Sen. Leahy Issues Statement on Cuba

WASHINGTON, July 14 -- Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, D-Vermont, issued the following floor statement, which was published in the Congressional Record on July 13, 2021:

Madam President, I would like to speak about a topic I spoke about before, and that is our policy toward Cuba. I couldn't help but think, as I look at the Cubans protesting in the street, especially as I see so many people in the streets in places where both my wife Marcelle and I have walked, and actually our granddaughter Sophia, where we know a number of the people there, and we see them protesting, it hits twice as hard. They are demanding greater freedom and economic opportunity. This illustrates a widespread hardship and hunger and the need for fundamental change in Cuba.

Human rights are universal. Cuban people are no different from people anywhere in the world. They want to be able to speak freely. They don't want fear of retribution.

We have been told that the Biden administration is conducting a review of the Trump administration's policy. It is the Trump administration's policy toward Cuba which is now in effect. There is nothing unusual about that review. New administrations regularly conduct such reviews. But it is now mid-July, and the key question that needs to be answered is not very complicated.

It is axiomatic that we have profound disagreements with the Cuban Government. They have held power since 1959. They have held power by outlawing opposition political parties. Dissent is often punished with physical abuse and imprisonment. The government's crackdown on the recent protests, calling the protesters counterrevolutionaries and blaming the United States for Cuba's ills, is predictable. They have blamed us for many years.

I look beyond the headlines. There is no doubt that the Cuban people, many of whom I have met, and I know they struggle from day to day to make ends meet--they want greater freedom, and they want a better life.

They have told me that. They have told Marcelle. They have told the other Senators, Republicans and Democrats, who have traveled there with me. But the question now is, How should we respond? It comes down to whether you believe that we should continue a policy of unilateral sanctions, which have been in effect for decades, much of my life--they have completely failed to achieve their objectives, and they have contributed to the daily misery of Cuba's people--or should we instead pursue a policy of engagement?

I believe President Obama got it right. You know, one definition of "insanity" is to keep doing what has repeatedly and demonstrably failed. In Cuba, it is worse than that. Our policy, which does not work, has emboldened Cuba's hardliners, and it provides an excuse for Cuba's authorities to crack down on those who dare to protest. But worse than that, it has created a vacuum. And guess who is exploiting that vacuum a few miles from our shores? Well, of course, the Russians and the Chinese. And we undercut the Cuban private sector.

By any objective measure, it is time for President Biden to act on his pledge to "reverse the failed Trump policies" that have "inflicted harm on Cubans and their families" and "done nothing to advance democracy and human rights."

I feel that if we allow those Trump sanctions to persist, we only undermine these principles. They restrict the freedom of movement and economic autonomy of the Cuban people. They compound the suffering caused by the Cuban Government's own repressive policies and well-known economic mismanagement. In fact, the repression in Cuba didn't decrease during the Trump administration; it increased.

Biden administration officials have repeatedly said that democracy and human rights will be at the core of our policy toward Cuba. Well, I have been a defender of those principles for 50 years, and human rights and political freedom should be a key element not just of our policy but also of our engagement with Cuba.

But, again, the question is how best to support the Cuban people who seek greater freedom and a better life. Is it to continue a policy that has achieved neither, which is likely to be used as an excuse by those in power to further stifle dissent?

In fact, engagement with Cuba will honor our commitment to human rights and the recognition that American presence can be a positive force in closed societies. That is the argument that Secretary Blinken and others, both Democrats and Republicans, have rightly made in defense of diplomacy and engagement throughout the world.

Neither engagement nor continuation of the Trump sanctions can guarantee Cuba's political transformation. That is ultimately a decision for the Cuban people. But--but--but engagement stands a far greater chance of creating a new dynamic beneficial to the Cuban people.

President Obama's engagement with Cuba showed that U.S. travel, exchanges, remittances, and business ties expand opportunities and information and income for Cubans, boosting the private sector and increasing economic independence.

I visited a number of these people, often young people starting their own businesses--small businesses, private businesses--doing it because of President Obama's engagement with Cuba. It also initiated working level discussions on a wide range of issues, from law enforcement to property claims, to public health and environmental protection.

Raul Castro and his generation are in the process of handing over power to the next generation. I compliment him on that. The current leadership is rooted in the past, but they are also deep in a debate about how to reform the economy, how to regulate the private sector, and how to navigate citizen demands for pluralism, something they have not seen. I believe American citizens and diplomats alike should participate in that debate--and not from a distance, not from Washington and New York and elsewhere, but down there.

Cuba's private sector offers a particular opportunity because Cuba's economic policies are changing in ways that enable U.S. engagement to have greater impact than was impossible even during the Obama years.

A new law will soon greatly expand the legal scope for private business activity, and another is expected to give entrepreneurs legal status that will permit them to receive foreign investment. The government is enabling private businesses to import supplies and export products.

Any of us who come from States that have an agricultural industry should look at this. For the first time, the Cuban Government is calling for foreign investment in private farm cooperatives. But for U.S. citizens and businesses to be able to engage, several steps are needed.

We have to remove the restrictions that limit the flow of remittances, both family assistance and "donative" remittances mainly used to pay and support private entrepreneurs.

Restore the travel regulations that were in effect when the Obama-Biden administration left office. This includes eliminating or significantly reducing the Cuba Restricted List of business entities, ending the prohibition on lodging in Cuban hotels, and allowing U.S. airlines to service provincial airports.

Reverse the frivolous "state sponsor of terrorism" designation that former Secretary Pompeo almost flippantly announced 9 days before leaving office.

Suspend title III of the Helms-Burton Act, as all the Presidents did from 1996 to 2019, Republican and Democratic Presidents alike.

These regulatory changes would permit the private sector to activate and would be no burden on the U.S. Government. It would be the private sector activating.

We don't need some grand diplomacy to do this. Dialogue with Cuba can resume at the working level. Human rights advocacy at whatever level should be a key part of any engagement policy, as it is in our relations with other autocratic governments.

There would be broad support in this country for a return to engagement. There would be vocal support from U.S. agriculture, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, from many Cuban Americans, and from many in Cuba whose lives have become immeasurably worse due to the COVID pandemic. Given time to work, engagement policies would expand the constituency for engagement in Miami as more Cuban Americans travel and build economic ties.

This is also how you make progress with Cuba on cases of political prisoners or other violations of human rights. You don't make this progress by making ultimatums or threats or repeating slogans that sound great but achieve nothing in practice. It can't be by conditioning U.S. aid because we don't gave aid to Cuba. We do to some military dictatorships, of course, like Egypt. It can't be by canceling sales of U.S. weapons. We don't sell weapons to Cuba the same way we do to some other repressive governments, like Saudi Arabia. It is through building relations by making progress on issues where we share interests, which can create the conditions for progress--making progress on issues where we differ, like human rights and property claims.

I don't expect we are going to come down here and everybody is going to say: We all agree on everything. Let's talk about the things where we do have differences. But you don't talk about it--you don't get anywhere by making ultimatums from a country away.

I hope the Biden administration will be guided first and foremost by what is in our national interest but also in the interests of the Cuban and American people. Candidate Biden was right when he pledged, and I repeat, to "reverse the failed Trump policies" that have "inflicted harm on Cubans and their families" and "done nothing to enhance democracy and human rights."

It is time to act on that pledge. It is time to encourage so many of these young people--young students, young entrepreneurs, young business owners like those I visited and met with in Cuba--it is time to say: Yes, you can be part of the world. Yes, you can work with those in our country who want to make your life better. If we do that, we will see the real change--not slogans of change but substantive change.

I see my distinguished friend and colleague from Ohio on the floor. I will ask to put my full statement in the Record.

TARGETED NEWS SERVICE (founded 2004) features non-partisan 'edited journalism' news briefs and information for news organizations, public policy groups and individuals; as well as 'gathered' public policy information, including news releases, reports, speeches. For more information contact MYRON STRUCK, editor, [email protected], Springfield, Virginia; 703/304-1897; https://targetednews.com