Sec. 2. Findings; sense of Congress
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Congress finds the following: The Cuban Communist takeover of 1959 established in Cuba a one-party authoritarian state of the Cuban Communist Party. Cuba is a totalitarian state, in which the Cuban Communist Party has brutally oppressed the people of Cuba for more than 60 years. Cuban democracy activists, including Las Damas de Blanco (also known as Ladies in White ), a group composed of wives and relatives of political prisoners, prisoners of conscience, and peaceful activists in Cuba, are routinely repressed, censured, beaten, and unjustly imprisoned by the Cuban Communist Party.
On July 11, 2021, protesters marched in the streets throughout Cuba voicing their opposition against the communist regime of Cuba. During those protests, Cubans in more than 40 cities held demonstrations chanting Freedom! , Down with the Dictatorship! , and Patria y Vida ( Homeland and Life ). Through those protests, the people of Cuba demanded the end to communism in Cuba and access to food, medicine, water, and electricity, basic needs that the communist system in Cuba cannot provide.
Cubans gathered outside of the headquarters of the Cuban Communist Party chanting, Cuba isn’t yours! . In a clear message, Cubans exercised their fundamental God-given rights to peaceably assemble, express their political opinions, and live free of censorship and oppression and demanded the ruling elites, especially the Cuban Communist Party, release its control of their government and give the power back to the people. During the July 11, 2021, protests, the Cuban Communist Party deployed a wave of terror throughout Cuba by— unleashing its secret police and some military forces on peaceful protesters and unlawfully detained them, including by— harassing and threatening people in their homes; abducting and torturing civil society leaders and other Cubans peacefully exercising their fundamental rights; and detaining more than 800 Cubans for peacefully protesting, who have gone missing since the protests and demonstrations began, including leaders from Cuban civil society groups such as UNPACU, the San Isidro Movement, the Ladies in White, and religious leaders; and in a crude and savage effort to silence the Cuban people, cutting internet connectivity and mobile services throughout Cuba, which prevented the Cuban people from organizing and hid from the outside world images and videos of the oppressive and brutal crackdown by the Government of Cuba.
In response to these demonstrations and protests, the regime blocked access to social media, messaging platforms and cellular services, and arrested and detained hundreds of protesters, activists, and journalists, according to Cuban human rights groups. The Human Rights Report on Cuba for 2020 set forth by the Department of State found that Cuba is an authoritarian state. A new constitution ratified in February 2019 codified that Cuba remains a one-party system in which the Cuban Communist Party is the only legal political party.
Elections in Cuba were neither free, fair, nor competitive. The Ministry of Interior of Cuba (MININT) controls police, internal security forces, and the prison system. The National Revolutionary Police are the primary law enforcement organization of the Ministry. Specialized units of the state security branch of the Ministry are responsible for monitoring, infiltrating, and suppressing independent political activity. The national leadership of Cuba, including members of the military, maintain effective control over the security forces.
Members of the security forces have committed numerous abuses. Significant human rights issues in Cuba include the following: Unlawful or arbitrary killings by the Government of Cuba, including extrajudicial killings. Forced disappearances by the Government of Cuba. Torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment of political dissidents, detainees, and prisoners by security forces. Harsh and life-threatening prison conditions. Arbitrary arrests and detentions. The detaining of political prisoners.
Significant problems with the independence of the judiciary. Arbitrary or unlawful interference with privacy. Functional lack of freedom of the press, as criminal libel laws are used against persons who criticize leadership of the Government of Cuba and that Government has engaged in censorship and internet site blocking. Severe limitations on academic and cultural freedom. Severe restrictions on the right of peaceful assembly and denial of freedom of association, including refusal to recognize independent associations.
Severe restrictions on religious freedom. Restrictions on internal and external freedom of movement. Inability of citizens to change their government through free and fair elections. Restrictions on political participation to members of the ruling party. Corruption by officials of the Government of Cuba. Trafficking in persons, including compulsory labor. Outlawing of independent trade unions. Officials of the Government of Cuba, at the direction of their superiors, have committed most human rights abuses.
As a matter of policy, officials failed to investigate or prosecute the individuals who committed those abuses. Impunity for the perpetrators has remained widespread. The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom recommended in its 2021 Annual Report that the United States Government again place Cuba on the special watch list under section 402(b)(1)(A)(iii) of the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 ( 22 U.S.C. 6442(b)(1)(A)(iii) ) and recommended imposing sanctions on the Office of Religious Affairs of Cuba.
In the report specified in paragraph (15), the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom raised concerns regarding the denial in Cuba of religious freedom for human rights activists, independent journalists, and protesters, particularly in the wake of demonstrations that started on November 13, 2020, calling for greater freedom of expression in Cuba. Cuba was ground zero for a series of yet unexplained attacks in 2016 on members of the diplomatic community of the United States in Havana, Cuba.
Cuba continues to provide safe harbor for adversaries of the United States, including multiple fugitives from justice in the United States, including William Morales, Charles Hill, Victor Manuel Gerena, and Joanne Chesimard, who executed New Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster during a routine traffic stop in May 1973. The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 ( 22 U.S.C. 7201 et seq. ) prohibits the President from imposing unilateral agricultural or medical sanctions against Cuba.
The defense, security, and intelligence sectors of Cuba are the primary perpetrators of beatings, arrests, detainments, and unjust imprisonments of the Cuban people. The Cuban Communist Party has a long history of racism. No high level positions within the Cuban Communist Party are occupied by Afro-Cubans. Many Cubans who suffered the worst treatment at the hands of the security forces of the Cuban Communist Party are Afro-Cuban, such as Dr. Óscar Elías Biscet, Jorge Luis Garcia Pérez, Berta Soler of Las Damas de Blanco, Guillermo Fariñas Hernández, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara, and Iván Hernández Carrillo.
On January 12, 2021, the Department of State determined that Cuba has repeatedly provided support for acts of international terrorism and was designated a state sponsor of terrorism. On May 14, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken determined and certified to Congress that Cuba is not cooperating fully with United States antiterrorism efforts. The Cuban Communist Party continues to support international terrorist groups such as the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(FARC)and the National Liberation Army (ELN). Commercial engagement with the defense, security, and intelligence sectors of Cuba empowers the human rights abuses, racism against Afro-Cubans, and support for international terrorism by the Cuban Communist Party. It is the sense of Congress that Congress— reaffirms subsection
(a)of section 1704 of the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 ( 22 U.S.C. 6003 ), which states that the President should encourage foreign countries to restrict trade and credit relations with Cuba in a manner consistent with the purposes of that Act; and urges the President to take immediate steps to apply the sanctions described in subsection (b)(1) of that section with respect to countries assisting Cuba.
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