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Dirksen Senate Office Building
October 17, 2002
The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Professor Jaime Suchlicki, presenters and participants in this seminar on Cuba transition planning:
It's a great honor for me, a Cuban exile and the son of Cuban exiles, to speak to you today, as the Assistant Administrator of the United States Agency for International Development.
At this landmark seminar of the University of Miami Cuba Transition Project, I want to discuss ways in which we can all work together as Americans to support President George Bush, Secretary of State Colin Powell, Assistant Secretary Otto Reich, USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios and the rest of the U.S. team in helping to plan a peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba.
There is no substitute for American leadership in defending democracy around the world.
There is no substitute for American leadership in promoting human rights and economic prosperity throughout the Western Hemisphere.
There is no substitute for American leadership in exposing the continuing human rights abuses and repression of the Castro regime in Cuba.
Despite a concerted propaganda campaign by the Cuban Government, Fidel Castro has not mellowed, and he is no friend of the United States. As President Bush stated in his speech to the American people on May 20 of this year, "Full normalization of relations with Cuba-diplomatic recognition, open trade, and a robust aid program-will only be possible when Cuba has a new government that is fully democratic, when the rule of law is respected, and when the human rights of all Cubans are fully protected." Make no mistake about it, the President's commitment to a free Cuba is unequivocal.
It is up to us, as Americans for a free Cuba, to lead and to continue to focus world attention on Fidel Castro's failed forty-three year old repressive dictatorship.
The Cuban people have suffered enough. Forty-three years of totalitarian tyranny and bungled central planning is enough. Now is the time for all of us and for all free men and women everywhere to redouble our efforts in solidarity with the peaceful democratic forces on that imprisoned island.
Now is the time to increase international pressure on the Castro regime, not to ease up. If Castro is sincere in his desire for international respect, he must earn that respect. He must stop throwing Cuban journalists and peaceful activists into prison, stop tolerating sexual tourism, stop promoting tourist apartheid, stop religious discrimination, abandon censorship, end his internal embargo of information, stop panhandling for international credits and other hand-outs, and permit others to carry forward a true transition to democracy in Cuba.
To those who would ease U.S. sanctions against the Castro regime, President Bush and those of us who serve in his Administration say: first, let the Castro regime release all Cuban political prisoners. Let the Castro regime stop denying religious freedom. Let the Castro regime lift restrictions on a free press. Let the Castro regime schedule free elections. Let the Castro regime permit constitutional reform, and a transition to democracy, with full respect for human rights.
However, if the Castro regime continues its repression, continues its refusal to reform, continues its refusal to respect fundamental human rights, continues to deny the International Committee of the Red Cross to inspect its prisons, continues its failed economic experiments, then we must accelerate and intensify our efforts to communicate directly with the Cuban people and with Cuba's nascent independent civil society, which will become the vital core around which Cuba's democratic transition will take place.
The United States Agency for International Development is proud of the USAID Cuba program and its sponsorship of the University of Miami's landmark Cuba Transition Project. This project is a vital part of our efforts to promote a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba and to prepare for assistance to a future transition government in Cuba.
In January of this year, on behalf of USAID, I presented the University of Miami with a check for $1,045,000 to initiate this program. I want to compliment Professor Jaime Suchlicki and his colleagues for the tremendous amount of work they have accomplished over the last nine months in developing the data bases, commissioning the papers and organizing the seminars that make this project so valuable. I must also thank Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart for their tireless efforts in promoting this novel project.
We all look forward to the day, not far in the future, when a Cuban transition government will help Cuba regain its rightful place in the ranks of free and prosperous nations.
As you know, the United States will only recognize a transition government in Cuba which satisfies the definition contained in U.S. legislation and specifically, Section 205 of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act of 1996.
Under that definition, a Cuban transition government is a government that has, among other things:
- legalized all political activity;
- released all political prisoners and allowed for investigations of Cuban prisons by appropriate international human rights organizations;
- made public commitments to organizing free and fair elections for a new government;
- made public commitments to and is making demonstrable progress in establishing an independent judiciary;
- made a commitment to respect internationally recognized human rights and basic freedoms as set forth in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to which Cuba is a signatory nation;
- and which does not include either Fidel or Raul Castro.
Once these conditions are met, The United States is prepared to step in itself and will enlist the efforts of other friends of freedom to offer to the transition government comprehensive and coordinated technical assistance and training programs to facilitate the transition to democracy.
The U.S. is prepared to offer a variety of assistance to a transition government during its early days when basic issues concerning stability and food security may be uppermost in people's minds.
Among other things, if requested, the United States will immediately send humanitarian assessment teams to Cuba to help the transition government evaluate the need for emergency food relief and other humanitarian assistance. These teams will recommend specific measures to address their findings.
If requested, the U.S. will also commission U.S. non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to manage large-scale public works projects in order to provide immediate jobs paid with food-for-work or cash-for-work to ensure basic income for families that are most at risk during the economic transition.
To help the transition government reduce levels of violent crime, the U.S. is also prepared to offer a food-for-weapons program, so that those who have access to firearms can turn them in to the government in exchange for food.
The U.S. will encourage a Cuban transition government to work with U.S. and international non-governmental organizations, with the Red Cross, and UN agencies. These groups should form their own coordination unit to engage government ministries with a single humanitarian voice.
If asked, we will provide assistance for the planning of free and fair multi-party elections and to help launch the process of restoring democratic governance in Cuba.
As Professor Jorge Dominguez has pointed out, constitutional change is necessary in Cuba. Mere constitutional change, however, is not sufficient for restoring democratic governance. The Cuban people will also require an accountable government, a government that respects human rights, a government that operates under the rule of law, with an independent judiciary which protects the rights of individuals, safeguards private property and enforces legal contracts. The U.S. will support a transition government that seeks to realize that vision.
Once democracy is restored to Cuba, the United States will respond immediately to requests for help in securing Cuba's social safety net. A Cuban transition government and a democratically-elected government will face serious challenges in maintaining social services. The U.S. can help the government expand and improve services in a sustainable manner so they become financially solvent.
In order to secure the social safety net, Cuba will require fundamental reforms in health care, education, and social security pensions. The country will require loans for housing construction, and the private sector can and must play a central role in all of these activities.
The United States will work with a Cuban transition government and with the international financial institutions to help attract the foreign direct investment required to transform the Cuban economy into a viable production and distribution system.
As Professor Carmelo Mesa-Lago has written, the core institutions of free enterprise-private property ownership, corporate governance, capital markets, convertible currencies, and international trade-are transferable to Cuba. These are enormously powerful instruments of economic development.
The United States is prepared to work with the international financial institutions and with other democracies to help a Cuban transition government begin to establish these core institutions, to permit private markets to operate competitively and without distortions, and to guarantee the right to effective and nondiscriminatory asset ownership and transfer.
Experience from elsewhere in Latin America, from Asia and the former Soviet Union, demonstrates that small- and micro-enterprise development is essential to the creation of a growing and sustainable economy that widely shares the benefits of growth.
If requested, USAID will provide technical assistance to help the Cuban transition government create an enabling environment for Cuban small-and micro-enterprise development.
Micro-enterprise lending programs, so successful throughout Latin America and the rest of the world, should be introduced in Cuba. U.S. non-governmental organizations and private firms can play a major role in developing micro-lending institutions on the island.
The collapse of Cuba's command economy--its sugar sector, its food production and distribution systems--mandates the privatization of state enterprises, promotion of foreign investment, and encouragement of Cuban entrepreneurial talent.
Under the Castro regime, the dismantling of state enterprises has already begun, with the forced closure of more than 70 state-owned and operated sugar mills. The displacement of thousands of sugar workers and their families will further increase unemployment and depress real wages.
For these and other Cuban workers, micro-, small- and medium-enterprise development can provide a critical employment option. A viable micro- and small business sector has the potential to redistribute income and political power in ways that spread material wealth and political influence over a broad spectrum of society. Micro- and small enterprise and entrepreneurial spirit are also important sources of innovation and technological change and an engine of economic development.
If requested, USAID will assist the Cuban transition government and its democratically-elected successor in the design and implementation of a fundamental land reform program, to return Cuba's agricultural lands to private ownership and sound management.
The U.S. will encourage the Cuban transition government to begin as soon as possible to put into place a legal, regulatory, and judicial framework that ensures that private markets operate competitively and without distortions.
There is much more that we, together, can do. The challenges are significant. Efforts to tackle them are past due. Let us now begin to plan for the day when a new government in Cuba shows itself dedicated to freeing the Cuban people to pursue their destiny.
Your discussions here this morning provide a vital starting point, and the Cuba Transition Project of the University of Miami can serve as the blueprint for the free Cuba of the future. Today you have discussed the key roles that education and civic values must play in the formation of a democratic Cuba. You have also discussed the need to combat corruption and the importance of establishing the rule of law under a democratic constitution.
This afternoon, you will examine the transition experience in Eastern Europe, in the attempt to find lessons that may help guide the Cuban transition.
These are all critically important issues, and it is important for you to examine them in an open forum. It is even more essential that you and we reach out to the Cuban people and to their true representatives-Cuba's human rights activists-to engage them in these discussions.
It is only when the Cuban people are able to enter into dialogue with each other and with the outside world on these and other critical issues that the Cuban transition to democracy will truly begin.
I want to congratulate you all for the passion, intelligence, and creativity with which you have approached your task, and for your insight and recommendations, and I want to thank the University of Miami and Dr. Suchlicki's team for its leadership and dedication in building a program that will continue to generate knowledge and debate on some of the most historic issues of our time.
Thank you.
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