§ 6021. — Findings.
[Laws in effect as of January 24, 2002]
[Document not affected by Public Laws enacted between
January 24, 2002 and December 19, 2002]
[CITE: 22USC6021]
TITLE 22--FOREIGN RELATIONS AND INTERCOURSE
CHAPTER 69A--CUBAN LIBERTY AND DEMOCRATIC SOLIDARITY (LIBERTAD)
Sec. 6021. Findings
The Congress makes the following findings:
(1) The economy of Cuba has experienced a decline of at least 60
percent in the last 5 years as a result of--
(A) the end of its subsidization by the former Soviet Union
of between 5 billion and 6 billion dollars annually;
(B) 36 years of communist tyranny and economic mismanagement
by the Castro government;
(C) the extreme decline in trade between Cuba and the
countries of the former Soviet bloc; and
(D) the stated policy of the Russian Government and the
countries of the former Soviet bloc to conduct economic
relations with Cuba on strictly commercial terms.
(2) At the same time, the welfare and health of the Cuban people
have substantially deteriorated as a result of this economic decline
and the refusal of the Castro regime to permit free and fair
democratic elections in Cuba.
(3) The Castro regime has made it abundantly clear that it will
not engage in any substantive political reforms that would lead to
democracy, a market economy, or an economic recovery.
(4) The repression of the Cuban people, including a ban on free
and fair democratic elections, and continuing violations of
fundamental human rights, have isolated the Cuban regime as the only
completely nondemocratic government in the Western Hemisphere.
(5) As long as free elections are not held in Cuba, the economic
condition of the country and the welfare of the Cuban people will
not improve in any significant way.
(6) The totalitarian nature of the Castro regime has deprived
the Cuban people of any peaceful means to improve their condition
and has led thousands of Cuban citizens to risk or lose their lives
in dangerous attempts to escape from Cuba to freedom.
(7) Radio Marti and Television Marti have both been effective
vehicles for providing the people of Cuba with news and information
and have helped to bolster the morale of the people of Cuba living
under tyranny.
(8) The consistent policy of the United States towards Cuba
since the beginning of the Castro regime, carried out by both
Democratic and Republican administrations, has sought to keep faith
with the people of Cuba, and has been effective in sanctioning the
totalitarian Castro regime.
(9) The United States has shown a deep commitment, and considers
it a moral obligation, to promote and protect human rights and
fundamental freedoms as expressed in the Charter of the United
Nations and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
(10) The Congress has historically and consistently manifested
its solidarity and the solidarity of the American people with the
democratic aspirations of the Cuban people.
(11) The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 [22 U.S.C. 6001 et seq.]
calls upon the President to encourage the governments of countries
that conduct trade with Cuba to restrict their trade and credit
relations with Cuba in a manner consistent with the purposes of that
Act.
(12) Amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 [22 U.S.C.
2151 et seq.] made by the FREEDOM Support Act require that the
President, in providing economic assistance to Russia and the
emerging Eurasian democracies, take into account the extent to which
they are acting to ``terminate support for the communist regime in
Cuba, including removal of troops, closing military facilities, and
ceasing trade subsidies and economic, nuclear, and other
assistance''.
(13) The Cuban Government engages in the illegal international
narcotics trade and harbors fugitives from justice in the United
States.
(14) The Castro government threatens international peace and
security by engaging in acts of armed subversion and terrorism such
as the training and supplying of groups dedicated to international
violence.
(15) The Castro government has utilized from its inception and
continues to utilize torture in various forms (including by
psychiatry), as well as execution, exile, confiscation, political
imprisonment, and other forms of terror and repression, as means of
retaining power.
(16) Fidel Castro has defined democratic pluralism as
``pluralistic garbage'' and continues to make clear that he has no
intention of tolerating the democratization of Cuban society.
(17) The Castro government holds innocent Cubans hostage in Cuba
by no fault of the hostages themselves solely because relatives have
escaped the country.
(18) Although a signatory state to the 1928 Inter-American
Convention on Asylum and the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (which protects the right to leave one's own
country), Cuba nevertheless surrounds embassies in its capital by
armed forces to thwart the right of its citizens to seek asylum and
systematically denies that right to the Cuban people, punishing them
by imprisonment for seeking to leave the country and killing them
for attempting to do so (as demonstrated in the case of the
confirmed murder of over 40 men, women, and children who were
seeking to leave Cuba on July 13, 1994).
(19) The Castro government continues to utilize blackmail, such
as the immigration crisis with which it threatened the United States
in the summer of 1994, and other unacceptable and illegal forms of
conduct to influence the actions of sovereign states in the Western
Hemisphere in violation of the Charter of the Organization of
American States and other international agreements and international
law.
(20) The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has
repeatedly reported on the unacceptable human rights situation in
Cuba and has taken the extraordinary step of appointing a Special
Rapporteur.
(21) The Cuban Government has consistently refused access to the
Special Rapporteur and formally expressed its decision not to
``implement so much as one comma'' of the United Nations Resolutions
appointing the Rapporteur.
(22) The United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 47-
139 on December 18, 1992, Resolution 48-142 on December 20, 1993,
and Resolution 49-200 on December 23, 1994, referencing the Special
Rapporteur's reports to the United Nations and condemning violations
of human rights and fundamental freedoms in Cuba.
(23) Article 39 of Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter
provides that the United Nations Security Council ``shall determine
the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of the peace, or
act of aggression and shall make recommendations, or decide what
measures shall be taken . . ., to maintain or restore international
peace and security.
(24) The United Nations has determined that massive and
systematic violations of human rights may constitute a ``threat to
peace'' under Article 39 and has imposed sanctions due to such
violations of human rights in the cases of Rhodesia, South Africa,
Iraq, and the former Yugoslavia.
(25) In the case of Haiti, a neighbor of Cuba not as close to
the United States as Cuba, the United States led an effort to obtain
and did obtain a United Nations Security Council embargo and
blockade against that country due to the existence of a military
dictatorship in power less than 3 years.
(26) United Nations Security Council Resolution 940 of July 31,
1994, subsequently authorized the use of ``all necessary means'' to
restore the ``democratically elected government of Haiti'', and the
democratically elected government of Haiti was restored to power on
October 15, 1994.
(27) The Cuban people deserve to be assisted in a decisive
manner to end the tyranny that has oppressed them for 36 years, and
the continued failure to do so constitutes ethically improper
conduct by the international community.
(28) For the past 36 years, the Cuban Government has posed and
continues to pose a national security threat to the United States.
(Pub. L. 104-114, Sec. 2, Mar. 12, 1996, 110 Stat. 786.)
References in Text
The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, referred to in par. (11), is title
XVII of div. A of Pub. L. 102-484, Oct. 23, 1992, 106 Stat. 2575, which
is classified principally to chapter 69 (Sec. 6001 et seq.) of this
title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short
Title note set out under section 6001 of this title and Tables.
The Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, referred to in par. (12), is
Pub. L. 87-195, Sept. 4, 1961, 75 Stat. 424, as amended, which is
classified principally to chapter 32 (Sec. 2151 et seq.) of this title.
For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see Short Title
note set out under section 2151 of this title and Tables.
The FREEDOM Support Act, referred to in par. (12), is Pub. L. 102-
511, Oct. 24, 1992, 106 Stat. 3320, as amended, also known as the
Freedom for Russia and Emerging Eurasian Democracies and Open Markets
Support Act of 1992. For complete classification of this Act to the
Code, see Short Title note set out under section 5801 of this title and
Tables.
Short Title
Section 1(a) of Pub. L. 104-114 provided that: ``This Act [enacting
this chapter and sections 1643l and 1643m of this title, amending
sections 2295a, 2295b, 2370, 6003, and 6004 of this title, section 1611
of Title 28, Judiciary and Judicial Procedure, and section 16 of Title
50, Appendix, War and National Defense, repealing sections 1465 to
1465f, 1465aa to 1465ff, 6003, and 6005 of this title, amending
provisions set out as a note under section 1446g of Title 7,
Agriculture, and repealing provisions set out as notes under sections
1465, 1465c, and 1465aa of this title] may be cited as the `Cuban
Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996'.''
