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

Mr. Chairman. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman. it is important that the facts be clear: The sale of agricultural products and medicine to Cuba. even to the regime. is legal. The only requirement is that they have to pay. Now. I was involved in a negotiation with a number of Members of this House some years back. It was a very detailed and difficult negotiation. but an agreement ensued that permitted the sale of agricultural products. The sale of medical products had been legal since 1992. The agreement permitted the sale of agricultural products even to the regime. as I said. Mr. Chairman. as long as the regime paid. Now. even the economic interests that do business with the regime have made it clear that they want to be paid. What the discussion is about today is financing for the dictatorship. to make available financing for the dictatorship. Amendments seem to find their way to this floor. no matter how much repression and torture the Cuban dictator engages in against his people. no matter how many people he imprisons simply for theirviews. no matter how much he tortures the people whom he imprisons. No matter how many people he even murders because they try to seek freedom. amendments manage to find their way to this floor to reward the tyrant. So now there is one amendment here that seeks to reward the dictator with financing. What we are saying is. there has really never been a time to reward a dictatorship for repression and jailing of opponents and the murder of opponents. There has never been a time for that. Much less is there a time now. after the dictator has increased repression. So on the issue of financing. I would simply remind my colleagues again that even those who sell to the dictator wish to be paid. Even those who sell to the dictator have said that they like the fact that they have to be paid. that they know that the dictator owes billions of dollars to people who have offered financing to him from other places of the world. What we do not want is to increase the amount of debt that the dictator owes. this time to Americans. much less to Americans who might then wish to have the taxpayer later bail them out. The bottom line is that the sale of agricultural products is legal. that the sale of medical products has for a long time been legal. and that the only requirement is that the dictator pay. So we do not think that it is appropriate now to reward the dictatorship with financing. Even the people who sell are not pushing for that. because they like the fact that they get paid. Mr. Chairman. this amendment is really in bad taste. especially when you consider the torture that the political prisoners are being subjeoted to. Those are the future leaders of the Cuban congress. those are the future leaders of the judiciary and. in fact. the future presidents of the Republic of Cuba. people who today are languishing in prison being tortured. and we owe at the very least to them not to reward this dictatorship with financing that even those who sell products are not seeking. Mr. Chairman. I would Simply ask my colleagues to reject this amendment. which is in bad taste and seeks to reward the dictatorship. and remind our colleagues that the sale of medical products and of agricultural products even to the regime is legal. The only conditions are that the regime pay.