H. R. 927—18
that he would unleash another perilous mass migration from
Cuba upon the enactment of this Act.
(11) Despite the various concerns about the plant’s safety
and operational problems, a feasibility study is being conducted
that would establish a support group to include Russia, Cuba,
and third countries with the objective of completing and operat-
ing the plant.
(b) WITHHOLDING OF FOREIGN ASSISTANCE.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provision of
law, the President shall withhold from assistance allocated,
on or after the date of the enactment of this Act, for any
country an amount equal to the sum of assistance and credits,
if any, provided on or after such date of enactment by that
country or any entity in that country in support of the comple-
tion of the Cuban nuclear facility at Juragua, near Cienfuegos,
Cuba.
(2) EXCEPTIONS.—The requirement of paragraph (1) to with-
hold assistance shall not apply with respect to—
(A) assistance to meet urgent humanitarian needs,
including disaster and refugee relief;
(B) democratic political reform or rule of law activities;
(C) the creation of private sector or nongovernmental
organizations that are independent of government control;
(D) the development of a free market economic system;
(E) assistance for the purposes described in the
Cooperative Threat Reduction Act of 1993 (title XII of
Public Law 103–160); or
(F) assistance under the secondary school exchange
program administered by the United States Information
Agency.
(3) DEFINITION.—As used in paragraph (1), the term ‘‘assist-
ance’’ means assistance under the Foreign Assistance Act of
1961, credits, sales, guarantees of extensions of credit, and
other assistance under the Arms Export Control Act, assistance
under titles I and III of the Agricultural Trade Development
and Assistance Act of 1954, assistance under the FREEDOM
Support Act, and any other program of assistance or credits
provided by the United States to other countries under other
provisions of law.
SEC. 112. REINSTITUTION OF FAMILY REMITTANCES AND TRAVEL TO
CUBA.
It is the sense of the Congress that the President should—
(1)(A) before considering the reinstitution of general
licenses for family remittances to Cuba, insist that, prior to
such reinstitution, the Cuban Government permit the unfet-
tered operation of small businesses fully empowered with the
right to hire others to whom they may pay wages and to
buy materials necessary in the operation of the businesses,
and with such other authority and freedom as are required
to foster the operation of small businesses throughout Cuba;
and
(B) if licenses described in subparagraph (A) are
reinstituted, require a specific license for remittances described
in subparagraph (A) in amounts of more than $500; and
(2) before considering the reinstitution of general licenses
for travel to Cuba by individuals resident in the United States
H. R. 927—19
who are family members of Cuban nationals who are resident
in Cuba, insist on such actions by the Cuban Government
as abrogation of the sanction for departure from Cuba by refu-
gees, release of political prisoners, recognition of the right of
association, and other fundamental freedoms.
SEC. 113. EXPULSION OF CRIMINALS FROM CUBA.
The President shall instruct all United States Government
officials who engage in official contacts with the Cuban Government
to raise on a regular basis the extradition of or rendering to the
United States all persons residing in Cuba who are sought by
the United States Department of Justice for crimes committed
in the United States.
SEC. 114. NEWS BUREAUS IN CUBA.
(a) ESTABLISHMENT
OF NEWS BUREAUS.—The President is
authorized to establish and implement an exchange of news bureaus
between the United States and Cuba, if the exchange meets the
following conditions:
(1) The exchange is fully reciprocal.
(2) The Cuban Government agrees not to interfere with
the establishment of news bureaus or with the movement in
Cuba of journalists of any United States-based news organiza-
tions, including Radio Marti and Television Marti.
(3) The Cuban Government agrees not to interfere with
decisions of United States-based news organizations with
respect to individuals assigned to work as journalists in their
news bureaus in Cuba.
(4) The Department of the Treasury is able to ensure
that only accredited journalists regularly employed with a news
gathering organization travel to Cuba under this subsection.
(5) The Cuban Government agrees not to interfere with
the transmission of telecommunications signals of news bureaus
or with the distribution within Cuba of publications of any
United States-based news organization that has a news bureau
in Cuba.
(b) ASSURANCE AGAINST ESPIONAGE.—In implementing this sec-
tion, the President shall take all necessary steps to ensure the
safety and security of the United States against espionage by Cuban
journalists it believes to be working for the intelligence agencies
of the Cuban Government.
(c) FULLY RECIPROCAL.—As used in subsection (a)(1), the term
‘‘fully reciprocal’’ means that all news services, news organizations,
and broadcasting services, including such services or organizations
that receive financing, assistance, or other support from a govern-
mental or official source, are permitted to establish and operate
a news bureau in the United States and Cuba.
SEC. 115. EFFECT OF ACT ON LAWFUL UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT
ACTIVITIES.
Nothing in this Act prohibits any lawfully authorized investiga-
tive, protective, or intelligence activity of a law enforcement agency,
or of an intelligence agency, of the United States.
SEC. 116. CONDEMNATION OF CUBAN ATTACK ON AMERICAN AIR-
CRAFT.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress makes the following findings:
H. R. 927—20
(1) Brothers to the Rescue is a Miami-based humanitarian
organization engaged in searching for and aiding Cuban refu-
gees in the Straits of Florida, and was engaged in such a
mission on Saturday, February 24, 1996.
(2) The members of Brothers to the Rescue were flying
unarmed and defenseless planes in a mission identical to hun-
dreds they have flown since 1991 and posed no threat whatso-
ever to the Cuban Government, the Cuban military, or the
Cuban people.
(3) Statements by the Cuban Government that Brothers
to the Rescue has engaged in covert operations, bombing cam-
paigns, and commando operations against the Government of
Cuba have no basis in fact.
(4) The Brothers to the Rescue aircraft notified air traffic
controllers as to their flight plans, which would take them
south of the 24th parallel and close to Cuban airspace.
(5) International law provides a nation with airspace over
the 12-mile territorial sea.
(6) The response of Fidel Castro’s dictatorship to Saturday’s
afternoon flight was to scramble 2 fighter jets from a Havana
airfield.
(7) At approximately 3:24 p.m., the pilot of one of the
Cuban MiGs received permission and proceeded to shoot down
one Brothers to the Rescue airplane more than 6 miles north
of the Cuban exclusion zone, or 18 miles from the Cuban
coast.
(8) Approximately 7 minutes later, the pilot of the Cuban
fighter jet received permission and proceeded to shoot down
the second Brothers to the Rescue airplane almost 18.5 miles
north of the Cuban exclusion zone, or 30.5 miles from the
Cuban coast.
(9) The Cuban dictatorship, if it truly felt threatened by
the flight of these unarmed aircraft, could have and should
have pursued other peaceful options as required by inter-
national law.
(10) The response chosen by Fidel Castro, the use of lethal
force, was completely inappropriate to the situation presented
to the Cuban Government, making such actions a blatant and
barbaric violation of international law and tantamount to cold-
blooded murder.
(11) There were no survivors of the attack on these aircraft,
and the crew of a third aircraft managed to escape this criminal
attack by Castro’s Air Force.
(12) The crew members of the destroyed planes, Pablo
Morales, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Pena, and Armando
Alejandre, were United States citizens from Miami flying with
Brothers to the Rescue on a voluntary basis.
(13) It is incumbent upon the United States Government
to protect the lives and livelihoods of United States citizens
as well as the rights of free passage and humanitarian missions.
(14) This premeditated act took place after a week-long
wave of repression by the Cuban Government against Concilio
Cubano, an umbrella organization of human rights activists,
dissidents, independent economists, and independent journal-
ists, among others.
(15) The wave of repression against Concilio Cubano, whose
membership is committed to peaceful democratic change in
H. R. 927—21
Cuba, included arrests, strip searches, house arrests, and in
some cases sentences to more than 1 year in jail.
(b) STATEMENTS BY THE CONGRESS.—(1) The Congress strongly
condemns the act of terrorism by the Castro regime in shooting
down the Brothers to the Rescue aircraft on February 24, 1996.
(2) The Congress extends its condolences to the families of
Pablo Morales, Carlos Costa, Mario de la Pena, and Armando
Alejandre, the victims of the attack.
(3) The Congress urges the President to seek, in the Inter-
national Court of Justice, indictment for this act of terrorism by
Fidel Castro.
TITLE II—ASSISTANCE TO A FREE AND
INDEPENDENT CUBA
SEC. 201. POLICY TOWARD A TRANSITION GOVERNMENT AND A DEMO-
CRATICALLY ELECTED GOVERNMENT IN CUBA.
The policy of the United States is as follows:
(1) To support the self-determination of the Cuban people.
(2) To recognize that the self-determination of the Cuban
people is a sovereign and national right of the citizens of
Cuba which must be exercised free of interference by the
government of any other country.
(3) To encourage the Cuban people to empower themselves
with a government which reflects the self-determination of
the Cuban people.
(4) To recognize the potential for a difficult transition from
the current regime in Cuba that may result from the initiatives
taken by the Cuban people for self-determination in response
to the intransigence of the Castro regime in not allowing any
substantive political or economic reforms, and to be prepared
to provide the Cuban people with humanitarian, developmental,
and other economic assistance.
(5) In solidarity with the Cuban people, to provide appro-
priate forms of assistance—
(A) to a transition government in Cuba;
(B) to facilitate the rapid movement from such a transi-
tion government to a democratically elected government
in Cuba that results from an expression of the self-deter-
mination of the Cuban people; and
(C) to support such a democratically elected govern-
ment.
(6) Through such assistance, to facilitate a peaceful transi-
tion to representative democracy and a market economy in
Cuba and to consolidate democracy in Cuba.
(7) To deliver such assistance to the Cuban people only
through a transition government in Cuba, through a democrat-
ically elected government in Cuba, through United States
Government organizations, or through United States, inter-
national, or indigenous nongovernmental organizations.
(8) To encourage other countries and multilateral organiza-
tions to provide similar assistance, and to work cooperatively
with such countries and organizations to coordinate such assist-
ance.