ACCESSION NUMBER:00000
FILE ID:95061407.LAR
DATE:06/14/95
TITLE:LEGISLATORS PRAISE BILL TO TIGHTEN NOOSE AROUND CASTRO
TEXT:
TR95061407 (At Senate hearing) +eg (760)
By Eric Green
USIA Staff Writer
WASHINGTON -- Two senators running for president have joined with
several of their Republican House colleagues in voicing passionate
support for a bill that would tighten the economic squeeze on Cuba,
saying that is the only way to rid the hemisphere of Fidel Castro.
In June 14 testimony before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee's
subcommittee on Western Hemisphere and Peace Corps Affairs, Sens. Phil
Gramm (R-Texas) and Arlen Specter (R-Penn.) called for passage of the
bill to reverse what they said was the Clinton administration's move
to normalize relations between the United States and Cuba.
Spector, who is also chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee,
said the recent shift in U.S. policy to repatriate Cuban "boat people"
back to Cuba, rather than allowing them to continue coming to the
United States, "may be a signal" that the administration plans to
recognize the Castro regime.
The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act, sponsored
by Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms (R-N.C.),
is a "very important bill," Specter said, for achieving Castro's
ouster "at the earliest possible time."
Graham released a letter to Helms, saying that tightening the economic
embargo against Cuba "is a vital tool" in ending Castro's regime.
Signs of panic among Castro's dictatorship, Graham said, "are
unmistakable evidence that the embargo is working.
"Rather than relieve that pressure, we must increase it. We cannot
allow the freedom tide that has swept the planet to ebb before it
drowns Fidel Castro."
Though not testifying in person, Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole
(R-Kan.), considered the front-runner among Republican presidential
candidates, also released a letter supporting the bill.
The administration, Dole said, "has found many reasons to oppose
strengthening the embargo" against Cuba. "This comes as no surprise,"
Dole charged, "in light of their ... about-face on Cuban refugee
policy."
Helms, not shy in his avowed goal to have Castro deposed, called the
Cuban communist leader a "bloodsucking tyrant" and said he will do
everything possible "to tighten the noose" around him.
However, Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y) called Helms' legislation
misguided, saying it violates U.S. trade treaties with other
countries. Rather than isolate Cuba, he said, Congress should favor
"opening the doors of communication" and increasing economic, cultural
and educational exchanges with Havana.
The United States, he said, is losing hundreds of millions of dollars
from the current economic embargo by not exporting agricultural goods
to Cuba. Even if the Helms' bill is passed, Rangel said, the United
States is not prepared to enforce its provisions, which include
banning business dealings with anyone who buys U.S. property
confiscated by Cuba.
The measure also prohibits U.S. imports of sugar products from
countries buying Cuban sugar, blocking international loans to Cuba,
and deducting from U.S. aid to Russia the amount Moscow pays Havana.
In addition, the bill calls for strengthening U.S. broadcasting into
Cuba, and asks the administration to prepare a post-Castro plan for
the country.
However, Rangel said the bill would cause the United States "to take
on the whole world (because) we don't like Fidel Castro. He is not
worth it."
When challenged by Helms and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.) on
whether Castro should be deposed, Rangel responded that he wants all
Communists out of power.
"If you're commie, you should be out," Rangel said. But Rangel, who
fought in the Korean War against the Communist North Korean regime,
said "he's not going back to get rid of any more communist leaders
myself."
Ros-Lehtinen said the LIBERTAD Act is urgent because a joint-stock
company composed of Italian, German, Brazilian, British, and Russian
firms has offered $800 million to finish the construction of the
Juragua nuclear power plant in Cienfuegos, Cuba.
She said that if an accident were to occur at this power plant or
Castro was to arrange an "incident" there, the radioactive fallout
would pose a catastrophic health danger to Cuba, the Caribbean, and
the U.S. eastern seaboard.
Some 130 members of Congress, Ros-Lehtinen said, sent a letter to
President Clinton telling him he must put pressure on Russia to stop
completion of the plant.
Helms' legislation, she added, "will stop ... obscene and immoral
investments by those who prefer to make an easy dollar off the backs
of the suffering Cuban people rather than stand in solidarity with
their aspirations for freedom."
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