|
|
Hillary Clinton: The Cuba Embargo
Needs To Go, Once And For All
July 31, 2015
In Miami today, Hillary Clinton forcefully expressed her support for
normalization of U.S. relations with Cuba and formally called on
Congress to lift the Cuba embargo. Hillary emphasized that she believes
we need to increase American influence in Cuba, not reduce it -- a
strong contrast with Republican candidates who are stuck in the past,
trying to return to the same failed Cold War-era isolationism that has
only strengthened the Castro regime.
To those Republicans, her message was clear: “They have it backwards:
Engagement is not a gift to the Castros – it’s a threat to the Castros.
An American embassy in Havana isn’t a concession – it’s a beacon.
Lifting the embargo doesn’t set back the advance of freedom – it
advances freedom where it is most desperately needed.”
A full transcript of the remarks is included below:
“Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. I want to thank Dr. Frank
Mora, director of the Kimberly Latin American and Caribbean Center and a
professor here at FIU, and before that served with distinction at the
Department of Defense. I want to recognize former Congressman Joe
Garcia. Thank you Joe for being here – a long time friend and an
exemplary educator. The President of Miami-Dade College, Eduardo Padrón
and the President of FIU, Mark Rosenberg – I thank you all for being
here. And for me it’s a delight to be here at Florida International
University. You can feel the energy here. It’s a place where people of
all backgrounds and walks of life work hard, do their part, and get
ahead. That’s the promise of America that has drawn generations of
immigrants to our shores, and it’s a reality right here at FIU.
“Today, as Frank said, I want to talk with you about a subject that has
stirred passionate debate in this city and beyond for decades, but is
now entering a crucial new phase. America’s approach to Cuba is at a
crossroads, and the upcoming presidential election will determine
whether we chart a new path forward or turn back to the old ways of the
past. We must decide between engagement and embargo, between embracing
fresh thinking and returning to Cold War deadlock. And the choices we
make will have lasting consequences not just for more than 11 million
Cubans, but also for American leadership across our hemisphere and
around the world.
“I know that for many in this room and throughout the Cuban-American
community, this debate is not an intellectual exercise – it is deeply
personal.
“I teared up as Frank was talking about his mother—not able to mourn
with her family, say goodbye to her brother. I’m so privileged to have a
sister-in-law who is Cuban-American, who came to this country, like so
many others as a child and has chartered her way with a spirit of
determination and success.
“I think about all those who were sent as children to live with
strangers during the Peter Pan airlift, for families who arrived here
during the Mariel boatlift with only the clothes on their backs, for
sons and daughters who could not bury their parents back home, for all
who have suffered and waited and longed for change to come to the land,
“where palm trees grow.” And, yes, for a rising generation eager to
build a new and better future.
“Many of you have your own stories and memories that shape your feelings
about the way forward. Like Miriam Leiva, one of the founders of the
Ladies in White, who is with us today – brave Cuban women who have
defied the Castro regime and demanded dignity and reform. We are honored
to have her here today and I’d like to ask her, please raise your hand.
Thank you.
“I wish every Cuban back in Cuba could spend a day walking around Miami
and see what you have built here, how you have turned this city into a
dynamic global city. How you have succeeded as entrepreneurs and civic
leaders. It would not take them long to start demanding similar
opportunities and achieving similar success back in Cuba.
“I understand the skepticism in this community about any policy of
engagement toward Cuba. As many of you know, I’ve been skeptical too.
But you’ve been promised progress for fifty years. And we can’t wait any
longer for a failed policy to bear fruit. We have to seize this moment.
We have to now support change on an island where it is desperately
needed.
“I did not come to this position lightly. I well remember what happened
to previous attempts at engagement. In the 1990s, Castro responded to
quiet diplomacy by shooting down the unarmed Brothers to the Rescue
plane out of the sky. And with their deaths in mind, I supported the
Helms-Burton Act to tighten the embargo.
“Twenty years later, the regime’s human rights abuses continue:
imprisoning dissidents, cracking down on free expression and the
Internet, beating and harassing the courageous Ladies in White, refusing
a credible investigation into the death of Oswaldo Paya. Anyone who
thinks we can trust this regime hasn’t learned the lessons of history.
“But as Secretary of State, it became clear to me that our policy of
isolating Cuba was strengthening the Castros’ grip on power rather than
weakening it – and harming our broader efforts to restore American
leadership across the hemisphere. The Castros were able to blame all of
the island’s woes on the U.S. embargo, distracting from the regime’s
failures and delaying their day of reckoning with the Cuban people. We
were unintentionally helping the regime keep Cuba a closed and
controlled society rather than working to open it up to positive outside
influences the way we did so effectively with the old Soviet bloc and
elsewhere.
“So in 2009, we tried something new. The Obama administration made it
easier for Cuban Americans to visit and send money to family on the
island. No one expected miracles, but it was a first step toward
exposing the Cuban people to new ideas, values, and perspectives.
“I remember seeing a CNN report that summer about a Cuban father living
and working in the United States who hadn’t seen his baby boy back home
for a year-and-a-half because of travel restrictions. Our reforms made
it possible for that father and son finally to reunite. It was just one
story, just one family, but it felt like the start of something
important.
“In 2011, we further loosened restrictions on cash remittances sent back
to Cuba and we opened the way for more Americans – clergy, students and
teachers, community leaders – to visit and engage directly with the
Cuban people. They brought with them new hope and support for struggling
families, aspiring entrepreneurs, and brave civil society activists.
Small businesses started opening. Cell phones proliferated. Slowly,
Cubans were getting a taste of a different future.
“I then became convinced that building stronger ties between Cubans and
Americans could be the best way to promote political and economic change
on the island. So by the end of my term as Secretary, I recommended to
the President that we end the failed embargo and double down on a
strategy of engagement that would strip the Castro regime of its excuses
and force it to grapple with the demands and aspirations of the Cuban
people. Instead of keeping change out, as it has for decades, the regime
would have to figure out how to adapt to a rapidly transforming society.
“What’s more, it would open exciting new business opportunities for
American companies, farmers, and entrepreneurs – especially for the
Cuban-American community. That’s my definition of a win-win.
“Now I know some critics of this approach point to other countries that
remain authoritarian despite decades of diplomatic and economic
engagement. And yes it’s true that political change will not come
quickly or easily to Cuba. But look around the world at many of the
countries that have made the transition from autocracy to democracy –
from Eastern Europe to East Asia to Latin America. Engagement is not a
silver bullet, but again and again we see that it is more likely to
hasten change, not hold it back.
“The future for Cuba is not foreordained. But there is good reason to
believe that once it gets going, this dynamic will be especially
powerful on an island just 90 miles from the largest economy in the
world. Just 90 miles away from one and a half million Cuban-Americans
whose success provides a compelling advertisement for the benefits of
democracy and an open society.
“So I have supported President Obama and Secretary Kerry as they’ve
advanced this strategy. They’ve taken historic steps forward –
re-establishing diplomatic relations, reopening our embassy in Havana,
expanding opportunities further for travel and commerce, calling on
Congress to finally drop the embargo.
“That last step about the embargo is crucial, because without dropping
it, this progress could falter.
“We have arrived at a decisive moment. The Cuban people have waited long
enough for progress to come. Even many Republicans on Capitol Hill are
starting to recognize the urgency of moving forward. It’s time for their
leaders to either get on board or get out of the way. The Cuba embargo
needs to go, once and for all. We should replace it with a smarter
approach that empowers Cuban businesses, Cuban civil society, and the
Cuban-American community to spur progress and keep pressure on the
regime.
“Today I am calling on Speaker Boehner and Senator McConnell to step up
and answer the pleas of the Cuban people. By large majorities, they want
a closer relationship with America.
“They want to buy our goods, read our books, surf our web, and learn
from our people. They want to bring their country into the 21st century.
That is the road toward democracy and dignity and we should walk it
together.
“We can’t go back to a failed policy that limits Cuban-Americans’
ability to travel and support family and friends. We can’t block
American businesses that could help free enterprise take root in Cuban
soil – or stop American religious groups and academics and activists
from establishing contacts and partnerships on the ground.
“If we go backward, no one will benefit more than the hardliners in
Havana. In fact, there may be no stronger argument for engagement than
the fact that Cuba’s hardliners are so opposed to it. They don’t want
strong connections with the United States. They don’t want
Cuban-Americans traveling to the island. They don’t want American
students and clergy and NGO activists interacting with the Cuban people.
That is the last thing they want. So that’s precisely why we need to do
it.
“Unfortunately, most of the Republican candidates for President would
play right into the hard-liners’ hands. They would reverse the progress
we have made and cut the Cuban people off from direct contact with the
Cuban-American community and the free-market capitalism and democracy
that you embody. That would be a strategic error for the United States
and a tragedy for the millions of Cubans who yearn for closer ties.
“They have it backwards: Engagement is not a gift to the Castros – it’s
a threat to the Castros. An American embassy in Havana isn’t a
concession – it’s a beacon. Lifting the embargo doesn’t set back the
advance of freedom – it advances freedom where it is most desperately
needed.
“Fundamentally, most Republican candidates still view Cuba – and Latin
America more broadly – through an outdated Cold War lens. Instead of
opportunities to be seized, they see only threats to be feared. They
refuse to learn the lessons of the past or pay attention to what’s
worked and what hasn’t. For them, ideology trumps evidence. And so they
remain incapable of moving us forward.
“As President, I would increase American influence in Cuba, rather than
reduce it. I would work with Congress to lift the embargo and I would
also pursue additional steps.
“First, we should help more Americans go to Cuba. If Congress won’t act
to do this, I would use executive authority to make it easier for more
Americans to visit the island to support private business and engage
with the Cuban people.
“Second, I would use our new presence and connections to more
effectively support human rights and civil society in Cuba. I believe
that as our influence expands among the Cuban people, our diplomacy can
help carve out political space on the island in a way we never could
before.
“We will follow the lead of Pope Francis, who will carry a powerful
message of empowerment when he visits Cuba in September. I would direct
U.S. diplomats to make it a priority to build relationships with more
Cubans, especially those starting businesses and pushing boundaries.
Advocates for women’s rights and workers’ rights. Environmental
activists. Artists. Bloggers. The more relationships we build, the
better.
“We should be under no illusions that the regime will end its repressive
ways any time soon, as its continued use of short-term detentions
demonstrates. So we have to redouble our efforts to stand up for the
rights of reformers and political prisoners, including maintaining
sanctions on specific human-rights violators. We should maintain
restrictions on the flow of arms to the regime – and work to restrict
access to the tools of repression while expanding access to tools of
dissent and free expression.
“We should make it clear, as I did as Secretary of State, that the
“freedom to connect” is a basic human right, and therefore do more to
extend that freedom to more and more Cubans – particularly young people.
“Third, and this is directly related, we should focus on expanding
communications and commercial links to and among the Cuban people. Just
five percent of Cubans have access to the open Internet today. We want
more American companies pursuing joint ventures to build networks that
will open the free flow of information – and empower everyday Cubans to
make their voices heard. We want Cubans to have access to more phones,
more computers, more satellite televisions. We want more American
airplanes and ferries and cargo ships arriving every day. I’m told that
Airbnb is already getting started. Companies like Google and Twitter are
exploring opportunities as well.
“It will be essential that American and international companies entering
the Cuban market act responsibly, hold themselves to high standards, use
their influence to push for reforms. I would convene and connect U.S.
business leaders from many fields to advance this strategy, and I will
look to the Cuban-American community to continue leading the way. No one
is better positioned to bring expertise, resources, and vision to this
effort – and no one understands better how transformative this can be.
“We will also keep pressing for a just settlement on expropriated
property. And we will let Raul explain to his people why he wants to
prevent American investment in bicycle repair shops, in restaurants, in
barbershops, and Internet cafes. Let him try to put up barriers to
American technology and innovation that his people crave.
“Finally, we need to use our leadership across the Americas to mobilize
more support for Cubans and their aspirations. Just as the United States
needed a new approach to Cuba, the region does as well.
“Latin American countries and leaders have run out of excuses for not
standing up for the fundamental freedoms of the Cuban people. No more
brushing things under the rug. No more apologizing. It is time for them
to step up. Not insignificantly, new regional cooperation on Cuba will
also open other opportunities for the United States across Latin
America.
“For years, our unpopular policy towards Cuba held back our influence
and leadership. Frankly, it was an albatross around our necks. We were
isolated in our opposition to opening up the island. Summit meetings
were consumed by the same old debates. Regional spoilers like Venezuela
took advantage of the disagreements to advance their own agendas and
undermine the United States. Now we have the chance for a fresh start in
the Americas.
“Strategically, this is a big deal. Too often, we look east, we look
west, but we don’t look south. And no region in the world is more
important to our long-term prosperity and security than Latin America.
And no region in the world is better positioned to emerge as a new force
for global peace and progress.
“Many Republicans seem to think of Latin America still as a land of
crime and coups rather than a place where free markets and free people
are thriving. They’ve got it wrong. Latin America is now home to vibrant
democracies, expanding middle classes, abundant energy supplies, and a
combined GDP of more than $4 trillion.
“Our economies, communities, and even our families are deeply entwined.
And I see our increasing interdependence as a comparative advantage to
be embraced. The United States needs to build on what I call the “power
of proximity.” It’s not just geography – it’s common values, common
culture, common heritage. It’s shared interests that could power a new
era of partnership and prosperity. Closer ties across Latin America will
help our economy at home and strengthen our hand around the world,
especially in the Asia-Pacific. There is enormous potential for
cooperation on clean energy and combatting climate change.
“And much work to be done together to take on the persistent challenges
in our hemisphere, from crime to drugs to poverty, and to stand in
defense of our shared values against regimes like that in Venezuela. So
the United States needs to lead in the Latin America. And if we don’t,
make no mistake, others will. China is eager to extend its influence.
Strong, principled American leadership is the only answer. That was my
approach as Secretary of State and will be my priority as President.
“Now it is often said that every election is about the future. But this
time, I feel it even more powerfully. Americans have worked so hard to
climb out of the hole we found ourselves in with the worst financial
crisis since the Great Depression in 2008. Families took second jobs and
second shifts. They found a way to make it work. And now, thankfully,
our economy is growing again.
“Slowly but surely we also repaired America’s tarnished reputation. We
strengthened old alliances and started new partnerships. We got back to
the time-tested values that made our country a beacon of hope and
opportunity and freedom for the entire world. We learned to lead in new
ways for a complex and changing age. And America is safer and stronger
as a result.
“We cannot afford to let out-of-touch, out-of-date partisan ideas and
candidates rip away all the progress we’ve made. We can’t go back to
cowboy diplomacy and reckless war-mongering. We can’t go back to a
go-it-alone foreign policy that views American boots on the ground as a
first choice rather than as a last resort. We have paid too high a price
in lives, power, and prestige to make those same mistakes again. Instead
we need a foreign policy for the future with creative, confident
leadership that harnesses all of America’s strength, smarts, and values.
I believe the future holds far more opportunities than threats if we
shape global events rather than reacting to them and being shaped by
them. That is what I will do as President, starting right here in our
own hemisphere.
“I’m running to build an America for tomorrow, not yesterday. For the
struggling, the striving, and the successful. For the young entrepreneur
in Little Havana who dreams of expanding to Old Havana. For the
grandmother who never lost hope of seeing freedom come to the homeland
she left so long ago. For the families who are separated. For all those
who have built new lives in a new land. I’m running for everyone who’s
ever been knocked down, but refused to be knocked out. I am running for
you and I want to work with you to be your partner to build the kind of
future that will once again not only make Cuban-Americas successful here
in our country, but give Cubans in Cuba the same chance to live up to
their own potential.
Thank you all very, very much.”
|
|
|
|
|
###
For Immediate
Release, July 31, 2015
PAID FOR BY
HILLARY FOR AMERICA
Contributions or
gifts to Hillary for America are not tax deductible.
Hillary for
America, PO Box 5256, New York
Cuban media coverage, an
example:
Hillary Clinton Calls in Miami for Lifting of U.S. blockade on Cuba
HAVANA, Cuba, Aug 1 (acn) Democrat pre-candidate to the 2016
presidential elections in the United States, Hillary Clinton, asked
Congress on Friday, from Miami, Florida, to lift the economic,
commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba since 1962, the Prensa
Latina news agency reported.
In
a speech at the International University of Florida, the former
Secretary of State asked lawmakers to take advantage of this decisive
moment, after the resumption of diplomatic relations between the two
countries and the reopening of embassies in the respective capitals on
July 20.
The U.S. policy towards Cuba is at a crossroads and next year’s
elections by the White House will determine whether we will carry on
with a new course in this regard or return to the old ways of the past,
she added.
We
must decide between commitment and sanctions, between adopting new
thinking and returning to the deadlock we were during the Cold War, she
pointed out.
She added that even many Republicans on Capitol Hill are beginning to
recognize the urgency of continuing onward to dismantle the sanctions
and this is the moment when their leaders must join this task or get out
of the way of those who carry on.
Clinton added that the blockade must end once and for all; we must
replace it with "more intelligent measures that manage to consolidate
the interests of the United States," and called the red party leadership
on Capitol Hill to join this policy.
The former Secretary of State reiterated her support for the policy of
rapprochement with the island that began after December 17, when Cuban
President Raul Castro and his U.S. counterpart, Barack Obama, announced
the decision of reestablishing diplomatic relations.
For years, the state of Florida was the base of a strong opposition to
bonds with Havana, which made the blockade an untouchable issue among
those who aspired to be elected for posts in that territory, especially
for Republicans.
On
several occasions, the former first lady has defended the lifting of the
blockade against the Caribbean nation, particularly in her book Hard
Choices, in which she assures that while she was Secretary of State
(2009-2013) she recommended Obama to review the policy towards Cuba.
A
survey conducted last week by the Pew Research Center showed that 72
percent of U.S. citizens are in favor of lifting the blockade against
Cuba and 73 percent approve Obama’s decision of reestablishing
diplomatic relations with the Caribbean island.
A
survey by the McClatchy newspaper chain and the Marist Institute for
Public Opinion released on Friday showed that 44 percent of likely
voters prefer Clinton; 29 percent Republican Jeb Bush; and 20 percent
controversial aspirant Donald Trump, for the November 2016 elections.
|
|
|