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The world - the country - witnessed unprecedented images from Cuba this past Sunday. In 62 years of communist tyranny on the island, we have never seen, nor has anything like what we are now witnessing occurred. In over 40 cities, people took to the streets spontaneously, not in an organized manner, to demand the end of this tyranny. I believe it is important for many people who are new to the subject to understand what it means and what it is about.
The first lesson we must take away is that Marxism and socialism do not work. The way socialism, the way Marxism has always operated, the way it has always sought power, is by going to the people and immediately dividing them. It states that there is an oppressing class and that a victim class exists, with these evil oppressors, the capitalists; this is how traditional socialism or Marxism oppresses the victims.
What the victims need to do is grant us power in the government to deal with these oppressors, to go after these oppressors. And if they give us that power, we will provide them with security; we will protect them from the oppressors. They seek security in exchange for freedom. That is always the price that socialism demands: security. And the result is a country full of people who hate and resent each other. A significant portion of the people in the country must leave, must flee, or end up in prison because they belong to the oppressor class; their lives are destroyed, their family lives are shattered.
But socialism cannot provide security. And when it cannot offer security, freedom is not regained. In fact, when you start to complain about this, that’s when repression occurs. That is what has happened in Cuba.
Socialism and Marxism have done in Cuba what they have done everywhere in the world where they have been attempted to impose. It has failed. They were told to give up their freedom, or were promised: "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 says: "Give up your freedom in exchange for economic security." What economic security? People are hungry; houses are crumbling. 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, you are forced, to go abroad and work essentially for slave wages, hardly any pay at all. It is basically human trafficking, as our own State Department discovered when it examined 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 needs to suppress the people who complain about the system. Freedom is not recovered. And as socialists always do, 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. Immediately, you become a counter-revolutionary. You are instantly a pawn of the imperialists.
And then, of course, they always blame the United States. The problem in Cuba for the regime 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 are Cuban fishermen and farmers not allowed to fish or grow things and sell them to the 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 so. In fact, U.S. law allows us to trade and do business with independently owned small businesses in Cuba.
Do you know why Cubans cannot have small businesses? It's not the embargo, it's not the United States; it's the regime that doesn't allow it. People see these lies. How can they afford to build luxury hotels, four-star accommodations, world-class facilities for tourists, yet they cannot take care of the dilapidated houses where Cubans live, with roofs that literally collapse over their heads? How can one explain the water that leaks 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. When an American, a Cuban American, used to send money to their families in Cuba through Western Union in the past, the regime would keep 10 percent of the transfer. Then, they take those dollars you sent, force Cubans to convert them into a worthless currency, keep the dollars, and guess what—if you want to buy something, you have to purchase it from a government store, and guess what price the government store sells things at. In foreign currency.
That's not the embargo. It's the Cuban regime that does that. And who is it that puts people in jail, that cracks your head open, that breaks down your door in the middle of the night? There are 80 people missing today, at least 80 people, disappeared overnight. Their families don't know where they are. It's not the embargo that is imprisoning people. It's the regime. And that's what I tell people. They can open everything they want. We can pass a bill here that says open to Cuba, one hundred percent open. They can do whatever they want. Full trade, freely, 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. Want to do tourism? We tried it in 2015 with Obama's changes. And do you know what they did? They said, "Thank you. We love having you come here as tourists." Guess what? All tourist sites are owned by a holding called GAESA, controlled by the Cuban military, so everything goes through the hands of the regime.
Do you want to send them food? That’s great. Guess who receives it. ALIMPORT, which is a government-owned company, owned by the military. 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’ll take it. Do you know why? Because socialism is based on control. And all of 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? But also, 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 conform, 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 are doing. They will use anything as a weapon against the people of Cuba.
"What can we do?" is what people want to know.
First of all, I hope we all understand which side we are on. There's no need to agree with anything I've said. What we do need to agree on is that people from anywhere in the world, even 90 miles from our shores, should be allowed to go out on the street, march peacefully, call for an end to the dictatorship, and not be hit in the head.
By the way, no one in Cuba has weapons, except for the military, so why are these repressive forces carrying these rifles while people are being shot? They are shooting at people 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 are going to change. There will be no change in sanctions as a result of this. On the contrary. I hope that the Biden administration announces now that it has concluded its review of the policy towards Cuba and that everything currently in place will be maintained.
Unrestricted internet
Third question. As we change policy, I hope we make it a top priority to ensure that the people of Cuba 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 and free access to the Internet – the first thing the regime shut down yesterday was the Internet – they can communicate with each other, receive information, and connect with the world. It's just 90 miles from our shores. We should be able to do this.
Number four: for all those who believe and have faith in the international community - and I still hold onto the hope that it will function again one day - where is Spain? Where is the European Union? Where are all those countries that for years have provided support and protection to the Cuban regime and have condemned 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 use our position of strength and power in the world and our influence in diplomatic circles to make it happen.
And number five: I hope President Biden is very clear with the regime in Cuba that we will not tolerate them encouraging a massive migration event. I warn you that this is what they do. They have already done it twice. Things get bad, and 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 throwing themselves into the sea heading to the United States.
They have used that against us twice. They did it in 1994, and they did it in 1980 with the maritime bridge at Mariel, and President Biden needs to be clear—whether through private channels or stating it publicly—that we will consider the encouragement of mass migration to the United States as a hostile action and we will act accordingly. That cannot be tolerated.
I acknowledge that the majority of Senate members, most people here in Washington, and frankly, most people in the country do not pay daily attention to Cuba. I get it, truly. But if they do not follow the issue of Cuba, they can be forgiven for not knowing that what we are witnessing, what we saw yesterday, what we are seeing today, what has happened recently, none of this was initiated by politicians. I did not start it. It was not initiated by anyone in Miami or Florida. It was not started by any think tank in Washington. Nor was it 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 are the ones who began it. The San Isidro Movement. Because the regime came after them. And there is a song—many people do not realize that there was a song that came out earlier this year—a song that, by the way, if you sing it in Cuba, you could end up in prison. The name of the song is "Patria y Vida." The motto of the Cuban regime is "Patria o Muerte," which means "homeland or death." This song plays on that: "Patria y Vida," which means homeland and life, instead of homeland or death.
And the song is extraordinarily powerful because it was written by people and sung by those who have lived this reality and are still living it. It is so powerful, as I mentioned, that you could end up in jail in Cuba for singing it. What the song basically says 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’s no embargo on the Cuban regime and its relatives. Why can luxury hotels be built while our homes are falling apart? Why do Cubans have to endure the indignities, the indignities of such simple things 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 dominoes - dominoes is a very popular game played by Cubans.
The chorus says: "It’s over. Your fifty-nine, I’m double two / It’s over. Sixty years blocking the domino." Essentially, this translates to: "It’s over. You’re 59 years old, which means 1959, the year Castro took power, but I have double two." Everyone knows that in the game of dominoes, when there are no more tiles left to play, the game is blocked and the tiles are counted to see who has won. So it says, "It’s over. You have 59, but I have double two. It’s over. Sixty years of the domino game being blocked for us."
I know this is a very colloquial Cuban way of expressing it, but it's incredibly powerful. People in Cuba understand what it means: that all this ideology, everything they talk about, the regime’s lies that used to work so well, people no longer believe them, and they are no longer afraid.
Meanwhile, their lives are ruined. Young people in Cuba, Cuban artists realize that the only country on this planet where Cubans do not succeed is Cuba, and they are tired of it. And 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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