U.S. policy toward Cuba - Peter Tarnoff, Under Secretary for Political Affairs, May 22, 1995 - Transcript

US Department of State Dispatch, May 29, 1995

The Department of State intends to increase its support for Cuba's embattled activists and will continue to pursue aggressively in the UN and other international fora, as well as in diplomatic contacts with other countries, a policy of focusing attention on the need for democracy and improvement in the human rights situation in Cuba. On December 28, the UN General Assembly passed a U.S.-drafted resolution condemning systematic human rights abuses in Cuba. A similar U.S.-drafted resolution which extended the Special Rapporteur's mandate was adopted on March 7 by the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva. The United States took the lead in deploring in the strongest terms the ramming and sinking by Cuban Government vessels of the tugboat "13th of March" on July 13, 1994, which resulted in the deaths of at least 40 people.

The Department detailed at length in its Country Report on Human Rights Practices for 1994, submitted to the Congress on January 31, the deplorable state of basic freedoms in Cuba. Our findings of repression, of arbitrary arrest, and harassment of democratic opposition figures are echoed in the Report on the Situation of Human Rights in Cuba, submitted to the UN Human Rights Commission by Special Rapporteur Groth. Numerous other impartial and expert studies, including the 1994 report of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and a Human Rights Watch report, are critical of the Cuban regime.

In a region where democratic reform and economic liberalization are fast becoming the norm, Castro's anachronistic policies and iron-fisted repression have provoked strong criticism from Latin American governments. Today, when Fidel Castro and Foreign Minister Robaina travel abroad, they hear the same message throughout the hemisphere and beyond: democratization and respect for human rights are urgently needed. The Rio Group, which includes some of the most important regional nations, publicly called, in September 1994, for "a peaceful transition to a democratic and pluralistic system which respects human rights and freedom of opinion." Similarly, at the June 1994 Ibero-American Summit at Cartagena, Colombia, at which 20 democracies and Cuba were present, one head of state after another lamented the lack of democracy in Cuba. In December 1994, the regional consensus was that only Cuba, the lone non-democratic state in the entire region, should be excluded from the first Summit of the Americas. While we have been pleased at the increased willingness by many countries to speak out for democratic reform and respect for human rights in Cuba, increased diplomatic and economic engagement with the regime has, so far, shown no evidence of hastening democratic change there. As I indicated before, we believe that there should be a broadening of contact, not with the Government of Cuba, but with those valiant individuals and organizations struggling for democratic change.

The Cuban Democracy Act

Mr. Chairman, earlier I described our concerted effort to mobilize international pressure to encourage the Cuban Government to reform, to create democratic openings, to respect human rights, and to liberalize its economy. In the UN, the OAS, regional gatherings, and international fora our message is clear and understood. But this is only a small part of our effort to force Castro to recognize that he must change and end his totalitarian rule and communist aspirations which history has demonstrated are unjust, unworkable, and unsustainable.