From
The Miami Herald:
Cuba hearings to begin Tuesday on Capitol HillThe
first in a series of congressional hearings examining the potential
impact of President Barack Obama’s new Cuba policy gets underway Tuesday
in the Senate.
Later in the week, the action switches to the
House with two hearings: the main show — “Assessing the Administration’s
Sudden Shift’’ — before the Committee on Foreign Affairs on Wednesday
and a subcommittee hearing on human rights in Cuba on Thursday.
The
common theme for this week’s hearings seems to be whether Obama gave
away too much without getting enough from Cuba as the two countries work
toward restoring diplomatic relations.
That’s the position of
Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who as chairman of the Senate
Foreign Relations Western Hemisphere subcommittee called the first Cuba
hearing at 10 a.m. Tuesday.
In an opinion piece he wrote Monday for
CNN,
Rubio recalled a line from The Godfather Part II in which mob character
Michael Corleone responds to the demands of a U.S. senator by saying,
“My offer is this: nothing.”
“In recent months, I’ve made clear
that I believe the president and his allies in Congress are misguided
for supporting a policy that gives away practically all the leverage the
United States has to bring about democratic change in Cuba in exchange
for virtually nothing,” wrote Rubio.
The senator said he wants
answers on what the administration has done to secure the repatriation
of an estimated 70 fugitives from U.S. justice who now live in Cuba as
well as “what exactly the Castro regime has done in exchange for Obama’s
softening of travel and banking regulations that will now allow more
U.S. dollars to fill the Castro regime’s coffers.”
Rubio, who is
testing the waters for a possible presidential run, called the hearing
the same day he assumed the subcommittee chairmanship last week.
Among
those scheduled to testify at the Senate hearing are Assistant
Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs Roberta Jacobson, who
recently headed the U.S. delegation during normalization talks in
Havana, and Tomasz Malinowski, assistant secretary for democracy, human
rights, and labor.
Rosa María Payá, of the Cuban Christian
Liberation Movement, also is scheduled to testify. She is the daughter
of Oswaldo Payá, one of Cuba’s most respected dissidents when he died in
a mysterious 2012 car crash.
She’ll be joined by activists Berta Soler, Miriam Leiva, and Manuel Cuesta Morúa.
There’s expected to be an overflow crowd when the House Foreign Affairs Committee convenes at 10 a.m. Wednesday.
“The
Obama administration’s sudden shift on Cuba policy raises many
concerns, including how hard the United States pressed the Castro regime
on its abysmal human-rights record during the secret White House
negotiations that cut out the State Department,” said Republican Rep. Ed
Royce, a Californian who chairs the Committee on Foreign Affairs.
“When
it comes to the unilateral concessions provided to the Castro regime,
the Obama administration has much to answer for. From the commercial
goodie bag provided to the Castro regime to the pardons bestowed upon
three convicted spies, one of whom was responsible for the murder of
American citizens, the concessions provided to these Caribbean despots
is pathetic,” said South Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.
“I
look forward to hearing from State, Treasury, and Commerce and
questioning the basis for normalizing relations with an unworthy regime
that continues to detain dissidents,” she said.
In addition to
Jacobson, John E. Smith, deputy director of Treasury’s Office of Foreign
Assets Control, and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Export
Administration Matthew S. Borman are slated to testify.
During a
Thursday morning hearing on human rights before the House Subcommittee
on Africa, Global Health, Global Human Rights, and International
Organizations, Jorge Luis García Pérez, an anti-Castro activist known as
Antúnez, will testify.
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