I am the 

one who held the hearings right in this room several times, but one 

truly historic one with Google, Yahoo, Microsoft, and Cisco—and, 

yes, it was in China. Swore them all in, and they were part of the 

censorship. 

And we know the Castro regime has great capabilities, as does 

Lukashenka in Belarus, as do other dictators to ensure that that 

Internet and—whether it be emails or anything else will be very 

closely surveilled so that more of the best and the bravest and the 

brightest of Cuba are found and apprehended and thrown into prisons. So there is no open Internet there. There isn’t in any dictatorship anywhere in the world. China has literally written the book 

on how a dictatorship can control the Internet with the great fireVerDate 0ct 09 2002 15:32 Apr 28, 2015 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00053 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\_AGH\020515\93159 SHIRL
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wall of China. And we have a situation that will replicate itself big 

time there. 

Finally, I would just say this testimony from these unbelievably 

brave women and men who have suffered at the hand of Castro 

helps tear off the veil of secrecy, an open secret, if you will; it has 

been out there. But, thankfully, through C–SPAN and the media 

that is here and the Congressmen and women who will see this 

record, you are bearing truth and bearing witness to a very ugly 

reality that is pervasive. 

Again, I do believe the facade of legitimacy that Castro craves 

and I believe just got a helping hand—that is just not my view. 

The Washington Post and so many others have already opined on 

that in their editorials. This was not the time to take that view. 

There should have been an effort to say, human rights first, as you 

said, Mr. Antunez, then economic issues and other kinds of engagements. 

I have seen one statement after another come out of Havana 

from high government officials that nothing is going to change. 

And, if anything, with the rearrests of at least five, maybe more, 

of the 53 and others who have been rounded up, which is the game 

that this regime plays in Cuba, just shows that they are intent on 

doubling down and making it even worse for the dissidents. 

So thank you for, again, bearing witness to the truth and for exposing these crimes against humanity. And if you would like to 

make any final comment, Mr. Thale, starting with you and then 

finishing with Mr. Antunez. 

Mr. THALE. Briefly. Only to say, Congressman Smith, obviously, 

I have the deepest respect for your commitment to human rights, 

particularly your focus on child trafficking and human trafficking 

issues. 

Obviously, we differ about what is the best way to move forward 

in Cuba. And I am happy to continue that discussion. 

The only very specific thing I would say on the human trafficking 

issue is that if you look at the U.N. human trafficking reports on 

Cuba, they are different than our Tier 3 listing. They are different 

because Cuba and the United States—Cuba has refused a dialogue 

with the United States about this issue. I believe that that is 

changing and there have been some discussions with the TIP unit, 

so——

Mr. SMITH. I am sorry. 

Can I say, you know, the problem has been with some U.N. bureaucracies. I remember I held a hearing in this room on Elian 

Gonzalez. And Reverend Walker came and presented testimony 

and was waxing eloquent about how the child mortality rate is so 

low. And I had read the reports that came out of certain U.N. agencies that suggested that that was so. 

And I asked him—because I know, one, as some of our witnesses 

have said earlier or as Ileana Ros-Lehtinen pointed out, trusting 

government officials to tender honest numbers, you know, if you 

believe that, I will sell you the Brooklyn Bridge. There is no reliability. There is no independent confirmation. There are no crosschecks or checks and balances whatsoever. 

With that said, I also pointed out that Dr. Biscet, an OB/GYN 

Afro-Cuban, a great man, who has suffered horribly for his views 

51

on human rights, belief in human rights, he exposed eugenics policies in Cuba, where children who have disabilities are routinely 

killed through coercive abortion so that some of these kids never 

make it to birth because they have been killed by the state, and 

that is another crime against humanity. 

It was called that at the Nuremberg War Crimes Tribunals, what 

the Nazis did to the Polish women and others. It is no less a crime 

against humanity today. Dr. Biscet suffered for that. So those numbers are very, very unreliable about child mortality and the like. 

And as Ileana Ros-Lehtinen mentioned earlier, there is so much 

showcasing going on, but the ability to discern the real facts when 

others bear witness that that is not the case is very large. 

Ms. Fonseca. 

Ms. FONSECA. Yes. I have something to say. I remember that in 

1990—I don’t have a precise amount. I don’t have a precise number. My youngest son was born prematurely. And where he was 

born, I saw several children die. However, I know that the hospital 

never reported those deaths. It was not known nationally or internationally. 

I didn’t like to listen to Fidel Castro’s speeches, but sometimes 

I had to and I did because we need to know what the enemy says. 

And Fidel Castro is the enemy of Cuba. 

I listened to the dictator’s speech that year, and he said that—

I don’t know what the statistic was, but he referred to the child 

mortality rate in Cuba being very low. But having been pregnant 

and having had the difficult situation with my son, I had been in 

two hospitals. And I can assure you that many more children had 

died. But, also, I never received adequate medical assistance in 

order to help me in childbirth. 

In Cuba, medicine and education are only good for those who are 

part of the regime or sympathize with the regime. That is my testimony with regards to the child mortality rate in Cuba and as to 

what kind of treatment a Cuban who dissents from the regime receives in schools and hospitals. 

Mr. SMITH. Mr. Antunez. 

Mr. GARCIA. I want to clearly establish something before we finish today. Maybe it hasn’t been well understood, or maybe it is the 

regime’s ability to spew false statistics sometimes confuses people. 

I want to tell you that, in spite of the fact that there are some 

dissidents who do support Obama’s policy toward Cuba—what I am 

referring to are the negotiations—I can tell you that it is a minority of dissidents. 

I assure you that the majority of dissident leaders in Cuba, of opposition leaders in Cuba, oppose. And an example of this is the 

Forum for Rights and Freedoms, as well as the Agreement for Democracy in Cuba. Both of these initiatives have been signed by the 

most important leaders of the Cuban resistance. 

There is one last thing which I also want to tell you because I 

know this is part of the permanent congressional record. And it is 

something that has worried me ever since I first heard it because 

I know that the victims don’t have the possibility of speaking here. 

I ask those who are seeing me and those who are listening to me, 

all those who are well-intentioned are listening to this, I ask you 

to closely follow the repressive situation in Cuba right now. I want 

52

to call attention to how the Cuban National Civil Resistance Front, 

which consists of different organizations, is being repressed, not 

yesterday or not the day before yesterday, but right now, are being 

repressed because they are demanding freedom and democracy. 

Finally, the struggle for Cuban freedom has cost a lot of pain, a 

lot of blood, a lot of dead, a lot of political prisoners, and that is 

why we can’t allow that a maneuver by Raul Castro can result in 

an understanding with the U.S. Government that may contribute 

to oxygen being provided to this dictatorship and, therefore, to the 

continuity of the regime. I assure you that the permanency regime 

in power—I assure you that neo-Castroism can be worse than all 

these years we have suffered. 

I want to thank you for this opportunity and especially Chairman 

Smith—and that the Cuban resistance, in spite of this agreement, 

which we consider to be immoral, in spite of the beatings, in spite 

of the imprisonment, in spite of the pain, the Cuban resistance will 

continue its struggle. We are not going to surrender our country’s 

destiny to anyone because we are convinced that the principles and 

the destiny of a country should not be decided on a negotiating 

table. The destiny and the freedom of a country should not be decided at a negotiating table that the people have been excluded 

from. 

I thank the U.S. Congress, I thank those in Cuba who are listening to us. I return to Cuba after this experience much more convinced of the path that we have taken. And I reiterate what is my 

slogan: I will not leave and I will not be quiet. Long live free Cuba. 

Mr. SMITH. Thank you so much for that eloquent courage. Thank 

you all for your testimonies and leadership. 

The hearing is adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 1:39 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned.] 

(53)

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LETTER FROM THE INTERNATIONAL COMMITTEE OF FORMER CUBAN POLITICAL PRISONERS SUBMITTED BY THE HONORABLE ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, A REPRESENTATIVE

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LETTER TO PRESIDENT OBAMA FROM THE STFA SUBMITTED BY THE HONORABLE

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STATEMENT ON THE HUMAN RIGHTS OF ALL SUBMITTED BY THE HONORABLE CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, A REPRESENTATIVE IN CONGRESS FROM THE STATE OF NEW JERSEY, AND CHAIRMAN, SUBCOMMITTEE ON AFRICA, GLOBAL HEALTH, GLOBAL HUMAN

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