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96–090 PDF 2004

LIVING IN FEAR: THE CONTINUED HUMAN RIGHTS

ABUSES IN CASTRO’S CUBA

HEARING

BEFORE THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND

WELLNESS

OF THE

COMMITTEE ON

GOVERNMENT REFORM

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS

SECOND SESSION

JUNE 16, 2004

Serial No. 108–202

Printed for the use of the Committee on Government Reform

(

Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.gpo.gov/congress/house

http://www.house.gov/reform

(II)

COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM

TOM DAVIS, Virginia, Chairman

DAN BURTON, Indiana

CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida

JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York

JOHN L. MICA, Florida

MARK E. SOUDER, Indiana

STEVEN C. LATOURETTE, Ohio

DOUG OSE, California

RON LEWIS, Kentucky

JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia

TODD RUSSELL PLATTS, Pennsylvania

CHRIS CANNON, Utah

ADAM H. PUTNAM, Florida

EDWARD L. SCHROCK, Virginia

JOHN J. DUNCAN, JR., Tennessee

NATHAN DEAL, Georgia

CANDICE S. MILLER, Michigan

TIM MURPHY, Pennsylvania

MICHAEL R. TURNER, Ohio

JOHN R. CARTER, Texas

MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee

PATRICK J. TIBERI, Ohio

KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida

HENRY A. WAXMAN, California

TOM LANTOS, California

MAJOR R. OWENS, New York

EDOLPHUS TOWNS, New York

PAUL E. KANJORSKI, Pennsylvania

CAROLYN B. MALONEY, New York

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland

DENNIS J. KUCINICH, Ohio

DANNY K. DAVIS, Illinois

JOHN F. TIERNEY, Massachusetts

WM. LACY CLAY, Missouri

DIANE E. WATSON, California

STEPHEN F. LYNCH, Massachusetts

CHRIS VAN HOLLEN, Maryland

LINDA T. SANCHEZ, California

C.A. ‘‘DUTCH’’ RUPPERSBERGER, Maryland

ELEANOR HOLMES NORTON, District of

Columbia

JIM COOPER, Tennessee

BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota

———

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont

(Independent)

MELISSA WOJCIAK, Staff Director

DAVID MARIN, Deputy Staff Director/Communications Director

ROB BORDEN, Parliamentarian

TERESA AUSTIN, Chief Clerk

PHIL BARNET, Minority Chief of Staff/Chief Counsel

SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND WELLNESS

DAN BURTON, Indiana, Chairman

CHRIS CANNON, Utah

CHRISTOPHER SHAYS, Connecticut

ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida

DIANE E. WATSON, California

BERNARD SANDERS, Vermont

(Independent)

ELIJAH E. CUMMINGS, Maryland

EX OFFICIO

TOM DAVIS, Virginia HENRY A. WAXMAN, California

MARK WALKER, Chief of Staff

MINDI WALKER, Professional Staff Member

DANIELLE PERRAUT, Clerk

RICHARD BUTCHER, Minority Professional Staff Member

(III)

C O N T E N T S

Page

Hearing held on June 16, 2004 ............................................................................... 1

Statement of:

Kozak, Michael, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State; Deputy

Assistant Secretary Dan Fisk, Department of State; David Mutchler,

Senior Advisor on Cuba, U.S. Agency for International Development ..... 19

Suchlicki, Jamie, director, Cuban Transition Project, University of Miami;

Omar Lopez Montenegro, executive director, Cuban American National

Foundation; Eric Olson, advocacy director, Americas, Amnesty International; and Miguel Reyes, stepson of Raul Rivero, a poet imprisoned

in the March 2003 dissident crackdown ..................................................... 51

Letters, statements, etc., submitted for the record by:

Burton, Hon. Dan, a Representative in Congress from the State of Indiana, prepared statement of .......................................................................... 5

Franco, Adolfo A., Assitant Administrator for Latin America and Caribbean, U.S. Agency for International Development, prepared statement

of ..................................................................................................................... 41

Kozak, Michael, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State, prepared

statement of ................................................................................................... 24

Montenegro, Omar Lopez, executive director, Cuban American National

Foundation, prepared statement of ............................................................. 64

Olson, Eric, advocacy director, Americas, Amnesty International, prepared statement of ........................................................................................ 69

Ros-Lehtinen, Hon. Ileana, a Representative in Congress from the State

of Florida, information concerning Foundation for Human Rights in

Cuba ............................................................................................................... 13

Suchlicki, Jamie, director, Cuban Transition Project, University of Miami,

prepared statement of ................................................................................... 54

(1)

LIVING IN FEAR: THE CONTINUED HUMAN

RIGHTS ABUSES IN CASTRO’S CUBA

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 16, 2004

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, SUBCOMMITTEE ON HUMAN RIGHTS AND WELLNESS, COMMITTEE ON GOVERNMENT REFORM, Washington, DC.

The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:07 a.m., in room

2154, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Dan Burton (chairman

of the subcommittee) presiding.

Present: Representatives: Burton, Ros-Lehtinen, Cummings and

Watson.

Staff present: Mark Walker, chief of staff; Mindi Walker, Brian

Fauls, and Dan Getz, professional staff members; Nick Mutton,

press secretary; Danielle Perraut, clerk; Richard Butcher, minority

professional staff member; and Cecelia Morton, minority office

manager.

Mr. BURTON. Good morning. A quorum being present, the Subcommittee on Human Rights and Wellness will come to order.

I ask unanimous consent that all Members’ and witnesses’ opening statements be included in the record. Without objection, so ordered.

I ask unanimous consent that all articles, exhibits and extraneous or tabular material referred to be included in the record and

without objection, so ordered.

In the event of other Members of Congress joining us at today’s

hearing who are not members of the committee, I ask unanimous

consent that they be permitted to serve as a member of the subcommittee for the day. Without objection, so ordered.

The subcommittee is convening today to examine the atrocious

human rights violations Cubans continue to suffer at the hands of

the oppressive, totalitarian, communist regime led by Fidel Castro.

We are also going to discuss what the proper current U.S. response

should be in further supporting peace advocates and promoting the

development of democracy in the island nation of Cuba.

An individual’s freedom should be his or her most basic human

right. Throughout Castro’s 45 years of tyrannical regime, he has

continuously arrested and detained people who speak openly about

their different governmental views. Even under the most repressive

of conditions, many Cubans who live under Castro’s iron fist consistently demonstrate their resilience and continue to fight against

the numerous injustices they are forced to endure.

Since Castro assumed control of Cuba on January 1, 1959, fundamental human rights and basic living conditions have deterioVerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:11 Oct 25, 2004 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 D:\DOCS\96090.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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rated continuously and tremendously. Most Cuban people live

every day in fear of their government, thousands of whom risk

their lives every year to flee the communist regime by any means

necessary, even attempting to brave the hazardous 90-mile crossing

between the United States and Cuba on makeshift rafts. Recent

events in Cuba have further opened the eyes of the world community to the true evil nature of the Castro regime. Over the past 2

years, Fidel Castro has created a constitutional amendment permanently making socialism the official form of state government as

well as posturing himself to remain in power until he is forcibly removed or deceased.

In addition to these totalitarian mandates, he staged the most

sweeping crackdown on peaceful advocates for change in the history of Cuba. On March 18, 2003, Fidel Castro ordered the arrest

of many writers, poets, librarians and pro-democracy advocates in

a large scale operation to stifle any movement against his regime.

Subsequently, some of the targeted individuals were released but

75 remain in jail to be tried for their ‘‘crimes’’ against the country,

citing Article 91 of Cuba’s penal code that states, ‘‘Anyone who in

the interest of a foreign state commits an act with the objective of

damaging the independence or territorial integrity of the State of

Cuba.’’ The Cuban Government accused dissidents of engaging in

activities that could be perceived as damaging to Cuba’s internal

order and/or perceived as encouraging the U.S.’ embargo against

their country.

Since then, the United States, along with many freedom loving

nations and international governing bodies, has taken action in response to the harsh imprisonments of political dissidents in Cuba.

The United States has imposed both stricter sanctions against

Cuba as well as encouraged other world communities to place further resolutions and sanctions on Cuba.

On April 15, 2004, the United Nations Human Rights Commission convened and voted on the U.S.-backed resolution stating that

Cuba ‘‘should refrain from adopting measures which could jeopardize the fundamental rights’’ of its citizens. Other international governing bodies such as the European Union have taken action

against Cuba in light of the unjust March 2003 mass incarceration.

Last year, the European Union’s member states imposed stern

measures against Cuba including suspending high level diplomatic

visits, reviewing the value of cultural and other exchanges and inviting dissident activists to diplomatic events as a clear call to

Fidel Castro to end the dissidents’ imprisonment. The actions of

the Cuban Government by way of Fidel Castro’s orders are an affront to Articles 9 and 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights which declared that, ‘‘Everyone has the right

to freedom of opinion and expression’’ and that ‘‘no one shall be

subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.’’ It is particularly

interesting that before Fidel Castro, Cuba was a signatory in the

adoption of this declaration in 1948.

The list of Cuban detainees published by Amnesty International

in their Essential Measures Brief of 2003 revealed some striking

information. Among the detained are 23 people over the age of 50

as well as 5 others who are more than 60 years of age. I wonder

what dissenting activities they were engaging in that would earn

3

them a collective 1,242 years in prison. These peaceful, pro-democracy advocates who Mr. Castro likes to call dissidents or ‘‘enemies

of the revolution’’ were convicted for activities such as attending an

assembly to promote civil society, possessing membership in the

Committee on Cuban Human Rights or publishing documents to be

disseminated abroad that represent a clear means of implementing

the measures established in Article 4 of the Libertad Act also

known as the Helms-Burton Act, which would increase the U.S.’

sanctions and blockades against Cuba.

I believe that although Cuba’s transition from the Castro regime

to a democratic society with a free economy and basic human rights

will be a challenging process, it is an attainable endeavor and it

is inevitable that it will happen. We can improve human rights and

freedom within Cuba by fostering dramatic reform of the Cuban

peoples’ values. The U.S. Government, along with non-governmental organizations, has been working toward a free and democratic Cuba. In October 2003, President George Bush announced

the creation of the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba. After

several months of meetings, the Commission published their initial

findings.

The report published in May 2004 gives a six fold strategy for

Cuba’s liberation and development including the empowerment of

Cuban civil society, the denial of resources to the Cuban dictatorship and the encouragement of international diplomatic efforts to

support Cuban civil society and challenge Castro’s regime. To better address these issues, the subcommittee has the pleasure of receiving testimony from the Honorable Michael Kozak, Principal

Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau or Democracy, Human Rights

and Labor, Department of State, to further discuss the new U.S.

policy on Cuba. Ambassador Kozak has had the opportunity to live

in Cuba and as such, is able to provide us with a personal account

of the current state of affairs there.

In addition, the subcommittee will hear from the Honorable

David Mutchler, Senior Advisor on Cuba, United States Agency for

International Development. He will discuss the current Federal

Government interaction and monitoring of human rights violations

in Cuba.

NGO’s have played an instrumental role in gathering information that has been useful in learning more about this closed country’s human rights violations. To give further details on these most

important issues, the subcommittee will also receive testimony

from Eric Olson, advocacy director for the Americas with Amnesty

International and Omar Lopez Montenegro from the Cuban American National Foundation, who have been great friends for a long

time. These gentlemen will shed new light upon and explain in

greater detail the severity and specifics of human rights violations

in present day Cuba.

Because Cuba is one of the last remaining totalitarian communist regimes in modern day society, many academics have researched the current human rights situation and itemized methods

by which democracy can be obtained within Cuba. At the forefront

of this endeavor is the Cuba Transition Project at the University

of Miami. Today, the subcommittee also has the honor of hearing

from Jamie Suchlicki, the director of this program. Mr. Suchlicki

4

will speak on the implications and strategies involved in ushering

in a representative Government for Cuba.

In 2003, the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural

Organization awarded Raul Rivero, a journalist and poet imprisoned in the crackdown the coveted Guillermo Cano World Press

Freedom Prize after his arrest. The subcommittee has the pleasure

of receiving testimony from Mr. Rivero’s stepson, Miguel Reyes,

who will give us his personal perspective on the impact the dissident imprisonment had on Cuba nationals and their families.

I want to thank all of you for being here today and coming to

speak on these ever important human rights issues. In addition, I

look forward to hearing about the Bush administration’s efforts to

help Cubans free themselves from the shackles of Castro’s brutal

regime so they may finally take their rightful place as a bastion of

liberty and democracy in our hemisphere.

We have had these hearings for a long, long time and I hope and

pray and believe that I will live long enough to have a Margarita

with some of my friends in a free Cuba.

With that, we will now recognize my good friend and a great patriot, Ms. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

[The prepared statement of Hon. Dan Burton follows:]

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Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. I will drink to that. Thank you, Chairman

Burton.

Thank you for holding this hearing. I would like to express my

heartfelt gratitude for your unwavering commitment to the people

of Cuba. We thank you.

We have come here today once again as we have throughout the

years to shine the light of truth on the atrocious human rights

record in Cuba. Chairman Burton has been a true leader and advocate for advancing human rights in Cuba for the many years he

has been in Congress. I am so proud to be a member of his committee each and every time he does this.

I look forward to hearing from our guests who have labored over

the issue of how to deal with Castro’s atrocious actions and how

freedom-loving nations should respond to those actions and how to

help the Cuban people because I think the U.S.-Cuba policy always

has that as its primary goal, how to help the Cuban people in spite

of the propaganda and the lies that Castro puts out.

I would like to thank my good friend, Jamie Suchlicki, for his

dedication as the director of the Cuba Transition Project and I

would also like to express my thanks to Ambassador Michael

Kozak who has been a good friend for many, many years; David

Mutchler of U.S. AID, who is always very helpful in making sure

that good organizations which can help the Cuban people receive

the necessary aid; and I appreciate the work of Dan Fisk from the

State Department who has been the leader in making sure we can

put forth regulations that hurt the Castro regime and help the

Cuban people. He has always had that as his goal and we thank

him so much for his leadership.

I am so pleased, Mr. Chairman, that you have also invited Omar

Lopez Montenegro of the Foundation for Human Rights in Cuba

and Miguel Reyes who is the stepson of Raul Rivero, a poet imprisoned in the crackdown of March 2003. Raul Rivero was just a writer, had no political tie-ins whatsoever other than speaking on behalf of freedom, human rights, and for that he has gone to jail. Let

us see when he will be released and we hope it is soon.

Omar, who heads this wonderful organization called Foundation

for Human Rights in Cuba, put out these pamphlets. This one

shows Dr. Elias Biscet who is still languishing in jail in very difficult conditions. It says he shouts, ‘‘Long live human rights,’’ before he is forcefully led away in a police car, and below, agents of

the National Revolutionary Police kick a demonstrator during the

popular revolt of August 1994. Another publication of his has

Hortensia Graceful, displays a picture of her son, a political prisoner, Graspo, and below are members of the Rapid Response Brigades armed with sticks and steel bars ready to repress peaceful

demonstrators against the regime. The sign on the wall reads,

‘‘Here you can see socialism.’’ Well, you sure can. Another publication is Cuba, Enemy of the Press and it quotes Cuba world press

freedom index from Reporters Without Borders and it says, ‘‘Cuba

second from last, just ahead of North Korea, is today the world’s

largest prison for journalists.’’

So, we have brave men and women all across Cuba who have endured appalling human rights abuses throughout Castro’s repression. Even as we meet here today as we have pointed out, couraVerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:11 Oct 25, 2004 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 D:\DOCS\96090.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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geous advocates suffer in jail for speaking their minds and advocating for freedom and liberty. Brave Cubans such as Marta Beatriz

Roque, an independent economist, a leading pro-democracy advocate enduring a harsh prison sentence of 20 years and Marta

Beatriz had previously spent 3 years for publishing—along with

three other colleagues—a paper calling for democratic reforms.

That is a crime in Cuba. The list of names is so long as the

daunting reality of what the dictatorship has done sinks into our

consciousness. Every day more and more opposition leaders are

sentenced to jail, languishing in these terrible conditions. The conditions are bad in Cuba, conditions outside the jail are bad and you

can imagine what it is like for a political prisoner inside a Cuban

gulag. They are subjected to the most inhumane and degrading

treatment. Their bodies are weak, they are rapidly deteriorating

but their courage, their spirit, their commitment to free Cuba from

its enslavement is stronger than ever.

The purpose of your hearing today, Mr. Burton, is to address

their plight, to find ways to empower and support forces in order

to precipitate a transition to a free democratic rule in Cuba. As we

all know, last October President Bush inaugurated the Commission

for Assistance to a Free Cuba and this Commission has dealt head

on with the difficult problems engendered by a terrorist regime

that has cowardly plundered the island of Cuba of its most valuable asset, freedom.

This Congress plays a pivotal role in supporting such efforts.

Critical among congressional tools is the one co-authored by our

chairman, the Libertad Act, the Helms-Burton Act, a bill that allows our Government to address the lingering pain of the Cuban

people. We must ensure that all provisions of the Libertad Act are

fully enforced to bring about the end of the Castro tyranny and the

beginning of liberty, libertad for the Cuban people, because indifference breeds evil, indifference is the enemy of freedom, indifference helps cloak the deplorable actions of tyrants and we should

not be indifferent to the plight of our fellow Cuban brothers and

sisters and we should seriously take a look at what our Government can and should do to promote freedom in Cuba.

For that, we thank President Bush for his leadership and the

regulations that he has put forth that are going to ensure that the

money Castro needs to stay afloat will not get to him as readily as

it has in the past. We are going to continue to work here in Congress on behalf of not only Cubans who suffer at the hands of a

cowardly dictator but for all people who are prosecuted for their beliefs and faith in the wonders of liberty.

We want to thank the chairman for this hearing. I also want to

congratulate Eric Olson for Amnesty International. I always like to

point out that my daughter, Amanda, was the chapter president of

her school of Amnesty International. So I get lobbied right at home

on behalf of human rights.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I thank you for this hearing.

[The information referred to follows:]

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Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Ileana.

With the war going on in Iraq and the world war against terrorism, there hasn’t been a lot of media focus on Cuba and the human

rights atrocities that take place down there but I can assure you

that there are a lot of Members in Congress who will continue to

focus attention on this until we get some positive change down

there.

Our first panel consists of the Honorable Michael Kozak, Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human

Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State and Dan Fisk, Deputy

Assitant Secretary for the Department of State. We also have the

Honorable David Mutchler, Senior Advisor on Cuba, U.S. Agency

for International Development.

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. BURTON. Let us start with Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary Kozak.

STATEMENTS OF MICHAEL KOZAK, PRINCIPAL DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY, BUREAU OF DEMOCRACY, HUMAN

RIGHTS AND LABOR, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE; DEPUTY

ASSISTANT SECRETARY DAN FISK, DEPARTMENT OF STATE;

DAVID MUTCHLER, SENIOR ADVISOR ON CUBA, U.S. AGENCY

FOR INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Mr. KOZAK. Mr. Chairman, members of the committee, thank you

for the opportunity to testify on the human rights situation in

Cuba.

It has been more than a year since the Cuban Government arrested 75 individuals working peacefully for democratic change.

The committee’s continuing interest in the situation in Cuba is

both well timed and welcome. It affords us an opportunity to show

our support for the growing demand by Cuban citizens themselves

for the blessings of self determination and democracy.

The Castro Government as you noted has long waged war on the

basic human rights of its people. It controls all aspects of daily life

through an elaborate and pervasive system of undercover agents,

informers and neighborhood committees working to detect and suppress dissent and impose ideological conformity. Spouses are encouraged to report on each other and children on their parents.

Independent voices have been arrested on charges as vague as dangerousness or as clearly political as disrespect for authority.

Dissidents are routinely and falsely labeled as foreign spies, mercenaries and agents of the United States. Access to information is

tightly controlled, including access to the Internet and publications

such as the Boston Globe are labeled enemy propaganda, the possession of which is a criminal offense.

The 75 arrested in March 2003 are serving sentences averaging

20 years each for subversive activities such as association with

international human rights and humanitarian NGO’s. Omar

Rodriguez Saludes was sentenced to 27 years for disseminating a

photograph of Cuban poverty. Raul Rivero received 20 years for unspecified subversive activities. Owning a chair that a U.S. diplomat

once sat in was cited as evidence against Rivero to justify this

charge.

20

Conditions of incarceration for these prisoners remain harsh.

Many of the older detainees suffer from increasing poor health. My

friend, Marta Beatriz Roque spent 31⁄2 years in prison in the late

1990’s for the crime of peaceful sedition. This crime is defined as

anything that perturbs the socialist order. In Marta’s case that involved taking the Communist Party up on its request for public

comments on a draft 5 year plan. Marta was out for 4 years and

then returned to jail with a 20 year sentence last year. Her health

has been poor throughout her ordeals and she remains in a military hospital.

Oscar Espinosa Chepe has been returned to a very small shared

cell after an extended hospitalization. Raul Rivero, whom I was

honored to meet with on many occasions during my years in Cuba,

earlier this year was awarded the UNESCO Guillermo Cano World

Press Freedom Award as you mentioned. However, this accomplished poet and journalist was not able to pick up his prize and

enjoy what should have been one of the highlights of his professional career. He too is serving a 20 year sentence in a Cuban jail.

Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet has worked tirelessly to put Dr. Martin

Luther King’s philosophy of nonviolence into practice. I visited him

in 1999 when he was on a 40-day fast, 1 day for each year of the

revolution at that point. Dr. Biscet was arrested in 2002 for attempting to teach others about international human rights practices. Three other people who had been arrested with Dr. Biscet

were convicted in May of this year for the crime of studying the

Universal Declaration of Human Rights at a private home in Havana.

I would note I was in Havana on the 50th anniversary of the signature of the Universal Declaration. The Cuban authorities made

a big deal out of that, of what a big day that was. At the same

time, they were arresting people for having possession of the Universal Declaration.

Unfortunately, such flagrant abuse of human rights has not been

limited to the group of 75. Francisco Chaviano, an advocate of

peaceful democratic reforms, was sentenced in 1994 to 15 years in

prison for revealing that his organization had been infiltrated by

a government agent.

Many of these prisoners of conscience, falsely accused, summarily

tried and sentence to long terms in prison, are subjected to treatment usually reserved for the most violent criminal offenders. Most

are allowed to see their families only briefly once every 3 months.

For many the only real hope of release is to accept exile from the

country for which they have sacrificed so much. Small wonder then

if families of political prisoners and those other men and women

dedicated to peaceful change who are outside prison walls live in

justifiable fear of imminent arrest.

Despite this very real danger, Cubans are losing their fear of the

dying regime and are demanding a role in building their own

democratic future. An authentically independent civil society, the

building blocks of real democracy, is developing before our eyes.

The Varela Project is a peaceful call for a national referendum on

political and economic reforms in Cuba that seeks to take advantage of a clause in the Castro constitution that requires the national assembly to consider a referendum upon petition of 10,000

21

citizens. The regime obviously never thought such a provision could

be used against it, but it happened. Over 11,000 signatures were

collected from ordinary Cuban citizens in 2002 and presented to

the national assembly. This showed incredible courage on the part

of those who signed and registered their identification numbers.

The response from the regime was to arrest over 20 of the organizers and sentence them to long prison terms.

Instead of capitulating to this pressure, civil society leader,

Oswaldo Paya and his colleagues reconstituted their effort and collected and delivered an additional 14,000 signatures. These thousands of Cuban citizens cannot be dismissed by the government as

insignificant, minuscule groups of misfits.

Vladimiro Roca, the son of one of the founders of the Cuban

Communist Party, was jailed along with Marta Beatriz Roque,

Felix Bonne, and Rene Gomez Manzano in 1997. Vladimiro himself

did over 5 years in prison yet continues his work. We admire and

applaud these valiant and principled efforts to promote peaceful

and positive change in Cuba despite active hostility from the Castro Government and we welcome the growing optimism in Cuba

that the end of the dictatorship is near.

A peaceful, orderly transition in Cuba is not only right, it serves

U.S. interest in the stability of our own region but what in such

a hostile environment can the United States really do to support

the dreams of these independent defenders of fundamental freedoms and liberties and to promote a free and prosperous Cuba?

When the Cuban Government digs tunnels and puts its army and

people on a war footing in response to non-existent U.S. invasion

threats and hunts imaginary spies in a real but peaceful opposition, when principled expressions of concern by the European

Union, Honduras, Peru, Mexico and other democratic governments

result in strident denunciations and retaliatory threats and insults

from the Cuban Government, when the regime works aggressively

to limit and redirect the flow of humanitarian assistance and information, how can we or anyone in the international community extend a helping hand to the beleaguered people of Cuba?

It isn’t easy but it must be done. Much of what we do is to provide moral support. Those of us who have served in Eastern Europe know how important that is for those suffering under a totalitarian system to know that others know and care what is happening to them. We also know how much regimes of this nature crave

international recognition and respect to provide them the legitimacy they have failed to earn from their own people. So we work

with other democracies to condemn the repression and encourage

support for real reform.

Since last June, the EU, for the first time, is inviting dissidents

to its official receptions in Havana, much to the anger of the Cuban

Government. Individual EU governments are reviewing their assistance to the regime with Italy suspending bilateral cooperation

and France redirecting its assistance away from the government

and to the Cuban people itself. We continue our unceasing efforts

in international fora such as the U.N. Commission for Human

Rights. Last April, the U.N. Commission for Human Rights passed

by a single vote a resolution tabled by Honduras to call once again

upon Cuba to implement the human rights obligations it has freely

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accepted. Secretary of State Powell and other high level State Department officials were involved on a daily basis in our efforts to

support Honduras and the 34 other co-sponsors of the resolution.

President Bush and Dr. Rice made personal interventions with foreign counterparts. Several Members of Congress also played important roles in shoring up support and for those efforts, we are deeply

appreciative.

As those of you who have been involved with these efforts know

we offer neither rewards nor threats, rather we appeal to the highest principles of our fellow Commission on Human Rights members, three-fifths of whom represent democratically elected governments. So one might ask why so much efforts is required to get a

resolution passed there.

The answer is the Cubans do what they falsely accuse us of.

They cannot credibly argue that they are in compliance with their

human rights obligations, so instead they threaten other voting

members with domestic discord, withdrawal of medical workers

and so on if they vote to urge Cuba to fulfill those commitments.

They run campaigns accusing other governments and individual

leaders of giving in to U.S. pressure or worse. Despite these Cuban

tactics, Honduras, Costa Rica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala,

Peru, Chile and Mexico all took courageous stances in support of

human rights in Cuba by tabling, co-sponsoring and/or supporting

the resolution.

By the same token, we were disappointed that countries such as

Argentina, Brazil and Paraguay, whose own democratic transitions

were assisted by international support, chose to abstain rather

than take position in favor of observance of human rights. Especially disappointing is South Africa which during its own struggle

against the apartheid regime was the original beneficiary of what

are called item line resolutions in the Human Rights Commission

and they took a leadership role in pressing other African delegations to vote with the Cubans.

In addition to showing our moral and political support for those

courageous Cubans who are struggling for democracy, our policy is

also designed to actively encourage a rapid, peaceful transition to

democracy in Cuba. There is no reason that the Cuban people

should not enjoy the freedoms and prosperity that now exists in

Central Europe, South Africa, Central and South America and

other places around the world that once languished under totalitarian or authoritarian dictatorships. To this end, President Bush

in October 2003 created the Commission for Assistance to a Free

Cuba. The Commission’s task was to develop a proactive, integrated and disciplined approach on how the United States can

work to hasten a peaceful transition to democracy, particularly

through breaking the regime’s information blockade. The Commission was also charged with developing contingency plans to assist

a free Cuba during such a transition should its citizens request

such assistance.

I would emphasize that we do not seek to dictate the terms of

transition. Cuba’s future must be decided by the Cuban people.

Rather, we look for ways in which we can cooperate as friends with

the newly free Cuba.

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The Commission report proposes a wide range of actions the U.S.

Government would be prepared to undertake should a Cuban transition government so request. This would include assistance to

meet critical humanitarian and other important needs early in the

transition and to initiate the reactivation of the economy, to help

build essential democratic institutions, both in government and in

civil society, to help establish reforms necessary to stimulate the

domestic private sector and lay a basis for economic recovery; and

to address the degradation of its infrastructure and environment

which, as in other countries freed from communism, have seen serious deterioration in areas of water, sanitation, power and telecommunications.

In addition, the Commission report proposed additional ways to

empower independent Cuban civil society through material assistance and training, including increasing assistance up to $41 million

over 2 years. The Commission recommended steps to expand outreach and expedite the processing of related license applications to

religious organizations. These organizations represent the fastest

growing and strongest alternatives to the Cuban state in providing

basic services and information to the Cuban people.

The fundamental goal of any U.S. assistance to a free Cuba must

be to empower and respect the sovereign rights of the Cuban people. Empowering them will mean improving their economic and social well being, helping them reconstruct a democratic civic culture

through education and institution-building and supporting them as

they transform themselves and Cuban society.

President Bush and Secretary Powell, who chaired the Commission, have repeatedly called for an end to repression in Cuba. They

have insisted that Cubans who seek peaceful change and basic

human rights and freedoms, be permitted to do so. Their call, and

that of others in the U.S. Congress, has been echoed by many others—by representatives of the European Union, by the leaders of

democratic governments in Latin America, the U.N. Commission

for Human Rights and other prominent figures and institutions

across the world.

We must continue to support the efforts of those working for a

better Cuba wherever and whenever we can, whether through our

outreach to ordinary Cubans or in partnership with like minded

members of the international community.

I would like to conclude by stressing the promotion of democracy

is and will continue to be the central defining element of our foreign policy. We will continue to use all available bilateral and multilateral tools at our disposal to combat threats to democracy and

institutionalize democratic reforms toward a stable western hemisphere.

Thank you again for holding this hearing.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Kozak follows:]

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Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mr. Kozak.

Mr. Fisk, did you have a statement you would like to make?

Mr. FISK. Mr. Chairman, Ambassador Kozak delivered the statement for the Department, so I will defer.

Mr. BURTON. Mr. Mutchler.

Mr. MUTCHLER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

U.S. AID Assistant Administrator Adolfo Franco was scheduled

to appear before you this morning and asked me to express to you

his regret that he cannot participate. He is visiting Haiti today

with U.S. AID Administrator Natsios, but he asked me to talk to

you a little bit about what AID has been doing over the past 7

years to help implement Section 109 of the Libertad Act of 1996

in close cooperation with the Department of State.

As you know, Mr. Chairman, the AID Cuba Program, which I direct, attempts to build solidarity with Cuba’s human rights activists on the island. It gives voice to Cuba’s independent journalists,

it provides food and medicine to the families of political prisoners

on the island, it defends the rights of Cuban workers and provides

direct outreach to the Cuban people. Over the past 7 years, the

Cuba Program working through U.S. non-governmental organizations and U.S. universities, such as the University of Miami, Rutgers University and Georgetown University, has provided over 2

million books, newsletters and other informational materials to the

Cuban people, provided more than 170,000 pounds of food and

medicine and other humanitarian relief to the families of political

prisoners and to other victims of repression in Cuba, provided almost 12,000 short wave radios to the Cuban people so they can listen unhindered to international broadcasts from Radio Marti, the

BBC, Voice of America, or any other international broadcast and

published on the Internet via Cubnet.org the reports every week

from Cuba’s independent journalists, the more than 100 independent journalists actively operating in Cuba today. Those reports are

also provided in hard copy newsletters to the Cuban people every

week and every month. Those reports are also published in the

United States and foreign press.

As Ambassador Kozak has said very clearly, the continuing tragedy of Cuba’s political prisoners is an outrage to the conscience of

the world. President Bush and Secretary of State Powell have been

very active in bringing this matter to the attention of the world

community and as Ambassador Kozak said, the U.N. Human

Rights Commission meeting in Geneva in April did call Cuba to account. The Commission again urged Cuba to permit a personal representative of the U.N. Human Rights Commission’s High Commissioner to enter Cuba and inspect the situation there. The Castro

regime again rejected this longstanding request by the United Nations.

Amnesty International, from whom we will hear today, Human

Rights Watch, Freedom House and other independent, non-governmental organizations continue to document the suffering of Cuba’s

political prisoners. The Castro regime beats them, deprives them of

sleep, subjects them to filthy, crowded, unventilated vermin infested cells, houses them with common criminals and denies them

proper food, potable water and adequate medical care.

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According to Amnesty International, Cuba has the highest proportion of prisoners of conscience per capita of any nation in the

world. Many political prisoners, as Ambassador Kozak indicated,

are seriously ill, yet as a matter of regime policy, they are denied

appropriate medical treatment. He spoke to you about Marta

Beatriz Roque, Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, Raul

Rivero, Manual Vazquez Portal, a very fine poet and independent

journalist, is also suffering from severe medical difficulties.

Also, the number of political prisoners is increasing. A little over

2 weeks ago, on Sunday, June 5, Cuban state security broke into

the houses of four peaceful activists in the Cuban city of Santa

Clara. Cuban officials arrested these people and took them to state

security headquarters and two of these activists, the brothers Luis

Enrique Junquera Garcia and Yamil Sanchez Munoz are still being

held in prison unable to communicate with the outside world. What

is their crime? They are members of the Citizens Organizing Committee of Project Varela, which as Ambassador Kozak indicated has

collected more than 30,000 signatures from Cuban citizens

throughout Cuba calling for a national referendum on basic political and economic reforms. Such a petition is authorized even under

Cuba’s communist constitution but Fidel Castro believes it will

subvert his totalitarian rule. For the past year, he has tried and

tried without success to eradicate Project Varela and his frustration is becoming more and more evident. The Project Varela organizers are under extreme pressure and the international community must defend them.

As Castro’s nervousness has increased over the past year and his

poor paranoia has increased, his moral collapse becomes even more

apparent. Last year, he returned to his long practice of arbitrary

summary executions in an action that outraged the world. He ordered the death by firing squad of three young men whose only offense was to steal a motor boat so they could escape from Cuba.

The Castro Government executed them within a few days of their

capture after kangaroo court trials from which independent observers in the diplomatic community were excluded. Not even their

mothers were permitted to visit them before they died. Their

deaths ended a 4-year Cuban moratorium on user of the death penalty. Castro suspended use of the death penalty in the year 2000

after a huge outcry from the international community in that year

which shows that he does respond to international pressure. In

1999, he executed an estimated 20 to 30 people, placing Cuba third

in the world in state executions on a per capita basis, just behind

Iran and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Administrator of U.S. AID, Andrew Natsios spoke recently

at the University of Miami. He sent a clear message to Fidel Castro and the members of his government. He told Fidel Castro the

Cuban desire for freedom cannot be extinguished and he called on

all the officials and operatives of the Castro regime to stop the

human rights abuses. He reminded them that the Cuban people

will soon hold all of them accountable.

The U.S. Department of State, I am told, has just placed on a

visa watch list each of the 300 individuals, judges, police men,

prosecutors, witnesses who participated in last year’s Cuban show

trials that you referred to, Mr. Chairman, those sham trials that

40

convicted 75 human rights activists, independent journalists and

independent librarians, those officials and others who perpetrate

those and similar acts of injustice will never find shelter in the

United States. The United States of America is committed to promoting a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba and as

part of that effort, U.S. AID, the U.S. Agency for International Development, calls on all the people in Cuba and especially those who

work for the Cuban Government to prepare now for that transition

by refusing to carry out acts of violence and repression and by beginning to show compassion for all those whom the Castro regime

has imprisoned.

Thank you for this opportunity to appear before you today. I will

be happy to respond to any questions you or other Members may

have.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Adolfo A. Franco, as presented

by Mr. Mutchler, follows:]

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Mr. BURTON. I think both of you have covered a lot of the questions we had to ask to you. The thing that surprises me about communist dictators is they don’t learn from history. I remember when

Ceausescu in Romania finally fell and what happened to him. I

would think the people of Cuba will hold Castro and his minions

accountable maybe in the like manner when there is freedom on

that island. Castro can’t live forever and he can’t prop up all those

people who are perpetrating these atrocities. When the bottom does

drop out, Lord help him.

I have a couple questions and I will yield to my colleague. I read

the book by Armando Valaderos, Against All Hope, and incidentally, I was on a plane and I started crying at the last chapter. I

think the guy next to me thought there was something wrong with

me mentally. That book was very vivid in the kind of atrocities

that take place in those prisons. You touched on that a bit, Ambassador Kozak, but is there anything you could tell us today that

would be a bit more vivid than some of the things you told us

about? If not, that is OK but I think it is important for the record

and for history to know these atrocities that are taking place are

a heck of a lot worse than we have seen in Iraq and elsewhere.

They are pretty bad. I think it is important that the world focus

on that.

Mr. KOZAK. You are right, Mr. Chairman. In addition to the ones

we know well, and I had the pleasure of meeting with Armando

Valaderos when he first got out. We had lunch at the State Department, so I heard some of those stories firsthand. Marta Beatriz has

had all kinds of medical problems. They basically don’t treat them

on time. One that strikes me though, two cases, Gustalar, a long

time human rights leader there, his brother died because he developed cancer and it went untreated for a long, long time. He finally

was allowed to leave and come to the United Stats but it was too

far gone. That is an interesting family because they fought with

Castro. One brother was killed in the Ranma assault, the other one

died as a result of being in the political prison in Havana.

I think probably the one that struck me during my time as the

worse was a lady who was a blind human rights activist and they

took her to the psychological hospital and gave her all kinds of

drugs and basically tried to torture her in that way. They would

use the psychiatric hospitals to harm the people.

Mr. BURTON. But the torture continues even to this day?

Mr. KOZAK. Absolutely.

Mr. BURTON. Has it increased?

Mr. KOZAK. I think that has been the pattern over the last few

years, with more and more dissidents going in. As David mentioned, the more and more frustrated he becomes with not being

able to stop this kind of activity, the more extreme the methods.

Mr. MUTCHLER. We also know that the regime harasses the families of the prisoners and tries to create confusion in the prisoner’s

mind about the safety and welfare of their children, their wives

and other members of their families while they are held in jail, incommunicado without any access to them. So they spread rumors,

they cause severe psychological damage as well as physical damage.

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Mr. BURTON. When they had the human rights vote in Geneva,

Frank Calzo ́n was beat up by one of the members of the Cuban delegation. Can you tell me a little about that real quickly?

Mr. KOZAK. I did not see it myself because I was making a statement at the chair but our Ambassador, Kevin Moley, was right

there as it turned out and observed the whole thing, so I had a

very reliable source. From what he described to me, Mr. Calzo ́n

was standing at the bottom of an escalator that leads down to

where the meeting room is in Geneva, the Cubans had just lost the

vote, they were very upset. They had a whole gaggle of their crew

that they had there who were yelling and screaming and making

threatening gestures against anybody on the pro-democracy side.

U.N. security guards were standing there and were between Mr.

Calzo ́n and these Cuban demonstrators. All of a sudden, someone

comes running down the escalator at top speed, a guy who was a

member of the official Cuban delegation, Calzo ́n’s back was to the

escalator and this guy hit him at full stride right in the back of

his head, knocked him to the floor, knocked him unconscious.

Kevin and the U.N. security guards took off after the Cuban, the

security guards had to use mace to subdue this Cuban guy who

was fighting them and at that point, the Cuban ambassador, a permanent representative, came up and said, let him go, he is one of

my guys, I will take care of the problem.

Mr. BURTON. Diplomatic immunity?

Mr. KOZAK. Yes.

Mr. BURTON. We have to do something about that when there is

intentional atrocities or attacks made wherever they occur.

Mr. Mutchler, just a couple quick questions and I will yield to

my colleague. How successful are we? They are having some success in talking directly with the Cuban people but not anybody who

is in prisons?

Mr. MUTCHLER. Not directly with people in prison. The Cuban

Government has forbidden even the churches to send clergy to the

prisons on a regular basis. So it is very difficult to get access. Of

course the prisoners are imprisoned hundreds of miles away from

their homes so that their family members find it very difficult even

when they are permitted to visit to arrange transportation and pay

for a long trip to the prison. That is done deliberately it seems, so

it is difficult to get contact but some prisoners have been able to

smuggle out diaries and their writings. Portal, for example, has

published several on articles that we published on the Internet

about what his conditions are like inside.

Mr. BURTON. Ms. Ros-Lehtinen, do you have questions?

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you, Mr. Burton, and I thank the panelists for being here.

I know that Mr. Fisk has been working around the clock after

the Commission report came out about the new regulations and we

will be hearing a lot about them. There is a great deal of interest

in our community about the regulations and we thank you for the

work that you have done and the work the Commission members

have done and President Bush as well.

What the Commission has tried to do, as all of us know, is to not

provide all of those funds that Fidel Castro has been receiving from

folks who come to the United States, supposedly freeing political

46

persecution in Cuba, come to the United States and immediately

go back and many of them are on legitimate family visits because

they have a problem with their family, someone is ill, but some

other people do it to celebrate their daughter’s 15th birthday party

and they plan these elaborate parties while the Cuban people are

suffering and they are staying in these wonderful hotels and essentially having family vacations in a country where apartheid is still

very much the norm because there is one set of life for the Cuban

natives and another lifestyle for everyone else. Everyone else goes

to the hotels and enjoys the restaurants and the beaches and the

pools, and the Cuban people can’t even afford any of that; but even

if they were able to afford it, they can’t use any of those facilities.

So there has been a lot of abuse of the travel regulations, a lot of

illegal activities and folks transporting money back and forth and

not for humanitarian needs whatsoever.

The Bush administration has been very strong in always saying

that humanitarian aid is in no way curtailed. If you want to put

a container outside of the Rayburn House Office Building and fill

it with food and medicine, the State Department and the folks

right in front of us will be more than happy to help you transport

the food and medicine to Cuba. There are no restrictions on sending humanitarian aid to Cuba. So those folks who say these new

regulations hurt the Cuban people, that is totally incorrect because

you can help the Cuban people all you want and in fact, the Cuban

people know that there is no country more generous than the

United States when it comes to food and medicine. If you put all

the countries together, you sum all the humanitarian aid they send

to Cuba and it does not equal the amount of humanitarian aid that

the United States sends to Cuba, so that tells you about the true

spirit of the American people toward the Cuban people. We hate

the Castro regime and we love the Cuban people. That is shown

every day when people come to the United States in desperate

measures to try to reach these shores of liberty, even though they

have heard the propaganda for sadly over 40 years of how the

United States is a terrible place and how we discriminate against

blacks so terribly, we beat up African-Americans on a daily basis,

that is the new line he has been using a lot. Then you see the

young people who have grown up knowing only communism, knowing no other frame of reference and they come to the United States

because they know that Castro has been lying to them all the time.

Just as we saw with the very moving ceremony of Ronald Reagan

last week in his memorial service where speaker after speaker

talked about how he drew the line and he said, Mr. Gorbachev,

tear down this wall and open up this gate and he spoke on behalf

of freedom and liberty, so we will see that opening taking place in

Cuba soon.

That leads me to my question to Ambassador Kozak because he

has served in Cuba, he has served in Belarus, he knows about the

experiences of communist governments. I wanted to ask him, based

on what you have seen in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet

Republic as they transformed into democracies, what lessons can be

learned from that, what can better prepare us in supporting Cuban

pro-democracy forces and in preparing for the inevitable day when

freedom will reign in Cuba because who thought that Berlin Wall

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would come down, who thought that the Soviet Union would disband? Ronald Reagan had that vision and I believe that is the

same vision President Bush has. Could you tell us about the experiences that you have had in former communist governments and

how they have evolved?

Mr. KOZAK. Actually one thing that strikes me was one of my colleagues in Havana was a Romanian diplomat who had been a

member of Ceausescu’s secret police. Why was he a diplomat with

a democratic government? He was supposed to spy on the dissidents in Romania and instead befriended and helped them, so he

was OK with the new government.

He told me the mechanisms of control here are very familiar to

me, they are exactly as the same as were used in Eastern Europe,

the Stalinist cookie cutter type mechanisms, but the degree of control in Cuba was far greater than anything he had seen in the

former Soviet Union. He said they control things here that we

wouldn’t have thought of controlling and the degree of detail of control is just unbelievable.

Maybe one lesson I would draw from being in both a country still

under that kind of oppression and ones coming out of it is, people

in Cuba love the United States. The chairman is a very popular

guy because Castro made all the school children read the HelmsBurton Act and they don’t focus so much on Titles 3 and 4, they

are looking at Titles 1 and 2 about freedom and democracy. So it

is not a question of having to convince them that their situation is

bad, they know it is. It is not a question of trying to convince them

that a more free, open society is a good thing, but I find they have

a really hard time relating to something like the United States.

You see people in Eastern Europe and for them, like the people in

Belarus, the United States is like Mars or something, it is such a

dream world for them that they can’t think of how do we get from

here to there. I found it useful to use other countries that had recently undergone the same kind of transition and they would listen. If somebody came from Lithuania, right next door, and said we

were in the same boat as you 10 or 15 years ago and here is what

we did and it worked, that made sense to them. They could see how

do you get from here to there whereas if you show them the final

result, a country that has been democratic for 200 years, they can’t

make the connection. That might be one thing we could do, to try

and engage more of the newly independent countries that had similar experience and learn lessons that way.

Mr. FISK. On the diplomatic side, we have found that our best

friends in discussing freedom for the Cuban people happen to be

those countries of the former Soviet Bloc makes sense. They experienced it firsthand, they know what it is like to search around on

a radio to hear Voice of America or Radio Liberty just as a Cuban

tries to find Radio Marti. I have heard those anecdotes and Mike

has heard them, so we are doing what we can to reach out and

work with the Central and Eastern Europeans in terms of how do

we further work to build an international community that is focused on the plight of the Cuban people? They have been our allies

in Geneva, they also have been our allies diplomatically working in

this hemisphere and reaching out to Latin American which I will

say in this forum has been somewhat missing in action in terms

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of responding to the human rights abuses on the island. That is

definitely an area in which we would like to see more voices speaking out on behalf of Cuban civil society.

If I can also say this is one reason why when we were working

on the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, we focused on

our first two recommendations in the area of hastening dealt with

the need to empower Cuban civil society and second and of equal

importance, how do we break the regime’s information blockade on

the Cuban people? Those have to go hand in hand. It is not just

a matter of the United States doing that. Again, it is finding willing friends and allies around the world.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Speaking of that, Mr. Fisk, to break that filter of propaganda of Fidel Castro, radio and TV Marti transmissions are so important and I know that we have them with us

here now. How are the plans going for the C–130 so that we can

broadcast without Castro’s jamming? Many say if the signal doesn’t

get through, then we should not transmit which is so ludicrous. It

is just saying we are going to give up. If he does A, then we have

to stop doing B. The whole reason we are having those transmissions of freedom and information is because he has those filters

and he jams our signal, so we need to get that information out.

Just because he jams them does not mean that we should give up,

that means we should try harder to improve the technology.

I know the Bush administration has done a great job in doing

that. We had that one fly over and how are the changes coming in

the technology?

Mr. FISK. This is one reason why the Commission focused on that

and did not just focus on one or two instruments or assets, but

talked about the range of how we get information, better get information into and onto the island, including how do we augment and

enhance radio and TV Marti? We are in the midst of discussions

now with the Broadcasting Board of Governors and the Department of Defense about that exact recommendation on the C–130

deploying it, as well as the follow-on recommendation which I

would focus the subcommittee’s attention on, a dedicated airborne

platform, something that the Office of Cuba Broadcasting and

Radio and TV Marti have regular access to in terms of getting the

signal there.

Again, I would reemphasize that it is not just that one instrument. We are looking at a range of other options to increase the

information flow to the island because ultimately I think the two

most potent instruments we have are broadcasting and what is referred to as a Section 109 program in the Libertad Act. Those are

the means that I think will ultimately help the Cuban people and

hasten the day of freedom on the island.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Speaking of Section 109, that leads me then

to the question for David. Could you elaborate on the success we

have had with the Section 109 programs administered by U.S.

AID? We thank you for that. Explain to the audience what that

means.

Mr. MUTCHLER. Under Section 109, the President is authorized

to promote democracy building efforts in Cuba by providing resources to U.S. non-governmental organizations, universities and

other non-governmental organizations who have expertise in this

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area and who have contacts on the island, throughout the island

with the thousands of human rights activists who are active in

Cuba as well as the hundreds of independent libraries on the island, so working very closely with the Department of State we have

been able to provide books, videos, video recorders, VCRs and other

informational materials to the Cuban people so that they can have

access to outside information because the Cuban Government

blocks or tries to block all outside information. That has been successful.

The short wave radios are very successful. I have been to Cuba

four times, traveled throughout the island and I can tell you people

really appreciate a small short wave radio with rechargeable batteries and a recharger, a very small package, but one that gives

them instant access to the outside world. I have listened myself to

these radios in the morning, at night, throughout the island, you

can get Radio Marti on these radios. I have done it. You can get

the BBC, you can get Voice of America, you can get a whole range

of international broadcasts. That is very powerful technology for

the Cuban people right now.

The Cuban people do not have access to the Internet. We want

them to have access to the Internet. We are trying to work on ways

to get them access to the Internet. The interest section of the

United States in Havana developed a multimedia room so that Cubans coming in for visas or other reasons can access and surf the

Web, can access the Internet, can watch a video, can get access to

newspapers and that is very, very important for the thousands of

Cubans who come through the U.S. Interest Section every year. We

have been participating in that program as well.

These are all important things as well as providing very simple

food stuffs, medicines, children’s Tylenol, children’s Aspirin to independent organizations on the island and to the families of political

prisoners and others who share these with their neighbors as well

as use them for themselves.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. As we know, if you are a tourist in Cuba, you

don’t need to bring your own Tylenol or Aspirin or anything, there

is plenty of that in all the drugstores. It is the Cuban people who

have trouble getting all those medicines because Castro does have

them for the tourists and not for the Cuban people.

One more question, and thanks for your indulgence, Mr. Chairman. I wanted to ask Mr. Fisk about the new regulations. What

is the time line that he thinks they will be implemented, the ones

the Commission presented to President Bush and that President

Bush has implemented but as we know, you have to publish them

and they have to be implemented. When will all the regs be done

and what will happen next?

Mr. FISK. I will get you a more precise answer on this but they

are to be published this week. We are looking at a June 30 effective

date for the regulatory changes to go into effect. That is in the section we talked about in terms of hastening. The focus is how do we

deny resources to the regime. Castro has built up a structure to

milk and exploit what are humanitarian policies. That is something

that came to the Commission’s attention and we brought that to

the President’s attention, so you will see those going into effect

over the next 2 weeks if my calendar is right.

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If I can add one other thing to build on David’s comment because

the other part of this isn’t just the regulatory side or the regime

resources, it is looking at how we can increase our support to civil

society. One of the recommendations the President approved was

providing up to $29 million more in assistance for civil society programs in addition to the current $7 million. So we are talking

about a fourfold increase over 2 years of exactly the kind of programs to get information and aid to the Cuban people.

There we are looking for innovative, cutting edge programs. We

wanted the ability to complement what AID was currently doing

but also to see how we can expand that and provide more resources

because clearly the goal and the mandate from the President is an

immediate impact, we want to see change as soon as possible so

none of us have to wait any longer, especially the Cuban people,

for the aspirations of the Cuban people to be fulfilled.

Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for the time.

Mr. BURTON. Ms. Watson, do you have any questions?

Ms. WATSON. I just have a brief statement because I came in late

and probably a lot of the testimony I wanted to hear has already

been given but we are here because we are concerned about the

human rights conditions in Cuba and the U.S. policy that results.

I saw a new policy issued by the White House recently and I had

some concerns. To put a complete chokehold on Cuba’s economy is

the wrong approach because it does affect the people. The U.S.

sanctions of today do not take into account changes in the world’s

power structure.

Fidel Castro’s government is not in line with the U.S. doctrine,

but without the former Soviet Union as a partner, the communist

threat has been severely diminished. We can be critical but not

force our will upon other cultures. Continued economic sanctions

perpetuate poor conditions for the general population in Cuba. In

my last visit there, I was very interested as to their corporate, agricultural approaches so that there could be food for all.

Although I have some reservations on current U.S. policy, I have

deep concern over recent human right abuses in Cuba. In March

2003, the Cuban Government, as you all know, began a massive

crack down that resulted in the imprisonment of independent journalists and librarians, leaders of independent labor unions, leaders

of opposition parties and other democracy activists. Seventy-five activists were arrested, subjected to summary trials, persecutions

and given long prison terms.

On April 11, 2003, the government executed three men who had

hijacked a ferry in an attempt to reach the United States. The executions conducted after a swift and secret trial had been condemned around the world and I join in that condemnation. On July

14, 2003, the Havana-based Cuban Commission for Human Rights

in national reconciliation issued a report asserting that Cuba held

336 political prisoners including the 75 arrested in the March 2003

crackdown.

Human rights issues and their resolutions are important to the

relationship between the United States and Cuba. The angst between Fidel Castro’s government and the United States has continued for too many years. The Cuban Government must bring its

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policies in line with international human standards so that the

human rights of all Cuban citizens are protected. Cuba is responsible for the treatment of its citizens but the United States has a

responsibility to pursue a foreign policy that promotes human

rights and avoided worsening human conditions. The United States

2004 quest for a resolution at the United Nations is indeed a fresh

approach. I support the inclusion of the United Nations in the pursuit of acceptable guidelines for relations between different cultures.

For the rest of the time, I will be listening to see if I can gather

pertinent information toward those points I raised. I yield back the

rest of my time and thank you very much.

Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Ms. Watson.

I think that is all the questions we have for you. I want to thank

you all very much for being here today. We appreciate your testimony.

Our next panel consists of Jamie Suchlicki, Omar Montenegro,

Eric Olson and Miguel Reyes. Would you please come forward?

[Witnesses sworn.]

Mr. BURTON. Mr. Suchlicki, we will start with you. We are not

too strict but if you could stay close to 5 minutes, we would appreciate it.

STATEMENTS OF JAMIE SUCHLICKI, DIRECTOR, CUBAN TRANSITION PROJECT, UNIVERSITY OF MIAMI; OMAR LOPEZ

MONTENEGRO, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CUBAN AMERICAN

NATIONAL FOUNDATION; ERIC OLSON, ADVOCACY DIRECTOR, AMERICAS, AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL; AND MIGUEL

REYES, STEPSON OF RAUL RIVERO, A POET IMPRISONED IN

THE MARCH 2003 DISSIDENT CRACKDOWN

Mr. SUCHLICKI. Thank you, Mr. Chairman and members of the

committee, for the opportunity to be here to discuss Cuba with you.

There are instances in the past where dictators and retiring leaders have mellowed with age or have mellowed because of incentives

or pressures from other governments. There is no evidence that

this is the case with Fidel Castro. As he has become older, he has

become more difficult, more authoritarian, more repressive of the

Cuban people. Cuba is undergoing right now, and I think this is

important to understand the context of what is happening in Cuba

now, what I call the Chinese type cultural revolution, not unlike

that revolution that Mao carried out in China before his death in

an attempt to purify his revolution to make sure that China would

remain on the path he wanted. That it didn’t is a lesson of history

but Fidel Castro continuously thinks and attempts to make sure

that once he passes out of this world, his revolution will remain

within the communist doctrine, not friendly to the United States,

supporting international terrorism and supporting the worst causes

in the world.

The succession, to a certain extent, has taken place in Cuba by

Fidel Castro passing significant amount of power to the military.

Today, 60 to 65 percent of state enterprises are run by the Cuban

military, so the succession to that institution, the military, is already affecting Cuba. Raul Castro, Fidel’s brother, not too young by

age, but 3 years younger, controls the military and is the heir apVerDate 11-MAY-2000 11:11 Oct 25, 2004 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00055 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 D:\DOCS\96090.TXT HGOVREF1 PsN: HGOVREF1
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parent in Cuba. So it is within this kind of cultural revolution,

maybe not as violent as the Chinese or may be not as public as the

Chinese, is that Fidel Castro in the past 3 or 4 years has been repressing civil society, has been trying to reindoctrinate the Cuban

population in the ideas of Marxism and Leninism. Cuba is undergoing now what Fidel Castro calls the battle of ideas, to try to indoctrinate, to rejuvenate, to try to reinvigorate his revolution with

Marxist-Leninist ideas. So the whole society has been reorganized,

restructured, reemphasizing the values Fidel Castro would like to

leave to the future generations and prevent any change in Cuba

once he disappears.

I think it is important to emphasize that neither punishment,

nor inducements have worked with Fidel Castro. The Europeans,

the Canadians, the Latin Americans have been engaged with Cuba

for a number of years, hundreds of thousands of tourists from those

countries have visited Cuba and Cuba is no more democratic now

than it was 20 years ago. As a matter of fact, I am arguing that

it is probably more authoritarian, more totalitarian now than it

was before. So neither engagement nor punishments have worked.

Unfortunately, there are leaders in the world that we cannot negotiate with and cannot make a deal with, that they are not subjected

to either bribery or pressures and therefore, we need to have the

patience to stay the course, wait until there is a change there and

then implement our policies.

I think the preceding members of the panel have discussed in detail the numerous abuses that have taken place in Cuba and are

taking place. One of the ones I would like to point out, and in my

testimony I expand on all these, in the written testimony, is the

Internet. Fidel Castro now is clamping further the use of the Internet and in a decree he passed a week ago, he prohibited state enterprises from importing computers, fax machines and spare parts.

In other words, he is so paranoid about the possible influence of

outside forces and his mindset is on succession and not permitting

any change in Cuba that he is repressing even the spare parts for

computers and fax machines.

The challenge that we face is how do we try to prevent this regime from continuing to abuse the Cuban people? It is a difficult

challenge. Part of it has to be mobilizing public opinion, part has

to be working with our allies in Europe, part has to be in trying

to bring information to the Cuban people. So there are a number

of measures and I think the administration is beginning to introduce some of those that will try to influence internal developments,

try to bring information to the Cuban people and try to put greater

pressure on the regime not to continue to abuse the Cuban people.

At the University of Miami, we have a project looking at transitions in Eastern Europe and looking at all aspects of transition. All

of these studies which are more than 40, we have created data

bases, information, all of these things have been sent to Cuba

through various means. We want the Cuban people to understand

the problems of transition, we want them to understand what has

happened in Eastern Europe and in the Soviet Union so we are trying to help penetrate that barrier of information that Fidel Castro

has created. It is not an easy job, it is a very complex job but I

think it is important to stay the course. I don’t think a change in

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American foreign policy now in terms of providing Castro with

tourism or aid or trade is going to change the course he has set

for the Cuban people. Castro’s policies are independent of American

foreign policy. What he does is his own interest, in the interest of

maintaining his revolution even if he disappears and dies because

he is looking far ahead.

So succession in Cuba unfortunately is going to be somewhat

easy and quick, transition is going to be long and difficult and that

is the challenge we face.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Suchlicki follows:]

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Mr. BURTON. Thank you. I have some questions about that when

we get to the question session.

Mr. Lopez.

Mr. MONTENEGRO. Thank you.

I want to thank you first for the opportunity to be here to testify

about what it is like to be living in fear in the country where I was

born and raised, Cuba.

When I started in the human rights movement inside Cuba 16

years ago, this was one of my dreams, to be here 1 day to speak

on behalf of my brothers and sisters still living in Cuba. Thank

God I am able to fulfill this part of my dream because unfortunately there are a lot of people in Cuba for whom freedom of speech

is still a goal, an aspiration.

In a country where people can be sentenced to 28 years in prison

for speaking their minds, fear is not a feeling to cope with from

time to time but a permanent condition and an effective tool of repression used to stay in power by the most repressive system our

hemisphere has endured. It instills fear because it lacks the ability

to inspire hope. This statement can be measured in figures and

also by the most prestigious human rights institution around the

world. The Cuban regime holds a very objectionable record in this

matter which includes the following statistics.

The highest number of prisoners of conscience per capita, 84, recorded by Amnesty International; the highest number of inmates

per capita, 888, for ever 100 inhabitants registered by the Center

for Peaceful Studies; second place on the list of the 10 worse places

to be a journalist compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists; 1 of the 10 most repressive regimes in the world appeared in

the Worst of the Worst report by Freedom House; second from last,

165th place among 166 countries on the World Press Freedom

Index compiled by Reporters without Borders; 153rd place among

166 countries on the Index of Economic Freedom prepared by the

Wall Street Journal and the Heritage Foundation, that is the

record of the Cuban Government and the facts speak for themselves. They tell the story of a society with no chance or to say in

the regime’s own words, only two options, socialism or death. That

was the message the dictatorship tried to send with the March

2003 crackdown when 75 activists were sent to prison because they

challenged the system by standing up for their rights. The regime

was afraid because they challenged the culture of fear, opening

spaces and creating new options against the will of the government.

In Cuba, fear does not only mean people being afraid of the government, but also the government being afraid of those who will

not fear any more but at least are capable of moving beyond fear.

That is the story to be stressed out in Cuba, how more and more

people are showing they can overcome fear and move ahead for a

better future.

Six months after the March crackdown, 14,000 new signatures

were presented to the national assembly in support of the Varela

Project. More than a year after the crackdown, the Santa Rita

Mothers, a group of mothers, wives and relatives of political prisoners marched every Sunday in the streets of Havana asking for

freedom for their relatives in prison. Last May 9 on Mother’s Day,

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they gathered in a public park and read out loud the names of

more than 300 political prisoners in Cuba. That is citizenship in

motion looking for ways to make their voices heard in a repressive

society but they cannot do it alone. They need our help and support

in practical and effective ways.

We need to increase the aid to civil society inside Cuba and make

sure that this aid gets to the island into the hands of the most

needy, those who are facing repression, the political prisoners and

their relatives, the activists, the human rights activists and the opposition leaders. Some practical ideas can be sending paper, pens,

food, clothing and medicines to help satisfy their needs and create

dissident networks. Send a laptop, cellular devices and other advanced communications technology to overcome the regime’s efforts

to divide and silence those dissident networks. Radio and TV Marti

needs to be heard and seen in Cuba in an effort to ensure that the

Cuban people have access to uncensored news and information.

Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, fear is always

fueled by mistrust and isolation, the feeling of being alone facing

a gigantic and overpowering enemy. I know that by experience. The

regime knows that and that is why they make every considerable

effort to divide the internal and external opposition. I remember

that in those early days when not many people knew about the socalled dissident movement, every time I was detained and questioned by officers of the political police, they always said they can

kill me and nobody would know about it because nobody really

cares. That wasn’t true then and that isn’t true now but we need

to remove the base of that culture of fear which is still trapped in

a large part of the Cuban population.

The Noble Peace prize winner, Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, Burma’s

best known human rights leader, once said, ‘‘The only real prison

is fear, and the only real freedom is freedom from fear.’’ If we want

to really free the Cuban people, we must help them to stop living

in fear and we must provide them ways to start overcoming fear.

Thank you very much.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Montenegro follows:]

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Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mr. Lopez. I will have a couple of questions for you in a moments.

Mr. Olson.

Mr. OLSON. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I appreciate your organizing this hearing and thank you to the members of the subcommittee for their continued interest in this very important issue.

It is my pleasure to appear today before the subcommittee to discuss the human rights situation in Cuba and in particular, the status of 82 Cubans designated as prisoners of conscience by Amnesty

International. I would like to submit to the record an Amnesty

International report released in March 2004 entitled, ‘‘One Year

Too Many, Prisoners of Conscience from the March 2003 Crackdown.’’ The report details the current physical and mental state of

75 of the 79 prisoners of conscience arrested during the March

2003 crackdown in Cuba.

Given our rather limited time, I would like to briefly summarize

parts of this report and other recommendations from Amnesty

International.

Last October, I had the opportunity to appear before the subcommittee to analyze the crackdown in Cuba on Cuban dissidents

that began on March 18, 2003. Allow me to highlight briefly a few

of the main observations we made at that time. The March 2003

crackdown was the largest in recent Cuban history. Arrests were

followed by summary trials and long prison sentences, in some

cases up to 28 years. The crackdown broke what appeared to be a

trend away from long term detentions for political dissidents in

Cuba. What distinguishes this crackdown from many previous massive arrests is not the number but the laws used to convict dissidents in Cuba. This was the first time that the Cuban authorities

used the so-called Law 88 in criminal proceedings. Law 88 officially

known as the law for protection of national independence and the

economy of Cuba is a direct response to the perceived U.S. aggression with the adoption in the United States of the Cuban Liberty

and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996, well known as the HelmsBurton Act.

Let me briefly highlight some of the issues of the prisoners of

conscience arrested in March 2003. In March 2004, Amnesty issued

a new report that reviewed the status of 75 of the 79 prisoners of

conscience arrested in March and called attention to a number of

troubling issues related to their incarceration. Among Amnesty

International’s findings I would like to highlight the following.

Amnesty International has denounced the Cuban Government’s

practice of deliberately incarcerating the 75 individuals in prisons

located at extreme distances from their homes and families. This

makes access to families and legal assistance particularly difficult

and can be construed as an additional penalty imposed upon the

prisoners and their families. This practice contravenes the United

Nations body of principles for the protection of all persons under

any form of detention or imprisonment, known as Principle 20.

For example, Normando Hernandez Gonzales, who lives in

Vertientes in the province of Camaguey is serving his sentence in

Pinar del Rio province, nearly 700 kilometers away, while Eduardo

Diaz Fleitas from Pinar del Rio is being held in Kilo 8 prison in

Camaguey.

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Amnesty has also received scattered allegations of ill treatment

by prison guards or by other prisoners reportedly with the complicity of prison guards. Such instances would contravene Article 4 of

the Universal Declaration of Human Rights which states that ‘‘No

one shall be subjected to torture or to cruel, inhumane or degrading

treatment or punishment.’’ In one such case, reports indicate that

a prisoner of conscience, Victor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, was

taken from his cell by three prison guards on December 31, 2003

and dragged to the floor while reportedly being struck in the face

and body. Guards also allegedly trapped his leg in a door to immobilize him during the beating.

There are other incidents of abuse but I won’t take time now to

highlight those. I wanted to just say a bit about health issues

which is also a major concern for prisoners.

Amnesty International is concerned at numerous reports of illnesses among the prisoners which have reportedly been aggravated

by prison conditions, insufficient access to appropriate medical care

and at times hunger strikes. The U.N. body of principles for the

protection of all prisoners under any form of detention and imprisonment states that, ‘‘A proper medical examination shall be offered

to a detained or imprisoned person as promptly as possible after

his admission to the place of detention or imprisonment and thereafter, medical care and treatment shall be provided whenever necessary.’’

According to reports that we have received, at the time of his arrest, Oscar Espinosa Chepe had already been diagnosed with

chronic cirrhosis of the liver and liver failure and bleeding from the

digestive tract among other illnesses. Since his arrest, his health

has reportedly deteriorated. According to family members, the deterioration has been due in part to the poor conditions in which he

is being held including lack of running water and lack of clean

drinking water as well as by inadequate medical attention. While

in detention, he has reportedly been hospitalized several times due

to liver problems. In July 2003, his family presented a judicial request for his release on the grounds of his ill health. They have reportedly received no response from the authorities.

I would like to say a brief word about some recent releases of

prisoners. According to information we have received, five prisoners

of conscience were released from jail just last week. Most of them

appear to have been released on humanitarian grounds for health

reasons. Leonardo Bruzon Avila had been in declining health for

some months because of repeated hunger strikes. He along with

Carlos Alberto Gonzales, Emilio Leyva and Lazaro Rodriguez also

were released and have been in prison without trial for 27 months.

They were not part of the 75 arrested beginning in March. Miguel

Valdez Tamayo, reportedly suffering from serious cardiovascular

problems, was apparently given what is called a ‘‘licencia

extrapenal,’’ which means he continues serving his sentence under

house arrest. The others have been granted immediate freedom or

‘‘cambio de medidas.’’ Leonardo Bruzon has reportedly accepted refuge in France but has not departed the island.

While these releases are welcome, they do not satisfy Amnesty

International’s call for immediate and unconditional release of all

prisoners of conscience. In addition, Amnesty International urges

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the Cuban Government to ensure that the newly released prisoners

have access to any necessary health care services.

I have a few recommendations but I realize the time has expired.

Mr. BURTON. You can submit those for the record and we will

take a look at them.

Mr. OLSON. I would be glad to.

[The prepared statement of Mr. Olson follows:]

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Mr. BURTON. Mr. Reyes.

Mr. REYES. Good morning to all of you.

I thank the committee for allowing these Cubans to speak on behalf of the Cuban political prisoners.

In Cuba, freedom of speech and thinking is most horrible. The

truth is the criminal they fear the most. The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights says, ‘‘Nobody should be prosecuted for the content of speech.’’ I doubt that any one of you could

support any U.S. Government regulations establishing that people

write in favor of the government cannot speak their mind but people criticizing or denying the government cannot. However, that is

one of the reasons given by the Cuban Government to send the

writer, Raul Rivero, to jail for the next 20 years. The second reason

is that Raul Rivero met with top U.S. diplomats in Havana. In the

trial, Raul Rivero admitted that he had not only met the U.S. diplomats in Havana, but also met diplomats from other countries, political leaders, journalists, dissident professors at their request because they want to know more about Cuba not only the official version.

I hope everyone here agrees that choosing our friends or who we

invite to our homes or not is a very personal decision. However, in

Cuba, 75 dissidents are suffering for doing exactly that. Since

March 18, 2003 when he was arrested, my stepfather has lost over

80 pounds of weight because of the bad conditions and the small

portion of food he receives. For 1 year, he was confined in a 6 x

4 cell in which he had to wipe the walls and the floor every day

because of the humidity. A few weeks ago, he was transferred to

another location within the same prison where he is staying now

along with criminal robbers and murders. Recently, he was announced with pulmonary emphysema.

After that, four political prisoners were released due to health

conditions. Many people in Cuba think they were released only because the government feared they could die in prison. My stepfather is not the only political prisoner under these conditions.

There were 74 others arrested between March 18 and 20 of last

year. They joined the more than 250 that were already in jail.

Today, I want to present the answer to Cuban Prime Minister’s

speech before the International meeting in Havana on March 24,

2004 by a letter sent by Senor Reyes, president of the Center for

Social Studies who was condemned to 25 years of prison for the

same crime as Raul Rivero. First, do you know how many prisoners

are disabled because they have ingested salt and other chemicals

because of the rigorous prison system. They say that they don’t

beat the prisoners. I invite them seriously to come here and I will

show them of the beaten prisoners which is known by everybody

here including the state security. The evidence is here.

I can’t believe that food given to prisoners is adequate. The food

served here is not even good for the dogs that watch the prison perimeters. In most case, it is rotten. There is a big business with the

food that belongs to the prisoners and when someone complains

about it and asks for better quality food, he takes a chance to be

beaten. I have many examples of this for whoever wants to know.

This is what Mr. Peraser was writing to Mr. Rocas in Havana.

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Fortunately, Cuban dissidents are not alone. They have the solidarity of many human rights and political organizations around the

world and this body as well. Many political dissidents and their

families have food because public and private funded organizations

are taking care of them.

I respectfully ask this body to increase the funds for the civil society in Cuba. It is true that more than 300 people are imprisoned

because of their political ideas. It is true also that more than 11

million Cubans are suffering but there are also thousands of Cubans fighting for democratic change. They live in a totalitarian society that controls the media and the transportation. The more

independent they are, the more of a threat they can be. They need

international support to spread the ideas to the island. They need

to update and maintain the political conduct with the rest of the

world. They need to keep an active and efficient representation outside the country. The Cuban people need their true friends to liberate our people. Only a combination of solidarity, material support

and more political pressure can achieve that.

Thank you very much and God bless America.

Mr. BURTON. Thank you, Mr. Reyes.

Mr. Suchlicki, some of the things you said in your opening statement were troubling. You said that you thought there was going

to be continuity after Fidel Castro dies because he is turning over

about 65 percent of the state-owned businesses to the military.

That is very depressing because we have been told many times by

dissidents and others that when he goes, Raul Castro couldn’t hold

the communist regime together. You don’t agree with that?

Mr. SUCHLICKI. There are two levels of analysis here. One is the

level of leadership analysis where you look at the leadership of

Cuba and say, does Raul have the charisma, the support, is Raul

a good successor for Fidel Castro. Then there is another level of

analysis which looks at the institutional strength of Cuba, the military, the Communist Party, the security apparatus. Based on that

second type of analysis which is the one I follow and look at, we

have a unified military in Cuba, we have a military that is involved

in the economy and like I said is running 65 percent of the economy, doing well, making money, so how do you get that military

out of power and back to the barracks? How do you transform that

kind of society? So I am not so optimistic that once Fidel dies, this

thing is going to fall apart.

All of the officers at the higher echelon of the military have been

nurtured by both Fidel and his brother, Raul. The second echelon

have also been nurtured by Raul. So you do have a military that

is loyal to Raul and will support him in a succession and a change.

Mr. BURTON. That is the officers in the second tier maybe. What

about the rank and file military personnel? All they are getting is

their pay.

Mr. SUCHLICKI. You can assume a lot of scenarios. One, that the

military will collapse or split, that the population of Cuba the day

Fidel dies, jumps in the street, that there is another crisis with the

United States and there is a confrontation with the United States,

but I provide low probability to any of those scenarios. My high

probability scenario, although it is pessimistic and not very optimistic is that once Fidel dies, the Politburo of the Communist

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Party will meet, Raul will be appointed and would become Secretary General of the party, will continue to be head of the armed

forces, the Politburo will appoint some civilian leader of Cuba to

continue to run the government and we will have a joint leadership. Whether the population at that point will support it, whether

that leadership will be willing to provide significant changes, what

policy initiatives does the United States take at that moment to try

to encourage change, is the dynamic.

I don’t foresee and I hope I am wrong that once Fidel dies, this

whole thing will fall apart and we will have an Eastern European

type revolution in Cuba.

Mr. BURTON. I am one of the senior members of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the House and if you have suggestions on how

we could see positive change down there, any of you for that matter, I would like to have you submit those to us so we could take

a look at them long term.

Mr. SUCHLICKI. I would be happy to.

Mr. BURTON. Mr. Lopez, you said something in your remarks

about getting the proper items, humanitarian aid and other things,

to the people. One of the problems we have seen in the past was

when we got stuff down there, even through NGO’s, the government controls them and Fidel Castro doesn’t let those products that

are very important get to the people. He uses those instead for

commerce and for bringing tourism to the island. The things like

Tylenol and others, the people don’t get.

You suggested we need to do something to get those items to the

people. How do you suggest we do that?

Mr. MONTENEGRO. We are doing it through the Cuban-American

National Foundation. We send medicines, food, anything to dissidents or political prisoners. As a matter of fact, we sent a package to Miguel’s mother, Ms. Reyes, every month. You have to use

your own channels, you have to create your own network. That is

what we are doing.

Mr. BURTON. So you are doing it in a kind of covert way to make

sure it gets to the people?

Mr. MONTENEGRO. Yes. You have to avoid the official channels

because that is what happens, exactly what you said. The Cuban

Government uses them, selling in the stores, but you can use people who are going to Cuba every day on a daily basis, tourists from

Latin America, from Europe, NGO’s that are working in Europe

and also in Latin America, they are working inside Cuba and you

can use those channels to send the material aid to Cuba.

The technological devices are also very important because inside

Cuba, and I have another perspective because I was living in Cuba

for a long time, the Cuban population admires everything that is

technological advanced because it is such a closed society that

when somebody sees a laptop.

Mr. BURTON. But are they allowing the people to get those

things? I thought Castro was clamping down, saying the people

couldn’t get computers, fax machines and so forth?

Mr. MONTENEGRO. Yes, but you can send the computer. For example, we sent laptops to Vladimir Roca and some of them are still

working. Some people have cell phones, satellite phones in Cuba

right now.

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Mr. BURTON. But they have to keep that kind of quiet?

Mr. MONTENEGRO. Yes.

Mr. BURTON. Mr. Reyes, I didn’t get from you why your stepfather was arrested. He is a poet but what did he do to make Castro want him incarcerated?

Mr. REYES. His only crime was writing and saying his beliefs.

Mr. BURTON. Did he write some poetry that criticized the government?

Mr. REYES. No. He just was telling the truth, just telling what

the Castro media, the Castro government doesn’t want to hear

from the people, telling what is happening in Cuba which they

know what is happening in Cuba but they don’t want one person

saying to the rest of the Cuba, listen I can say this, you can follow

me. I believe that is why Raul was condemned to 20 years.

Mr. BURTON. Ms. Watson, do you have any questions?

Ms. WATSON. I am just wondering as Fidel Castro ages and I

think he has been in office for 44 years and the changing circumstances in the world, let me liken this to CARICOM and Haiti,

could not a group of the nations down in that area along with us

have the kind of deliberation sessions and meetings with Fidel Castro. We were down there toward the end of last year and he met

our delegation, I guess he is famous for this. We started at 9 p.m.,

he was 6 hours on the television and came to meet with us. We got

into such a meaty discussion where he talked about his detainees

and he said, he turned around to us and said, well, you have a

Constitution and when somebody violates the Constitution and the

Bill of Rights, what do you do? He said, the people I have detained

have done A, B and C. I don’t know how much that could be backed

up with fact but we had an open discussion which I felt he was

very sincere. He has a vision for where he wants to take his country and that has been the vision of the revolution ever since.

Since there is no longer a Soviet Union and the other countries

that were supportive of him, would you think it would be effective

to bring these neighboring countries together in a negotiated dialog

with Fidel Castro? Certainly human rights offenses cannot be accepted in our hemisphere or anywhere, so I think we have some

ways of really putting pressure on him. I don’t think the sanctions

are working and they are hurting many people.

I was really big on going back until the atrocities that I mentioned before were committed but I do think maybe it is now time

to seriously get into ongoing discussions. We just lost President

Ronald Reagan and he was famous for saying tear down that wall

and then going into some discussions. What do you think?

Mr. SUCHLICKI. I think it is not an issue of discussions. I think

we have had discussions with Fidel. The question is, is he willing

to provide meaningful concessions in exchange for a change in

American foreign policy. The answer has traditionally been no. So

we do have a leader that is not really that interested in relations

with the United States. He would like unilateral concessions with

the United States, unilateral lifting of the ban without him having

to provide irreversible concessions on Cuba.

Ms. WATSON. So what am I hearing you say, that is not the route

to take?

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Mr. SUCHLICKI. Europeans have tried, the Europeans have had

engagement with Cuba for the past 20 years, have tried to talk to

Fidel Castro.

Ms. WATSON. That is the past, what do you think will work in

this climate, in this era, in the present?

Mr. SUCHLICKI. I don’t think there are leaders that are not willing to provide change.

Ms. WATSON. No, no. I would like you to help us. What would

you suggest, what do you think would work?

Mr. SUCHLICKI. I think maintaining the policy, not changing U.S.

foreign policy, not providing unilateral concessions to Fidel Castro

unless he is willing to provide reciprocal concessions. Hold the policy of the embargo and the ban for the time there is a leader there

willing to open up Cuba and willing to provide concessions. Work

with the international community to bring about pressure. The

Caribbean countries are small, poor. Castro is not interested in

them. They are not going to help. Maybe Brazil would help a little

bit, maybe the Europeans can help. Try to highlight the violations

of human rights publicly, keep the spotlight on the violations of

human rights so the world sees what is happening in Cuba and

then you have a plethora of overt and covert policies that the U.S.

Government can follow to accelerate a process of change.

At the invitation of the chairman, I will be submitting a list of

suggestions for the U.S. Government to handle. So I don’t think it

is the moment to change policy. Fidel Castro hasn’t earned anything, so why should we change the policy?

In Latin America, since the Carter administration, we have been

consistent in advocating civilian government, human rights and

democratic government. President Carter intervened in Haiti to try

to create a democratic government there. President Reagan intervened in Grenada to get rid of the thugs that had created the communist regime there. President Bush, the first, intervened in Panama to bring and restore democracy to that country. I am not saying we should intervene militarily in Cuba, I am not advocating

that but aren’t the Cubans deserving of the same support on the

part of the United States or are the Cubans less than other Latin

American countries and therefore we should resign to have a long

term dictatorship in Cuba and provide money and tourism and

trade and aid which will continue the present structures of Cuba,

will consolidate the present structure of Cuba and commit the

Cuban people to a much longer dictatorship.

Ms. WATSON. I think you missed something in my query and that

was what were the benefit.

I am going to go on to Mr. Lopez. In my query, I said would it

be worth sitting down having a negotiated kind of discussion.

When I say negotiated, that means both sides have to play. You

have to give to get.

Mr. MONTENEGRO. The Varela Project was a negotiation between

the Cuban people and Fidel Castro, 25,000 signatures.

Ms. WATSON. Let us broaden it from just the Cuban people to the

countries.

Mr. MONTENEGRO. Based on the constitution. Fidel Castro says

these people were detained by violating the constitution. These people who signed the Varela Project were enforcing the constitution.

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They submitted this proposal to Fidel Castro. What was the answer? First of all, communism or socialism is nonrevocable or nonnegotiable. That is what they put on the constitution and after

that, they cracked down. That is the answer to Fidel Castro to negotiations.

You asked what we can do right now. I think the dissident movement created a basis for what we can do. We have to help the civil

society because that is becoming a force inside Cuba. That is a

force that Fidel Castro cannot understand. As I said, the government is afraid of people overcoming fear in Cuba because the system is based on the culture of fear. By helping civil society, helping

the human rights activities, we can get more and more people involved in asking for change in Cuba. That eventually would get

into the structure of power that Mr. Suchlicki is talking about and

maybe we can break the system they are trying to create.

I don’t believe Raul Castro has the charisma to be the successor

of Fidel Castro. I think they are trying to do that. Jamie is right

on that, they are trying to promote a secession. The only way we

have to promote peaceful, democratic change in Cuba and break

that scheme for secession is helping civil society, creating another

political force in Cuba which is the human rights movement, which

is nonviolent.

Ms. WATSON. Mr. Olson.

Mr. OLSON. I wanted to address two issues you raised. One was

the statement of President Castro that the prisoners violated the

law and therefore it is normal that they would be imprisoned. I

wanted to look at the case of Raul Rivero as an example of why

we have a problem with that. On the surface, he is right, there is

a law, Law 88, that defines certain crimes and they are accusing

him of violating Article 91 of that penal code. The indictment

against him, based solely on official documents not our interpretation, accuses him of subversive activities aimed at affecting the territorial independence and integrity of Cuba. It offers no specifics

about the actions he has taken. It is a very open-ended accusation.

In other places, it states he disseminated what they call false

news to satisfy the interests of his sponsors of the North American

Government. In other words, he was spreading news, peacefully,

never accused of doing it violently, offering an opinion and also in

his sentence, it says, ‘‘The accused in addition to the facts already

described, from 2000 began disseminating information via the

Inquintro and Abred webpage belonging to the International Press

Society.’’ That is his crime, offering news, posting stories on the

Web. They are not even accusing him of inciting violence or asking

for the overthrow of the government. They are merely saying he is

sharing information on the Web and this is their own words.

For us, those laws themselves do not make international standards for freedom of expression. Therefore, we believe Mr. Rivero

and 82 others are prisoners of conscience because they have expressed themselves, whatever their opinion is and I have no opinion about their opinion, but they are doing it openly, they should

be doing it freely and they are making no appeal to violence. So

we differ strongly with Mr. Castro’s interpretation of the law.

These people are wrongfully imprisoned and should be immediately

and unconditionally released.

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Ms. WATSON. Are you an attorney, Mr. Olson?

Mr. OLSON. No, I am not but this is the analysis of our organization and I represent the organization here today.

Ms. WATSON. It is very hard to question an individual case because we don’t know all the circumstances but I am thinking in a

broader sense and I just asked my staff to research Article 91 and

let us take a look at it.

Mr. OLSON. If you like, it is quite extensively reviewed in our report of last March, essential measures which outlines the content

of that law and why it is not consistent with international standards.

Ms. WATSON. If you have something in writing, I will have my

staff take a look. If you have a copy, I would appreciate it.

Mr. OLSON. Certainly and I would recommend you look at that.

On your other question, I think you are asking a valid question.

We have recommended among many things that the United States

reexamine its policy toward Cuba. We do not think it has been particularly effective in promoting human rights in Cuba and we

among our recommendations are not negotiation but building a

broader and more effective coalition amongst European and Latin

American nations, including Caribbean nations as you said, to both

engage and confront the Cuban Government on all of these human

rights issues.

What stung Fidel Castro after the March 2003 crackdown was

not criticism from the United States, that did nothing to hurt him.

In fact, in many ways, it plays into his hands. What stung him was

the criticism from longtime allies, Mexico, other Latin American

nations, other so-called leftists, European governments who have

maintained close relations. The United States should work effectively with them and allow them to take the lead because they

clearly have much more influence if you will over what Mr. Castro

does and says.

I acknowledge that is not negotiation, we are not calling for that.

That will take a lot of patience and time but in our estimation that

approach is more likely to be effective than the current approach

of the U.S. Government.

Ms. WATSON. Thank you. Mr. Reyes.

Mr. REYES. Just to give you the last news I have from my stepfather, my mother is asking for the last 2 or 3 weeks for the Cuban

authorities to allow him to have a fan because the degree in the

cell is 100 degrees. This is hard anywhere and the Cuban authorities don’t allow him to have the fan. We are trying to explain to

the friends of Castro, not talking bad about Castro himself but just

show him the face of those people, why they were condemned to 20

years, why they were condemned to 25 years, what is the crime.

That is the way we are trying to approach these governments that

still believe in the Castro regime and the Castro revolution.

Ms. WATSON. I think what you said, Mr. Olson, was very compelling. Those nations, and I know in our conversations, Russia was

mentioned most often, nations that have helped us when you

wouldn’t help us, that is what he said to us, maybe it is those nations we gather together along with CARICOM and surrounding

nations and have them step up to the plate.

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My staff just handed me the information on Article 91 and he

seems to be a brilliant mind and I think there is some reasoning

that needs to be done with him. We call ourselves a nation of laws

and he said to us, are you aware that we have a constitution? It

made us look less informed than we should have been but yes, I

guess we were aware, so I heard the legal mind come out. That is

why I asked if you were an attorney. He is an attorney and he is

very clever. I would think we would use his own law as the basis

for a discussion that would have the input from other nations that

he cares about who have helped him in time of need.

I would like to see us do something with that approach. I guess

it was Mr. Suchlicki who said he was going to give us a list of proposals he thinks would work. If we consider ongoing talks and really using his rule of law, his constitution as a basis, I think we could

shed some light on does the punishment fit the crime, 25 years for

publishing something you didn’t like reading. I think working

through his knowledge of the law and his own constitutional laws

might be one way to broaden the conversation and to have it involving other nations he has dealt with in the past might be one

way to go.

Mr. MONTENEGRO. I agree with the idea to create an international coalition. I think Europe should have a role and also

CARICOM should play a role even though they are poor, small

countries because Castro is always trying to portray the image that

the Cuban problem is a conflict between Cuba and the United

States. In recent months or in the past 2 years, it has become an

international problem and that is hurting Castro. I agree with Mr.

Olson and you can argue with Castro about that because he is always going to say the same thing. This is our law, we have our own

interpretation of what democracy is and anything else is interfering

with internal affairs in Cuba. So this international coalition should

be created to put pressure on Castro for human rights and civil liberties in Cuba.

Mr. BURTON. Let me add a couple comments. My colleague and

I sometimes are in very strong agreement with one another and

other times we have a little disagreement. When I participated in

writing the Helms-Burton law, the Libertad Act, we did a lot of

study and research on that and it went on for a couple of years.

One of the things we found was that he does not adhere to international law, he may claim to follow a constitution, but the fact is

whenever he has a whim about somebody, they go into the

slammer and they are tortured. I would hope my colleague, if she

has the time, would read Against All Hope by Armondo Valadarez

and I will be glad to get you a copy of that book because he spent

27 years in a Cuban prison for virtually nothing except opposing

Castro’s views.

The other thing is a lot of my colleagues have been talking about

ending the embargo because they say when you end the embargo,

the people will have a better standard of living. What most of my

colleagues don’t realize is that if a person works for a company like

one of the big hotel chains there on the beaches and are paid $400

in U.S. currency, that money does not go to the people working

there, the money goes to the government and then the government

pays the people back with $400 pesos which are worth less than

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$5-$10 a month. So even if the embargo were lifted and we started

paying people a living wage, the money has to go to the government and it is recirculated to them in the form of pesos, so the

standard of living remains the same, $5-$10 a month and that is

why they are living pretty much in the dark ages.

We have this debate on the floor of the Capitol all the time on

whether or not the embargo should be lifted. I would love to see

the standard of living for every Cuban lifted to where they are

making $400-$500 a month which could be done if there were a

free Cuba but as long as the government controls the currency, controls where the money goes, the people are going to be subservient

to the government and they are going to have to follow Fidel Castro’s edicts. That is where we stand today.

With that, I want to thank you very much for your comments.

This is not the end of this. I would like to have any recommendations you have on how to solve the problem. It is a Gordian knot

but we are going to continue to work on it until we see freedom

in Cuba.

Thank you very much.

[Whereupon, at 12:27 p.m., the subcommittee was adjourned, to

reconvene at the call of the Chair.]

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