Date: 2004-09-22
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Chairman. I rise in opposition to the amendment. and I yield myself such time as I may consume. A year ago. I was in New York. and I read a newspaper there. the daily called La Prenza. and there was an interview with the gentleman from New York. the author of this amendment. It related to the summary executions that had just taken place by Castro of three young black men just a few days before. after they had been arrested by the dictatorship for the crime of trying to come to the United States. I quote from the gentleman from New York a little over a year ago: "I am shocked. There is nothing that the Cuban government can tell me that would interest me and that would convince me to speak to them again. It is totally incredible that a government would justify this type of action. The execution of these people puts an end to any possible discussion that there could have be~n with the Cuban government." Now. I wish. Mr. Chairman. that I could say that there has been some justice for those summary executions. the murders of those three young men. I wish I could say that the dictator at least had apologized to the grieving family members for their murders. No. there has been no justice. only increased repression. I showed last night a. replica of the punishment box for the best known political prisoner. a physician. Dr. Biscet. who is being held today because he believes in freedom and democracy. After this amendment. I certainly will always recall that it is more important when one truly wants to understand someone to guide oneself by what that person does rather than by what he says. This. as the gentleman has just stated. is the "normalization of relations" amendment. the "normalization of relations with the Cuban )dictatorship" amendment. Now. the charter of the OAS may say of this hemisphere. only representative democracy is legal. legitimate. and the democratic charter of simply 2 or 3 years says that any interruption in the democratic process in this hemisphere needs to be sanctioned. But this amendment says: No. you can ban elections for 45 years. You can crush labor unions and crush the free press and eliminate and prohibit all political parties and freedom of expression and execute people. including three young black men just a year ago for trying to get to freedom. and imprison them and torture them. And you can kill Americans. and you can harbor terrorists. And you can harbor fugitives from U.S. justice. including cop killers from our States here. You can do all of that. And you will get an amendment that says let us normalize relations. You can continue to harbor terrorists. and you can continue to harbor U.S. felon fugitives who murder U.S. citizens and spy on the United States and disrupt antiterrorism operations. We will still normalize with you. That is what this amendment is. So this is very good that this amendment be on the floor today because this is. after all. the debate about economic interests and debate about the coalition of forces that have advocated for the last years for normalization. This is important debate for our colleagues to express themselves on. After 45 years of illegal oppression in this hemisphere. that is the only one where its international law requires representative democracy. and great strides have been made in recent decades towards compliance with that legal international law requirement. This amendment says. no. in the Western Hemisphere it is all right to oppress for 45 years and murder and execute and torture and spy on Americans and harbor fugitives and harbor international terrorists and disrupt the U.S. international war on terrorism. It is all right: We will reward you. We will normalize. we will grant you the billions of dollars unilaterally without the dictatorship having to release any political prisoners or move towards freedom for its prisoners. We will reward you unilaterally anyway. I would ask this Congress of the United States that I hold with such reverence to stand with: the Cuban people today and to reject this amendment that simply seeks to reward oppression and reward infamy.