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The world – the country – witnessed truly unprecedented images of Cuba this past Sunday. In 62 years of communist tyranny on the island, we have never seen, nor has anything like what we are witnessing now ever occurred. In over 40 cities, people spontaneously took to the streets, not in an organized manner, to demand the end of that tyranny. I believe it is important for many who are new to this issue to understand what it means and what it entails.
The first lesson we must draw is that Marxism, socialism, does not work. The way socialism, the way Marxism has always functioned, the way it has always empowered itself, is by going to the people and immediately dividing them. It claims that there is an oppressive class and a victim class, portraying the capitalists as the evil oppressors. This is how traditional socialism or Marxism oppresses the victims.
What the victims need to do is give us the power in government to deal with these oppressors, to go after these oppressors. And if they grant us that power, we will provide them with safety; we will protect them from the oppressors. They ask for security in exchange for freedom. That is always the price that socialism demands: security. And the result is a country filled with people who hate each other, who are angry. A significant portion of the population has to leave, has to flee; they go to prison because they are the oppressive class, their lives are destroyed, their family lives are shattered.
But socialism cannot provide security. And when it cannot offer security, freedom cannot be regained. In fact, when you begin to complain about this, that is when repression arrives. That is what has happened in Cuba.
Socialism and Marxism have done in Cuba what they have done in all parts of the world where they have tried to impose themselves. They have failed. They either gave up their freedom or were told, "Give up your freedom in exchange for a world-class healthcare system." It is not a world-class healthcare system. In fact, it is a healthcare system that doesn't even have the capacity to treat COVID at its most basic level.
The Cuban government states: "Give up your freedom in exchange for economic security." What economic security? People are hungry; houses are falling apart. There is no economy. There is no real economy in Cuba. Give up your freedom and you will have education. Free education for all. That education, first and foremost, is what a doctor receives. You can drive a taxi in Cuba and earn more money. Or, alternatively, you are sent, basically forced, to go abroad and work under conditions similar to slave wages, hardly earning anything. It is essentially human trafficking, as our own State Department discovered when examining the program of Cuban doctors and the abuses that have been committed.
The failure of socialism
What has happened in Cuba is that socialism has failed. It has to repress the people who complain about the system. Freedom is not being restored. And as is always the case with socialists, they have to find someone to blame. And who do they blame? First and foremost, they blame anyone in the country who disagrees with them. You are immediately labeled a counter-revolutionary. You are instantly seen as a pawn of the imperialists.
And then, of course, they always blame the United States. The problem for the regime in Cuba is that people no longer buy into those lies. They don't. The first thing they blame is the embargo. They say the embargo is causing all of this. Why aren’t Cuban fishermen and farmers allowed to catch fish or grow crops and sell them to people? It’s not the embargo that prevents them from doing so. It’s the regime. Why can’t Cubans have a small business without having to answer to the government? Why can’t a Cuban do in Cuba what they can do in Miami, what they can do in Washington, what people do in countries all over the world? They can’t do it in Cuba. They can’t open a small business, import, and export without interference from state controls. It’s not the embargo that prevents them from doing it. In fact, U.S. law allows us to trade and do business with small independently owned Cuban enterprises.
Do you know why Cubans can't have small businesses? It's not the embargo, it’s not the United States; it's the regime that does not allow it. People see these lies. How can they afford to build luxury hotels, four-star establishments of world-class quality for tourists, while they cannot afford to take care of the crumbling houses where Cubans live, with roofs literally caving in over their heads? How can one explain the water seeping into the operating rooms of hospitals?
Look at what they do with the money. Oh, it's because they don't allow more money to be sent. In the past, when an American, a Cuban-American, sent money to their families in Cuba through Western Union, the regime kept 10 percent of the transfer. Then they take those dollars you sent, force Cubans to convert them into a worthless currency, keep the dollars for themselves, and guess what—if you want to buy something, you have to purchase it at a government store, and guess what prices the government store charges. Foreign currency.
That is not the embargo. It is the Cuban regime that does that. And who is it that puts people in jail, who cracks open your head, who kicks down your door in the middle of the night? There are 80 people missing today, at least 80 people, disappeared during the night. Their families don't know where they are. It is not the embargo that is imprisoning people. It is the regime. And that is what I tell people. They can open up as much as they want. We could pass a bill here that says open to Cuba, 100 percent open. They can do whatever they want. Full trade, free trade, you can do whatever you want.
In the hands of the regime
In the end, the Cuban regime will control that opening. It's not just about what we want to do; it's about what they want to do. Do you want to go tourism? We tried that in 2015 with Obama's changes. And you know what they did? They said, "Thank you. We love that you come here as tourists." Guess what? All the tourist sites are owned by a conglomerate called GAESA, which is controlled by the Cuban military, so everything goes through the regime's hands.
Do you want to send them food? That's great. Guess who receives it. ALIMPORT, which is a government-owned military company. It can't be sold to a small grocery store in Cuba or even to a food wholesaler. It goes to the Cuban government. Do you want to send money? They accept that too. Do you know why? Because socialism is based on control. And all these things—tourism, food, money, medicine—are about control.
Do you want humanitarian aid? Let's take it to the Red Cross... any of these banned NGOs in the world should be allowed in Cuba. They won't allow it. Because it's embarrassing for them. They have a world-class healthcare system: why do they need humanitarian aid? Moreover, because they want to control it. Send them vaccines. But if you put it in their hands, the government, the regime, guess who gets the vaccines? ... First, the regime's elites, then those who behave submissively. If you don't comply, if you disagree with what they want you to do, you won’t receive the vaccine.
They will use any opening as a tool, as a weapon against their people, because that is what socialism does. That is what these Marxists in Cuba do. They will use anything as a weapon against the Cuban people.
"What can we do?" is what people want to know.
First of all, I hope we are all clear about which side we stand on. There's no need to agree with anything I’ve said. What we must agree on is that people from anywhere in the world, even 90 miles from our shores, should be allowed to take to the streets, march peacefully, call for the end of the dictatorship, and not be struck on the head.
By the way, no one in Cuba has weapons, except for the military, so why are these repressive forces carrying rifles and shooting at people? They are shooting at individuals who are literally unarmed... We must be clear in our language. We do not only condemn this tyranny; we condemn this communism, this Marxism, this socialism, this tyranny. Let’s call it what it is.
Number two, we must make it clear that none of the policies from the Trump era will change. There will be no changes to sanctions as a result of this. On the contrary, I hope the Biden administration will now announce that it has completed its review of the policy towards Cuba and that everything currently in place will be maintained.
Internet without restrictions
Third issue. As we change our policy, I hope that we make it a top priority to ensure that the Cuban people have unrestricted and free access to the Internet. The technology exists to achieve this with a satellite-based system. We should put the best minds to work on this because if the Cuban people have unrestricted access to the Internet—after all, the first thing the regime shut down yesterday was Internet—they can communicate with each other, receive information, and connect with the world. They are just 90 miles from our shores. We should be able to make this happen.
Number four: for all those who believe in and have faith in the international community—and I still hold out hope that it will function again one day—where is Spain? Where is the European Union? Where are all those countries that over the years have supported and protected the Cuban regime while condemning the United States? They should clearly state that what is happening there is wrong, that repression is wrong. We should come together to achieve this. We should leverage our strength and power in the world and our influence in diplomatic circles to make it happen.
And number five: I hope President Biden makes it very clear to the Cuban regime that we will not tolerate them fostering a mass migration event. I warn you that this is what they do. They have already done it twice. When situations worsen, they say: If you don’t lift the sanctions, if you don’t return to the policies of the Obama era, if you don’t get rid of the embargo, it’s inevitable: we will have 50,000 people setting out to sea heading to the United States.
They have used that against us twice. They did it in 1994 and again in 1980 with the Mariel boat lift. President Biden needs to be clear—whether through private channels or by stating it publicly—that we will consider encouraging mass migration to the United States as a hostile action and will respond accordingly. That cannot be tolerated.
I acknowledge that most members of the Senate, most people here in Washington, and frankly, most people in the country do not pay attention to Cuba on a daily basis. I understand that, truly. But if they aren't following the situation in Cuba, it’s understandable that they might not realize that what we are witnessing—what we saw yesterday, what we are seeing today, and what has happened recently—none of this was initiated by politicians. I didn't start it. It wasn't initiated by anyone in Miami or Florida. It wasn't started by any think tank in Washington. It wasn't even initiated by political activists in Cuba.
Homeland and life
Do you know who started what is happening in Cuba? The artists. Poets, singer-songwriters, writers, actors, musicians. They were the ones who initiated it. The San Isidro Movement. Because the regime came after them. And there’s a song—many people don’t realize that a song was released earlier this year—a song that, by the way, if you sing it in Cuba, you could end up in prison. The song is called "Patria y Vida." The motto of the Cuban regime is "Patria o Muerte," which means "homeland or death." This song plays with that: "Patria y Vida," meaning homeland and life, instead of homeland or death.
The song is extraordinarily powerful because it was written and sung by people who have lived and continue to live this reality. It is so powerful, as I mentioned, that you could go to jail in Cuba for singing it. What the song essentially conveys is: "Why can't people think differently and not be treated as enemies? Why is life so good for party members and their families, while the average Cuban has no food? It seems there is no embargo for the Cuban regime and its relatives. Why can luxurious hotels be built while our homes crumble? Why do Cubans have to endure the indignities of something as basic as not being able to wash with soap, not being able to use deodorant, not having toothpaste? Why must they suffer these indignities?"
The song also asks: who told the regime that Cuba belongs to them and only to them? Shouldn't it belong to the 13 million Cubans? The chorus plays with the game of dominoes, which is very popular among Cubans.
The chorus goes: "It's over. You’re five nine, I’m double two / It’s over. Sixty years blocking dominoes." Essentially, this translates to: "It's over. You are 59 years old, which means 1959, the year Castro came to power, but I have double two." Everyone knows that in the game of dominoes, when there are no more tiles to play, the game is blocked and the tiles are counted to see who wins. So it says, "It's over. You’re 59, but I have double two. It's over. Sixty years with the domino game blocked for us."
I know this is a very colloquial Cuban way of expressing it, but it is incredibly powerful. People in Cuba understand what that means: that all this ideology, everything they talk about, the lies of the regime that used to work so well, are no longer believed, and people are no longer afraid.
Meanwhile, their lives are in ruins. Young people in Cuba, Cuban artists realize that the only country on this planet where Cubans do not find success is Cuba, and they are tired of it. We must stand with them.
(Intervention before the full Senate to denounce the situation in Cuba and demand total support for the Cuban people).
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