Cuba human rights bill introduced; State says Cuba will talk about return of fugitives

Cuba human rights bill introduced; State says Cuba will talk about
return of fugitives
BY MIMI WHITEFIELD MWHITEFIELD@MIAMIHERALD.COM
04/15/2015 6:57 PM 04/15/2015 8:49 PM

A House bill was introduced Wednesday that would tie an improvement in
Cuba's human rights record to any further removal of sanctions, and the
State Department said the United States and Cuba planned to start a
dialogue about U.S. fugitives living on the island.

The developments came a day after President Barack Obama informed
Congress that there was no longer a justification for keeping Cuba on a
list of state sponsors of terrorism.

But in the 45 days until his directive takes effect, Congress may seek
to block the president's action by enacting a joint resolution, which
Obama could, in turn, veto.

South Florida Republican Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen met late Wednesday
with other members of Congress to discuss strategies about how to
reverse "Obama's unwarranted delisting of Cuba," her office said.

Also coming on the heels of the delisting was a bill introduced by New
Jersey Rep. Chris Smith, a Republican who is chairman of the House
global human rights subcommittee. The Cuban Human Rights Act of 2015
calls for the United States to vigorously oppose human rights violations
in Cuba and to maintain the status quo on sanctions, the embargo and
federal law regarding Cuba as long as human rights violations continue.

Sanctions against Cuba, the bill said, shouldn't be reduced until all
political and religious prisoners are released; Cuba respects freedom of
religion, assembly, association, expression, press and speech, and there
is progress toward repealing or revising Cuban laws that criminalize
peaceful dissent.

The bill also requires all sanctions to remain in place until Cuba
returns fugitives from U.S. justice, such as Joanane Chesimard, the
Black Liberation Army member convicted of killing a New Jersey trooper,
and Cuba stops providing refuge to terrorist organizations. It also
calls for the Secretary of State to submit an annual report to Congress
on the human rights situation in Cuba.

Among the bill's co-sponsors are Ros-Lehtinen, and South Florida
Republican Reps. Mario Diaz-Balart and Carlos Curbelo.

Smith, as well as members of the Cuban-American delegation, have
criticized the White House for not taking into account factors such as
Cuba's continued harboring of U.S. fugitives and members of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Basque Fatherland,
Liberty (ETA) and other groups in making the determination.

"The Castro regime is a state sponsor of terror and harbors known
fugitives from justice, including Joanne Chesimard," said Smith. "She
must be extradited to the U.S. before we can begin to talk about any
normalization in U.S.-Cuban relations, let alone removing Cuba from the
list of terror sponsors."

But in a surprise move, the State Department said Wednesday that the
United States and Cuba planned to hold talks about Chesimard, now known
as Assata Shakur; William Morales, a Puerto Rican nationalist who was
sentenced to 99 years for his role in a bomb blast that killed four
people before he escaped from prison in 1979 and fled to Cuba, and other
fugitives from U.S. justice.

"We see the reestablishment of diplomatic relations and the reopening of
an embassy in Havana as the means by which we'll be able more
effectively to press the Cuban government on law enforcement issues such
as fugitives," said Jeff Rathke, a State Department spokesman.

Despite the concerns about fugitives and terrorists living in Cuba, the
White House said its decision to seek the delisting was narrowly focused
on just two concerns: whether Cuba had provided any support for
international terrorism over the past six months and whether the Cuban
government had given assurances it would not support international
terrorists in the future.

"The assurances they provided were fairly wide-ranging and fairly
high-level," said a senior administration official.

Rathke said the Colombian government had told the United States that it
had "no evidence that Cuba has provided any political or material
support in recent years" to either the FARC or ELN and that the Cuban
government had "provided assurances that it would never permit the ETA
members living in Cuba to use Cuban territory for activities against
Spain or any other country."

Spain has requested extradition of two ETA members and Rathke said that
Cuba and Spain have agreed to a bilateral process to resolve the matter.

Ros-Lehtinen also noted that just before Obama's historic face-to-face
meeting with Raúl Castro at the Summit of the Americas in Panama over
the weekend, a group of Cuban pro-democracy advocates were attacked by a
group of Cuban government supporters.

"The Castro communist regime has been denying the Cuban people
fundamental human rights and basic freedoms for over 50 years but this
aggression is not limited to Cubans but also includes U.S. citizens,"
she said.

The human rights bill's sponsors also wanted it to serve as a rebuke to
Obama for unilaterally trying to alter U.S.-Cuba policy without the
"advice or consent of Congress." The president has used his executive
authority to make the changes.

At this point, no new formal talks have been set to discuss reopening
embassies and reestablishing diplomatic relations. How a U.S. embassy in
Havana would operate seems to be a sticking point. But both sides have
said they want to have more discussions as soon as possible.

The U.S. wants its diplomats to be able to move freely around the island
and "talk to lots of people," said a senior administration official. Now
diplomats must ask for special permission to travel beyond Havana, and
Cuba frowns on interactions with dissidents and activists.

"We're trying to get at the issue of obsolete equipment and facilities.
We're trying to get at the issue of staffing levels," the official added.

The U.S. side also would like unimpeded access to its embassy. Now
visitors to the U.S. Interests Section, which functions as a diplomatic
mission in the absence of an embassy, must check in with Cuban guards.

"We're still not quite there yet and so we're going to keep working at
those things," said the official. "But I think it's up to our Cuban
counterparts. These are ultimately decisions that have to be made by
mutual consent."

The official said that Secretary of State John Kerry, who plans to visit
Cuba for the embassy opening, "wants to get this right, not necessarily
fast."

Source: Cuba human rights bill introduced; State says Cuba will talk
about return of fugitives | Miami Herald Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article18628854.html