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Mr. SYMMS. Mr. President, last week, Dr. Claudio Benedi, author of the Benedi Doctrine on the institutional violation of human rights by totalitarian Communist regimes, together with Dr. Varona, from the Junta Patriotica Cubana, presented to the Organization of the American States [OAS] gathering in the Nineteenth Period of Sessions of the General Assembly a very important document. This document attacks the Communist regimes in this hemisphere and supports the security and freedom of the Americas.

The document states, in part:

The Cuban communist regime not only represents the Soviet neo-colonialism in our Hemisphere, but also has given a location to a Soviet ideological, political * * * and military base and has allowed an extra-continental power, the Soviet Union, to intervene in the internal affairs of the Americas, thus violating the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of the American states.

The document further states:

The Soviet Union has on its Cuban base 27,000 troops and a combat brigade, as well as a base for nuclear submarines at Cienfuegos, and an electronic surveillance station at Villa Lourdes, on the outskirts of La Habana, which is the largest outside the Soviet Union. . . .

The Soviet Union has continued shipping huge amounts of armaments of all kinds, from the smallest ones to the most sophisticated. . . . What hope can there be while the Muscovite Bear has its bloody paws on the lands of the Americas?

Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that this document be printed in the Record.

There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows:
JUNTA PATRIOTICA CUBANA,

Area Metropolitana de Washington,
Washington, DC, November 13, 1989.

Dr. Carlos Lopez Contreras, Honorable President of the Nineteenth Period of Sessions of the General Assembly, Organization of American States (OAS):

Honorable Ministers of Foreign Relations:

Honorable Ambassadors and Representatives of the American States:

Distinguished Representatives of the Americas:

We, citizens of the Americas, born in the Cuban State, which is a member of this Honorable General Assembly and directly interested and affected by which in it may be dealt with and agreed upon, have the right, at the same time as the moral duty, of submitting to your learned consideration our position and denouncements, in order for the same to be taken into account by you.

The first item that we would like to clarify, so that nobody will be able to ignore it is that, as you know, Cuba, as a State, is a member of the Inter-American System and of the OAS; what is excluded is the present government, because it has been declared as incompatible with the inter-American system, due to its Marxist-Leninist nature.

The Soviet Union and its satellites have been pressuring for many years in order to try to eliminate, to make the incompatibility inoperant; in our opinion, that is the most important statement that the nations of this Hemisphere have made in this century. Who is going to bear the historical responsibility of making the Marxist-Leninist compatible with the Inter-American System?

The Cuban communist regime not only represents the Soviet neo-colonialism in our Hemisphere, but besides it has given a location to a Soviet ideological, political, subversive and military base and has allowed an extra-continental power, the Soviet Union, to intervene in the internal affairs of the Americas, thus violating the principle of non-intervention in the internal affairs of the American States.

In the almost one hundred years that the inter-American system has been established, a basic and fundamental principle has been that of protecting the nations of this Hemisphere against the intervention by a foreign power in their internal affairs. This principle, this foundation of our regional organization and of our policy and philosophy about the defense of sovereignty and freedom, self-determination and the dignity of the human person, have been violated by the Soviet Union through their satellite Castro and now also through Nicaragua.

For several years it has been undoubtedly proven that the Cuban communist regime intervenes in the illegal narcotics trafficking, allowing its ports and air space, its intelligence services and its diplomatic missions to be used by those who devote themselves to such an infamous trafficking, with detriment of the health, tranquility, peace and inter-American relations. That regime utilizes those funds, tainted by narcotics, to supply the communist guerrillas in several of the American countries; to acquire products manufactured in the United States; to poison the youth of the United States; to strengthen its ruined economy; to obtain hard currency in order to trade in areas from which it is banished.

It is in the public domain and notorious that the Cuban communist regime, since it seized power, has been involved in subversive activities in all of the American continent, and it continues to be. Just to mention one case in which all of your nations had to intervene: Venezuela. Its President, the Honorable Romulo Betancourt, accused before the Ninth Consultation Meeting of Foreign Relatios Ministers the Castro regime, for having intervened and attacked the Venezuelan people and having infringed upon its sovereignty. It was thus declared by the Ninth Meeting, which condemned the Castro Regime as an aggressor and because of having intervened in the internal affairs of Venezuela, on July 26, 1964. The sanctions established were carried out by all the American States minus one: Mexico. The violator of the sovereignty of our American peoples, the aggressor, continues to do so with an unusual impunity.

The Soviet Union has on its Cuban base 27,000 troops and a combat brigade, duly organized, as well as a base for nuclear submarines at Cienfuegos, besides an electronic surveillance station at Villa Lourdes, on the outskirts of La Habana, the largest outside of the Soviet Union. It applies over there, in fact, the Brezhnev Doctrine of the limited sovereignty. That is, among others, the function of those troops, whose presence contributes to have the Cuban people imprisoned and enslaved. The presence of Soviet troops in Cuba is an affront for the Americas, to our Hemisphere. Should the Liberator Simon Bolivar be alive, he would reconvene another Amphictyonic Congress, such as that of Panama, to expel them from the Americas. Why do not the successors of the American statesmen join us to expel them?

Since the World War II ended, the Inter-American System has been preparing itself to confront the communist imperialism. For that end, it approved the Inter-American Treaty for Reciprocal Assistance (the Treaty of Rio) in 1947, the Organization of American States (OAS) and other covenants, agreements and resolutions still in force. All of that juridical, political, ideological, strategical, economical and military structure has not functioned adequately, in accordance with its purposes, because of the lack of political will on the part of the leaders of the Americas. Cuba and Nicaragua are blatant violations of that structure, without the same having responded to the challenge as circumstances demanded and still do. We are still on time.

The Soviet Union has continued shipping huge amounts of armaments of all kinds, since the smallest ones to the most sophisticated. Hundreds of military and guerrilleros have armed themselves with those weapons in Cuba, Nicaragua, El Salvador, Columbia, Peru, Guatemala, Honduras, etc., to support the extra-continental intervention by the Soviet Union, to perpetuate the neo-colonialism and to subvert the democratic nations of the Americas. How are we going to react to that challenge? We do not believe that the Americas would fall on their knees to beg of them, with unusual innocence, that they behave and cooperate to the peace and democratization of the Americas. That, besides naive, would be irresponsible, and would not be an action becoming that which is expected of those who should represent the continent of hope. What hope can there be while the Muscovite Bear has its bloody paws on the lands of the Americas?

The Cuban People, who signed in trust with the representatives of your respective countries those treaties, covenants, agreements & resolutions that are still in force, is the one who is suffering in its own flesh the slavery of a despotic regime that has subjected it to a feudal and tributary system, and to the modern slavery of communist totalitarianism, which operates in accordance with the rules drawn by tyrant Stalin, whose advance imitator Castro is.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (CIDH) has stated that `there are maintained in Cuba the two basic characteristics, that have originated the lack of enforcement of civil and political rights: The non-existence of a state of law, since individuals are deprived of those recourses that would protect them from the actions of the state, and the lack of political alternatives for the population.' Where there does not exist a State of Law, there cannot be any protection for human rights.

Likewise, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has stated in numerous opportunities that `Cuban male & female political prisoners are given a cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment.'

There exist in Cuba, Honorable President and Representatives of the Americas, the institutional and human violation of human rights. The former is intrinsic to the so-called Socialist Constitution of 1976, in the Penal Code of 1987 and in the whole of the legislation in force in the so-called `Socialist Legality.'

In the Annual Report for 1988-1989 of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, that has been brought to the study and consideration of this Nineteenth General Assembly of the OAS, said Commission reiterates what it has done since its inception to this date, when it underlines that: `The following statement summarizes the most important deeds recorded during this period and has as its purpose to supplement the information provided by the Commission in its seven special reports about that country (Cuba) and in the corresponding annual reports'. Upon following the historical sequence of those violations, the Commission reiterates that there has been `a serious setback' in the field of human rights in Cuba. We would say that what there has been of late is constant with the reiterated violations of human rights, and we would add, reiterating it, that the institutional violation and the human violation of human rights is intrinsical and consubstantial to the Marxist-Leninist system, without which violations its existence becomes impossible, since such a doctrine proclaims the supremacy of the state over the individual. The latter is helpless vis-a-vis the totalitarian state.

Article 61 of the so-called Socialist Constitution `subordinates the exercise of all constitutionally recognized rights to the existence and purposes of the Socialist State and to the decision of the Cuban people to build socialism and communism.' As the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has reiterated, with this generic statement all human rights are totally violated. That generic statement, besides, is formalized in the Penal Code and in the legislation in force within the `Socialist Legality'.

The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, upon referring to the much-publicized `trial' of General Arnaldo Ochoa and other Cuban military officers, convicted and executed without due procedural guarantees, in violation of their human rights, states that it has been proven that they were unsatisfied with the Castro regime, and they were charged with being involved in the illegal narcotics trafficking. Let us see what the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights says on this `trial' in its Annual Report, submitted to this Nineteenth General Assembly:

`Various and serious objections have been raised with regard to such executions. It has been pointed out, in the first place, that the alleged felonies that served as a basis for the conviction are not punishable by death in the Cuban Penal Code. In the second place, it has been indicated that the characteristics of the trials, their rapidity, the publicity and the lack of external control upon the processes performed in them, shed reasonable doubts upon the compliance with elementary standards of due process. The manner of execution of a death sentence such as this is compounded, in the case of Cuba, by the fact that the bodies were not delivered to the victims' relatives'.

And the Commission continues: `The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, besides reiterating its opinion against the application of the death penalty, must point out that, in this case, furthermore, such a serious sentence was preceded by judicial procedures that do not guarantee due process, plus the form of the execution and the following processes are offensive to the basic humanitarian feelings'. And, is there anybody who will dare to propose that the government that has committed all those atrocities and violations pointed out by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, be allowd to return to the entity of the nations that call themselves civilized in the Americas? We refuse to believe that such affront to the Americas and to the free people of Cuba may be possible.

The present government of Cuba was separated from the Inter-American System and from the Organization of the American States in accordance with the stipulations in the Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance (Treaty of Rio), of which not all member states of the OAS are participants, and which is a separate protocol. Because of that, in order to deal with this case, the Foreign Relations Ministers' Consultation Meeting would have to be convened in accordance with the Treaty of Rio, since the OAS, in accordance with the American International Law, would be incompetent to do it, as we have reiterated in more than one opportunity, and our arguments have been received by previous General Assemblies, among them that of Cartagena de Indias.

Therefore, the presumed entrance of the present Governemnt of Cuba in the OAS would be a violation of the American International Law, and affront to the principles and values that make up the Inter-American System, a blatant mockery of the standards that rule in the Judeo-Christian civilization established in the Americas, and a treachery against the free people of Cuba.

The political system of imprisonment of Cuba is the most cruel, inhuman and degrading, as well as the longest in the Americas and perhaps in the world. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights has documented that in seven Special Reports and the successive Annual Reports. Over 40,000 Cubans have been executed in the execution wall, and their bodies, for a greater measure of cruelty, have not been delivered to their relatives. Over 250,000 political prisoners, male and female, have been through the communist dungeons of Cuba. One million Cubans in exile, the most extensive and lengthy exile in the history of the Americas, testify to the monstrosities that have taken place during the last 30 years of Stalinist-Communist totalitarian dictatorship in Cuba. And nobody who would call himself/herself a true leader of the American peoples could try to reward that government with impunity, that government that has done that and much more, by returning it to the entity from which it was expelled precisely because of having started to do all that we have related in these denouncements. That political error would negate the history of the Americas if it became a reality, because, we underline, the language that would have to be used to relate it would be very severe for those who would attempt it.

To fail to recognize the nature of a communist regime, to ignore what is the meaning of a Soviet base in the heart of the Americas, with satellite regimes that serve as `fifth columns' to infiltrate the continent of hope, to get it to become a string of enslaved countries, such as it has happened with the Eastern European nations during the last decades, would be `more than a crime; it would be a stupidity'.

There cannot be a movement such as `Solidarity' in Cuba, nor a leader such as Lech Walesa. The Stalinist circumstances prevailing in Cuba have not permitted that. When several workers wished to organize a free labor union, they were imprisoned in the amount of over 500, and they are still in prison. Three labor leaders, of the sugar industry, have been executed by a firing squad recently, because they tried to organize a meeting in the Province of Las Villas. They were tried without any procedural guarantees, executed in a secret location, and their bodies have not been delivered to their relatives. Their names? Isidro Padron Armenteros and Miguel Suarez Garcia, executed on July 11, 1989. The third one, also sentenced to be executed, was Ricardo Figueras Castro.

Several leaders of the human rights movements in Cuba have been imprisoned and remain in prison. Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz, Hiram Abi Cobas and Huber Jerez shall be summarily tried and without any procedural guarantees, and convicted again. The same is happening with many others, whose enumeration would be too lengthy.

There are presently thousands of male and female Cuban political prisoners, many of them registered as common criminals, in order to cover their true nature of political prisoners.

The institutional violation of human rights, the `benedi-doctrine', that we have documented for over two decades, and which has been thus recognized in the Americas and Europe, is the total destruction of the values and principles enshrined in the Western Judeo-Christian civilization, and the violation of those other values and principles established in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, in the American Convention on Human Rights, in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights of the United Nations, in the American Convention on Human Rights, in the European Convention on Human Rights, in the Helsinki Accords, and in the juridical and political structure that protects and guarantees those rights. The inalienable and imprescriptible rights consecrated by God on behalf of the human person and that conform his/her dignity are being violated. That is, Honorable Chairman and Representatives of the Americas, the basic issue of our time: respect for the full dignity of men and women.

This institutional violation is intrinsical to the Socialist-Marxist-Leninist regime, which could not survive without it. That is why those human rights are violated in Cuba in its Constitution and laws. That amounts to a regressive transculturation, with false values that deprive man and woman of their sacred juridical, political and social attributes.

The International Commission of Jurists, an organism adscribed to the United Nations, after investigating the Cuban situation, officially stated: `the rule of law does not exist in Cuba'. That is what is occurring in Cuba at the present time.

There are presently functioning in Cuba over 48 schools for Marxist-Leninist indoctrination, for foreign students and guerrilla members. Those schools are specialized, besides, in terrorist training and subversive tactics. They do not hide to say that, and it would be very easy to find out through your respective diplomatic representatives.

In the Inter-American Conference held at Caracas in 1954 to study `the activities of the international communist movement, because of considering that it constitutes an intervention in the internal affairs of the Americas,' the following statement was formulated among others:

`That the dominion or control of the political institutions of any American State by the international communist movement, having as a result the extension to the American continent of the political system of an extra continental power, would constitute a threat against the political sovereignty and independence of the American States, and would endanger the peace in the Americas, demanding a consultation meeting to consider the adoption of pertinents measures in accordance with the treaties in force'.

There, in Cuba, is the international communist movement, and there is the juridical, political and moral mandate to act `in accordance with the treaties in force'. There is the Treaty of Rio, available to be applied in Cuba and Nicaragua. The only necessary requisite is that you will fulfill the obligations that your respective states freely contracted with the Cuban State and with the history of the Americas. The declaration, precisely adopted in the birthplace of Simon Bolivar, the Liberator, could not be any clearer. Let us see how those who call themselves the descendants of Bolivar will behave.

`Pacta sunt servanda': One agrees freely, but is obligated by the convenant. The Cuban State has agreed freely with your states the treaties covenants, accords and resolutions in force in the inter-American system, and that is why we request of you now to fulfill what you contracted.

In the Seventh Consultation Meeting of Foreign Relations Ministers, convened in accordance with the Treaty of Rio, that is equivalent to the NATO in the Americas, in San Jose, Costa Rica, in August 1980, it was agreed that:

`I. The intervention, or threat of intervention, including conditional, by an extra-continental power, in the internal affairs of any American republic, is hereby condemned, and we underline that the acceptance of the threat of intervention by an extra-continental power on the part of any American State, endangers the solidarity and security of the Americas, which forces the Organization of American States [OAS] to condemn and reject it with the same energy'.

That is typical in the case of satellite Castro and the intervention of an extra-continental power (the Soviet Union) in the internal affairs of the Americas, with a military and subversive base, which is political and ideological, terrorist and economic. With what `energy' is it going to be condemned and rejected by the present leaders of the Americas?

Two nuclear plants are being built in Cuba, one precisely close to the submarine base that the Soviets have in Cienfuegos, on the southern coast of Cuba.

These bases are being built with the same Soviet technology that noisily failed at Chernobyl (Soviet Union). These plants not only endanger the lives of Cubans, but also imperil those of the inhabitants in the other American States.

The satellite Castro, following orders from the Soviet Union, has refused to sign and ratify the Treaty of Tlatelolco on Proscription of Nuclear Weapons in Latin-America. With what purpose? The comments are obvious.

The KGB (Soviet Secret State Police) has taken over the intelligence and espionage services of Cuba, of the DGI (Spanish acronym for the Directorate General of Intelligence). It has been verified that the same is being done by the Soviet Union in Nicaragua.

Communism is not negotiable in this hemisphere. It has thus been declared by democratic presidents and leaders of the Americas, and we reiterate it. Neither in the Americas as a whole, nor in any of its member states, especially Cuba and Nicaragua.

The `Group of the Eight', that has now been reduced to seven, has agreed to suspend the participation of Panama, ruled by General Manuel Antonio Noriega. Why has the Group suspended and alienated Noriega & Panama from the Group? Could it be due to the fact that Noriega is a dictator, or because he has been charged with illegal trafficking of narcotics? Could it be due to both reasons? How is it possible that the Group of the Eight has suspended Noriega & Panama, while it now attempts to promote the entrance of the Castro government into the Organization of American States? Noriega has not done in Panama what Castro has done in Cuba. The present government of Cuba, headed by Castro, has been in power for 30 (thirty) years, without having held any free and open elections, nor does it attempt to do that; it has even refused to hold a plebiscite; it has sent to the execution wall thousands of Cubans, male and female, who were its political adversaries; over 250,000 political prisoners, male and female, have gone through the communist dungeons; its government has been charged with participating in the illegal trafficking of narcotics for several years; of allowing its shores, intelligence services, air space and front organizations to facilitate that illegal trafficking of narcotics; it has attacked several member nations of the OAS; it has intervened in the internal affairs, as Venezuela proved in the Ninth Consultation Meeting of Foreign Relations Ministers; it has promoted and still promotes guerrilla wars in several countries of the Americas, such as Peru, Colombia, El Salvador, Guatemala and Bolivia. The Cuban government has allowed an extra-continental power (the Soviet Union) to intervene in the internal affairs of the Americas. Castro's Cuba has become a subversive Soviet base, ideologically, politically and militarily, that threats the neighbor countries of this Hemisphere.

It is totally absurd and inconsistent that, while Noriega & Panama are alienated from the Group of the Eight, the same group would promote the entrance of the government of Castro into the OAS. What moral foundations, what principles of political honesty, what defense of democracy and freedom could have in mind the members of the Group of the Eight-Seven, in order to commit that affront against the Americas and the free people of Cuba? The free peoples of the Americas shall not permit that great perfidy to be committed.

We likewise reiterate that the freedom of Cuba is not negotiable. Independence and freedom for almost all the peoples of the Americas were achieved through the collective intervention of American patriots and nations in the internal affairs of other States. The Liberator, Simon Bolivar, Sucre, Paez, Miranda, San Martin, O'Higgins, are examples of it. Chile, Peru, Bolivia, Ecuador, only to mention a few, would not have been able to attain their independence at that time, had not the American States and their leaders intervened on their behalf. That collective intervention is what the free people of Cuba is claiming, in accordance with the treaties and covenants in force.

We respectfully request that this document be circulated among all Member States present in this Nineteenth General Assembly of the OAS, because the Cuban State continues to be a member of the Organization of the American States, of the Inter-American System, of the Treaty of Rio and of this General Assembly.

Honorable Chairman, Chancellors, Ambassadors, Representatives of the Americas: we have fulfilled our duty in reiterating our denouncements before you, underlining, with all due respect, the moral & legal obligations that your respective States have contracted with the Free Cuban State. It is incumbent upon yourselves, with honesty and responsibility, before the Americas and before Cuba, to fulfill your international obligations.

With our highest esteem, we remain attentively yours,

DR. JOSE IGNACIO RASCO,

Secretary for Foreign Relations.

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DR. CLAUDIO F. BENEDI-BERUFF,

Representative in Washington.

DR. MANUEL ANTONIO DE VARONA,

President--Former Prime Minister and President of the Senate of the Democratic & Free Republic of Cuba.

END