Title: Condemning the comments of Senator and Democratic Socialist Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders (I-VT), disregarding the history of systemic human rights abuses, forced indoctrination, and authoritarian actions of the literacy and education policies of the Communist Castro dictatorship in Cuba.
Policy area: International Affairs

Summary:
This resolution (1) condemns specified comments by Senator Sanders with respect to Cuba; (2) rejects claims that health care, literacy, and education improved under Fidel Castro; and (3) calls for the respect of all basic human rights for the Cuban people, with whom the House of Representatives stands in solidarity.

[Congressional Bills 116th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H. Res. 868 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






116th CONGRESS
  2d Session
H. RES. 868

      Condemning the comments of Senator and Democratic Socialist 
Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders (I-VT), disregarding the history 
      of systemic human rights abuses, forced indoctrination, and 
  authoritarian actions of the literacy and education policies of the 
                 Communist Castro dictatorship in Cuba.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           February 27, 2020

 Mr. Diaz-Balart (for himself, Ms. Cheney, Mr. McCaul, Mr. Waltz, Mr. 
Gonzalez of Ohio, Mr. Scalise, Miss Gonzalez-Colon of Puerto Rico, Ms. 
 Shalala, and Ms. Mucarsel-Powell) submitted the following resolution; 
         which was referred to the Committee on Foreign Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                               RESOLUTION


 
      Condemning the comments of Senator and Democratic Socialist 
Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders (I-VT), disregarding the history 
      of systemic human rights abuses, forced indoctrination, and 
  authoritarian actions of the literacy and education policies of the 
                 Communist Castro dictatorship in Cuba.

Whereas, on February 23, 2020, during a ``60 Minutes'' interview aired on CBS, 
        Senator Bernie Sanders refused to condemn the Communist dictatorship of 
        Fidel Castro in Cuba outright and expressed support for the literacy and 
        education policies of the dictatorship;
Whereas, on February 24, 2020, during a televised town hall in Charleston, South 
        Carolina, Senator Bernie Sanders defended his remarks praising the 
        literacy and education policies of the Castro dictatorship in Cuba;
Whereas, on February 25, 2020, during the Democratic Presidential debate in 
        Charleston, South Carolina, Senator Bernie Sanders further stated: 
        ``Cuba made progress on education'' and ``when dictatorships, whether it 
        is the Chinese or the Cubans do something good, you acknowledge that'';
Whereas the literacy and education policy of the tyrannical Castro dictatorship 
        served to indoctrinate the Cuban people with Marxist-Communist ideology 
        and anti-United States sentiment;
Whereas the objective of the Castro regime's literacy and education policies was 
        to promote loyalty and reverence for Fidel Castro above all else;
Whereas Fidel Castro and the Communist Party of Cuba blocked access to 
        independent sources of information and imposed outright censorship of 
        books, libraries, and educational sources;
Whereas Cubans who resisted Communist indoctrination by Fidel Castro and his 
        regime risked human rights abuses including violence, imprisonment, and 
        execution;
Whereas most Cubans indoctrinated by the regime's education system were forced 
        to work for the state;
Whereas the revolution led by Fidel Castro in Cuba in 1959 started 60 years of 
        an ongoing dictatorship, systemic human rights abuses, and a lack of 
        basic freedoms of press, religion, assembly, and association that 
        continue to this day under the Communist oppression of Raul Castro and 
        his puppet, Miguel Diaz-Canel;
Whereas by the early 1960's Fidel Castro held as many as 60,000 political 
        prisoners;
Whereas killings ordered by Fidel Castro are estimated to be as high as 17,000;
Whereas over 1,000,000 Cubans were forced to flee their homeland and risked 
        their lives to escape the Castro dictatorship;
Whereas prior to the Castro regime, from 1953 to 1958, according to professor 
        emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh Carmelo Mesa-Lago, Cuba's 
        infant mortality rate was the lowest in the region;
Whereas a State Department report, ``Zenith and Eclipse: A Comparative Look at 
        Socio-Economic Conditions in Pre-Castro and Present Day Cuba'', 
        indicated that in 1957 Cuba had an infant mortality rate of 32 per 1,000 
        births, the lowest in Latin America and the 13th lowest in the world;
Whereas prior to Castro's Communists seizing power, Cuba led virtually all 
        countries in Latin America in the category of life expectancy in 1959;
Whereas prior to the Castro regime, in 1957, Cuba had lower infant mortality 
        than France, Belgium, West Germany, Israel, Japan, Austria, Italy, 
        Spain, and Portugal;
Whereas the Cuban dictatorship today under Raul Castro and his puppet, Miguel 
        Diaz-Canel, continues to stifle dissent through violence and harassment 
        and violate the basic human rights of the Cuban people;
Whereas the Communist regime in Cuba continues to export its Communist, anti-
        American, and authoritarian ideology throughout the Western Hemisphere 
        and bolsters authoritarian regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua; and
Whereas Communism has claimed at least 100,000,000 victims, and has led to 
        financial ruin and brutal oppression in Asia, Europe, and the Western 
        Hemisphere: Now, therefore, be it
    Resolved, That the House of Representatives--
            (1) condemns the comments of Senator and Democratic 
        Socialist Presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders (I-VT), 
        disregarding the history of systemic human rights abuses, 
        forced indoctrination, and authoritarian actions of the 
        literacy and education policies of the Communist Castro 
        dictatorship in Cuba;
            (2) condemns the use of firing squads, imprisonment, 
        torture, and acts of repudiation to suppress dissent in 
        totalitarian Cuba, as well as the forced Communist 
        indoctrination policies carried out by the Castro dictatorship 
        in Cuba;
            (3) rejects the false claims that healthcare, literacy, and 
        education have improved under the Castro regime;
            (4) calls for democratic government, liberation of all 
        political prisoners, freedom of belief and expression, and the 
        respect of all basic human rights for the Cuban people; and
            (5) stands in solidarity with the Cuban people in their 
        struggle to achieve essential freedoms and liberties.
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