CASTRO’S BRUTAL CRACKDOWN ON DISSIDENTS HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES ONE HUNDRED EIGHTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION APRIL 16, 2003 Serial No. 108–32 Printed for the use of the Committee on International Relations ( Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.house.gov/international—relations U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 86–566PDF WASHINGTON : 2003 For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office Internet: bookstore.gpo.gov Phone: toll free (866) 512–1800; DC area (202) 512–1800 Fax: (202) 512–2250 Mail: Stop SSOP, Washington, DC 20402–0001 VerDate Mar 21 2002 16:30 Aug 27, 2003 Jkt 086566 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 F:\WORK\FULL\041603\86566 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS HENRY J. HYDE, Illinois, Chairman JAMES A. LEACH, Iowa TOM LANTOS, California DOUG BEREUTER, Nebraska HOWARD L. BERMAN, California CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH, New Jersey, GARY L. ACKERMAN, New York Vice Chairman ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA, American DAN BURTON, Indiana Samoa ELTON GALLEGLY, California DONALD M. PAYNE, New Jersey ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN, Florida ROBERT MENENDEZ, New Jersey CASS BALLENGER, North Carolina SHERROD BROWN, Ohio DANA ROHRABACHER, California BRAD SHERMAN, California EDWARD R. ROYCE, California ROBERT WEXLER, Florida PETER T. KING, New York ELIOT L. ENGEL, New York STEVE CHABOT, Ohio WILLIAM D. DELAHUNT, Massachusetts AMO HOUGHTON, New York GREGORY W. MEEKS, New York JOHN M. MCHUGH, New York BARBARA LEE, California THOMAS G. TANCREDO, Colorado JOSEPH CROWLEY, New York RON PAUL, Texas JOSEPH M. HOEFFEL, Pennsylvania NICK SMITH, Michigan EARL BLUMENAUER, Oregon JOSEPH R. PITTS, Pennsylvania SHELLEY BERKLEY, Nevada JEFF FLAKE, Arizona GRACE F. NAPOLITANO, California JO ANN DAVIS, Virginia ADAM B. SCHIFF, California MARK GREEN, Wisconsin DIANE E. WATSON, California JERRY WELLER, Illinois ADAM SMITH, Washington MIKE PENCE, Indiana BETTY MCCOLLUM, Minnesota THADDEUS G. MCCOTTER, Michigan CHRIS BELL, Texas WILLIAM J. JANKLOW, South Dakota KATHERINE HARRIS, Florida THOMAS E. MOONEY, SR., Staff Director/General Counsel ROBERT R. KING, Democratic Staff Director TED BRENNAN, Professional Staff Member, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere CALEB MCCARRY, Staff Director, Subcommittee on Western Hemisphere LIBERTY DUNN, Staff Associate (II) VerDate Mar 21 2002 16:30 Aug 27, 2003 Jkt 086566 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\041603\86566 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL C O N T E N T S Page WITNESSES The Honorable Lorne W. Craner, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor, U.S. Department of State ....................................... 10 The Honorable Kim R. Holmes, Assistant Secretary, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, U.S. Department of State ............................................... 13 The Honorable J. Curtis Struble, Acting Assistant Secretary, Bureau of West- ern Hemisphere Affairs, U.S. Department of State .......................................... 17 Karen Harbert-Mitchell, Deputy Assistant Administrator, Bureau for Latin America and the Caribbean, U.S. Agency for International Development ..... 21 Ramon Humberto Colas, Founder, Independent Libraries of Cuba .................... 53 Ramon Antunez Gonzalez, Leader of Christian Liberation Movement ............... 58 Eudel Cepero Varela, Cuban dissident .................................................................. 60 Michael Royal, University of Virginia Law Student recently returned from meeting with Cuban dissident leaders later jailed ............................................ 63 Jose Miguel Vivanco, Executive Director, Americas Division, Human Rights Watch .................................................................................................................... 73 Frank Calzon, Executive Director, Center for a Free Cuba ................................. 76 Carlos Lauria, Americas Program Coordinator, Committee to Protect Journal- ists ......................................................................................................................... 81 Christopher Sabatini, Senior Program Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean, National Endowment for Democracy .............................................. 84 LETTERS, STATEMENTS, ETC., SUBMITTED FOR THE HEARING The Honorable Christopher H. Smith, a Representative in Congress from the State of New Jersey, and Vice Chairman, Committee on International Relations: Prepared statement ............................................................................ 4 The Honorable Lorne W. Craner: Prepared statement ........................................ 12 The Honorable Kim R. Holmes: Prepared statement ........................................... 15 The Honorable J. Curtis Struble: Prepared statement ......................................... 19 Karen Harbert-Mitchell: Prepared statement ....................................................... 23 Questions for the record submitted to the Honorable J. Curtis Struble by the Honorable Frank Wolf, a Representative in Congress from the State of Virginia, and Mr. Struble’s responses ............................................................ 29 Ramon Humberto Colas: Prepared statement ....................................................... 56 Ramon Antunez Gonzalez: Prepared statement ................................................... 59 Eudel Cepero Varela: Prepared statement ............................................................ 62 Michael Royal: Prepared statement ....................................................................... 66 Frank Calzon: Prepared statement ........................................................................ 78 Carlos Lauria: Prepared statement ........................................................................ 82 Christopher Sabatini: Prepared statement ............................................................ 87 APPENDIX The Honorable Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida: Prepared statement ................................................................. 95 The Honorable Lincoln Diaz-Balart, a Representative in Congress from the State of Florida: Prepared statement ................................................................. 96 Additional materials submitted for the record by Carlos Lauria ........................ 97 (III) VerDate Mar 21 2002 16:30 Aug 27, 2003 Jkt 086566 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\041603\86566 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL VerDate Mar 21 2002 16:30 Aug 27, 2003 Jkt 086566 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 F:\WORK\FULL\041603\86566 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL CASTRO’S BRUTAL CRACKDOWN ON DISSIDENTS WEDNESDAY, APRIL 16, 2003 HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, COMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Washington, DC. The Committee met, pursuant to call, at 2 p.m., in Room 2172, Rayburn House Office Building, Hon. Christopher H. Smith (Vice Chairman of the Committee) presiding. Mr. SMITH OF NEW JERSEY. This hearing of the Committee on International Relations will come to order, and good afternoon. Even some of the most outspoken leftists, who once saw some- thing in Fidel Castro to admire, now admit that Castro’s unbridled cruelty, thirst for blood and extreme paranoia are indefensible. Writing in the Spanish newspaper, El Pais, Nobel Prize winner Jose Sarampo, a Portuguese Communist and close friend of Castro said a few days ago, and I quote, ‘‘Cuba has won no heroic victory by executing these three men, but it has lost my confidence, damaged my hopes and robbed me of illusions.’’ Without anything that resembles due process, three alleged ferry hijackers were killed by firing squad in Cuba on Friday, while oth- ers got long jail terms. Illusions, as Castro lover Jose Sarampo only now acknowledges, often persist despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. No- where has this been more evident than in the case of Castro’s Cuba. Despite decades of credible reports of widespread egregious viola- tions of human rights, including pervasive use of torture and vi- cious beatings of political prisoners by the Cuban Government, some have clung to indefensibly foolish illusions of Castro’s revolu- tion. Despite the fact that the Cuban government systematically de- nies its people the freedoms of speech, press, assembly, and asso- ciation, and severely restricts workers’ rights including the right to form independent trade unions, some have, nevertheless, clung to illusion. Despite the fact that Castro maintains an unimaginably vast net- work of surveillance by the thugs in his secret police and by the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDRs)—neighbors spying on neighbors—some continue to embrace illusions about Cuba. (1) VerDate Mar 21 2002 16:30 Aug 27, 2003 Jkt 086566 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 F:\WORK\FULL\041603\86566 HINTREL1 PsN: SHIRL 2 In his book, Against All Hope, a Memoir of Life in Castro’s Gulags, Armando Valladares, a courageous and amazing man who spent 22 years in Cuban prisons, wrote, ‘‘The government of Cuba and the defenders of the Cuban Revolution denied that the incidents that I recount in my book ever happened. Castro’s sympathizers, who were more subtle, said the incidents I described were exaggerations. And there were others, well-meaning, who simply could not bring them- selves to believe that such horrors, crimes and torture existed in the political prisons of Cuba.’’ Armando Valladares goes on to say, ‘‘My response to those who still try to justify Castro’s tyranny with the excuse that