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TESTIMONY OF SYLVIA G.
IRIONDO
PRESIDENT OF MOTHERS AND WOMEN AGAINST REPRESSION
(M.A.R. POR CUBA)
COMMITTEE ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
SUBCOMMITTEE ON INTERNATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS,
HUMAN RIGHTS AND OVERSIGHT
SEPTEMBER 18, 2008
(AS READ)
Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and members of
the Subcommittee. I am most grateful for this opportunity to speak on
such an important issue.
Today, Cuba is facing two monumental
disasters:
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The natural
disasters caused by hurricanes Gustav and Ike, and,
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The man-made
disaster brought about by nearly 50 years of totalitarian rule and
neglect under a brutal dictatorship intent on remaining in power at
all costs, and responsible for the thousands of Cuban families torn
apart.
The devastation caused by hurricanes Gustav
and Ike stretches across the island – from east to west and north to
south.
The damage inflicted by the force of these
powerful hurricanes requires nothing short of massive disaster relief
assistance.
The U.S. government has generously offered
to provide massive humanitarian assistance to the victims. But the Cuban
regime – incapable of addressing the needs of the Cuban people – has
repeatedly rejected U.S. offers. Instead, they are demanding the
suspension, at least temporarily, of the trade embargo so that they may
buy from U.S. companies on credit. The only one that stands to gain
from easing restrictions is the Cuban regime.
The tragedy that the Cuban people face in
the aftermath of Gustav and Ike should not be utilized as yet another
argument to promote the partial, total or temporary lifting of
restrictions. Nor should it be used to advance a political agenda in the
upcoming U.S. elections.
The situation in Cuba is such that even if
the travel restrictions were lifted, little would be accomplished in
terms of providing the massive assistance the Cuban people need.
Of the Cubans residing in the U.S., not many
would be able to travel immediately given the required documentation and
the high fees charged.
Families are torn apart – and will remain
so – but not by the U.S. sanctions, but by the actions of the Cuban
regime.
The lifting of travel restrictions would
result in a selective process – feasible only for those who have
financial possibility and beneficial only for those Cubans with
relatives in the United States.
Should the restrictions be lifted, the Cuban
regime would generate a considerable amount of additional resources
which, as time and history have proven, would be used to increase
repression against the civic resistance movement and to solidify the
regime’s stay in power, denying the freedom Cuban people have struggled
so hard for so long during almost half a century under the yoke of
oppression.
Lost in the din of the debate are the
reasons for which these sanctions were rightly instituted and why they
must remain in place.
The 2004 sanctions were imposed following
the March 2003 violent wave of repression that resulted in the arbitrary
arrests, summary trials, prison sentences of up to 28 years for more
than 75 human rights and pro-democracy activists; and the execution by
firing squad of three young men who attempted to flee Cuba.
Today, over 50 of this group of prisoners
remain in prison under inhumane conditions.
Restrictions facilitate a process of
internal democratization to aid Cuba’s opposition movement channel the
aspirations for change of an overwhelming majority of the Cuban people.
Proponents of the lifting of sanctions
insist that the restrictions serve to keep Cuban families torn apart.
Not so.
Families torn apart are the parents of those
U.S. citizens who were shot down by Cuban Air Force MIGs on February 24,
1996 while conducting a humanitarian search and rescue flight in
international airspace in the Florida Straits to save Cubans fleeing the
island in fragile rafts. (I know. I was aboard the only plane that
returned and made it home on that day).
Families torn apart are the relatives and
children of political prisoners who cannot have their loved ones at
home.
Families torn apart are the victims of
crimes continually perpetrated by this regime, such as the massacre of
the 13th of March Tugboat on July 13, 1994.
Those are families torn apart by a ruthless
regime that aims to control every aspect of its citizens’ lives and
tramples upon inalienable God-given rights.
Regrettably, Cuba’s regime continues to
refuse humanitarian assistance from the United States. It is not the
time to unilaterally lift these sanctions, but the time to exert
international pressure on the regime to allow humanitarian assistance to
reach all the Cuban people – 11 million of them – and to stand
with the people of Cuba in their unwavering determination to be free.
Freedom has a price. Many Cubans have
been willing to pay that price with their lives and their best years in
prison.
Mr. Chairman and members of the
Subcommittee:
It is not U.S. law that
needs to be changed; it’s the Cuban regime!
Thank-you! |
