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"It is the responsibility of the democratic world to support representatives of the Cuban opposition, regardless of how long the Cuban Stalinists cling to power.
Vaclav Havel

Testimony of Frank Calzón, Executive Director
Center for a Free Cuba
Before the Sub-Committee on International Organizations, Human Rights and Oversight
Committee on Foreign Affairs
U.S. House of Representatives
Thursday, July 12, 2007, 2:00 pm

Ideals and Reality in Human Rights and U.S. Foreign Policy:
Azerbaijan, Cuba and Egypt.

Thank you, Chairman Delahunt, for inviting me to testify before this Sub-Committee. I would like to summarize my testimony and ask that the full text be placed into the record.

I am a Cuban refugee who has spent most of my life advocating human rights for Cubans and others. From l986 through 1997 I was Freedom House's Washington representative. I have testified before the U.N. Commission for Human Rights in Geneva and for the last ten years I've been the executive director of the Center for a Free Cuba.

During the current fiscal year the Center for a Free Cuba has received from USAID $l, 081,164 and from the National Endowment for Democracy $21,472.84. We also raise about a quarter of a million dollars a year from the Cuban American community.

The Center is one of the seven (out of a total of ten) USAID grantees which according to the Government Accountability Office "appear to have established systematic procedures for documenting, tracking and reporting on the use of grants funds." The GAO also says that "Dissidents [they] interviewed in Cuba said that they appreciated the range and types of U.S. democracy assistance, that this assistance was useful in their work, and that this aid demonstrated the U.S. government's commitment to democracy in Cuba."

No federal funds have been used for any costs associated with this testimony.

Chairman Tom Lantos has indicated that the purpose of this hearing was to "explore whether there is a double standard in how the U.S. Government treats foreign governments with poor human rights records."

The search for an equal policy to be applied everywhere is a fallacy. The policy of Canada toward the U.S. is not the same as Canada's policy toward Indonesia. The policy of Chile toward Britain is not the same as Chile's policy toward Equatorial Guinea. Foreign policy is determined by numerous factors, including human rights and the national interest of the countries involved. Those who argue for a China policy to be applied to Cuba are not asking for consistency but for an exception in the hemispheric policy of the US based for many years on opposition to dictatorship and military rule.

But hypocrisy remains an equal opportunity malady. Why are Angola, China, Saudi Arabia, Cameroon, Qatar, Russia, Egypt, Azerbaijan, and Cuba, among the worst violators of human rights members of the United Nations Human Rights Council? China has for years prevented consideration of its abysmal human rights record, and recently the Council eliminated the investigation of Cuba and Belarus, which had not allowed U.N. rapporteurs to visit them.

When looking at Egypt, Azerbaijan, and Cuba one could look at the access they provide to foreign NGO's. Amnesty International reports it has visited Egypt in July, September and December of 2006; and Azerbaijan in April and July of the same year. AI reports that "the Cuban government has denied Amnesty International the opportunity to visit the island since 1988," 19 years ago.

"Cuba," says Human Rights Watch "remains one of the few countries in the world to deny the International Committee of the Red Cross access to its prisons."

Another indicator to watch for is freedom of the press and the number of journalists in prison. According to Reporters without Borders (RSF) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Cuba is second to China in the number of journalists it has in prison (24). Azerbaijan "frequently uses violence and threats against the media" and it has three journalists in prison. RSF says that Egypt failed to make good on its proposed press law reform and has arrested at least seven journalists. But according to Cuba's Stalinist model, since 1960 every Cuban newspaper, radio, and TV station is own by the state.

How the U.S. can best promote human rights and democracy in these countries? First and foremost by following Vaclav Havel's advise and speaking truth to power, and by defending the human rights of others as if they were your own.

Specifically about Cuba, please allow me to suggest the following:

1) Any policy changes should be based on the understanding that they advance the development of Cuba's civil society. No unilateral steps should be taken that disproportionately benefit the regime. It would be counterproductive to dismantle U.S. policy piecemeal and real reform bolstered by legal protections should precede changes in U.S. restrictions.

2) U.S. policy is properly tied to reform. When Havana allows the Red Cross to visit its prisons, ends the beatings of dissidents by its thugs, and ends its unconscionable segregation of hotels, restaurants, beaches and clinics set aside for foreigners, Washington should review its travel restrictions. Americans should not subsidize apartheid.

3) Havana objects to U.S. restrictions because they limit the amount of hard currency that the Castros need for repression and to nurture like minded anti-American regimes abroad.

4) Raul Castro intends to consolidate his power. He wants to minimize the destabilizing impact of his brother's death. He has implemented restrictions on foreign journalists and has increased repression. But Havana needs an immediate influx of dollars to prevent an even greater economic crisis, and to ensure that reforms are unnecessary and won't have to be made. Whenever internal pressure has built in the past, the government cracks down and makes a few concessions. After pressure eases, it delivers a backhanded slap.

5) Restricting family visits creates hardships for some Cuban Americans who are faced with family emergencies. The answer is not to lift all restrictions on Cuban American travel but to bring such travel in line with other licensed travel to the island. Emergency humanitarian travel licenses should be issued; but the ban on tourisms should remain.

6) Economic reforms should also precede any consideration of increasing the limits on remittances. Cubans ought to be able to use remittances to start small businesses and engage in private commerce. Without reform an increase in remittances will lead to price increases in the government's hard-currency stores. The average Cuban salary is less than $20 U.S. dollars a month. A hundred dollars a month per family is a substantial donation. Larger amounts will delay needed reforms.

7) Let's also refer to INTERPOL the names of the Cuban officers who murdered the Brothers to the Rescue Pilots in international airspace. Murderers of Americans should not be given impunity.

8) Above all, let's not base U.S. policy on the disinformation generated during many years by Ana Belen Montes, the Defense Intelligence analyst serving a 25 year sentence for spying for Castro. Let the US declassify information not only about what the US attempted to do to Castro more than 30 years ago, but about what Castro has done and continues to do against the U.S. to this very day.

U.S. policy is based on the need to help the Cuban people while denying hard currency to the Castro's dynasty. These two goals are not mutually exclusive. The United States has options, short of unilaterally lifting travel and economic sanctions. Let's utilize those options within the context of U.S. policy, to protect the United States and to the people of Cuban.