'I Just Want You To Tell Me That I'm Wrong': Salazar Grills State Dept Official Over Cuba Policy

2 months ago

During a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing prior to the Congressional recess, Rep. Maria Salazar (R-FL) questioned witnesses about relations with Cuba.

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Transcript

00:00Thank you Mr. Howell and now recognize myself for five minutes of questioning.

00:06Well I think that we agree on the end goal so thank you. I like very much what

00:13you have been saying so I just have a few questions here for you and I'm going

00:16to start with Mr. Jacobstein. As you know last month Cuban regime officials were

00:23at the Miami Airport inspecting something, a tour with TCA and we just

00:29learned that last week there was a second secret visit of four Cuban

00:34regime officials to the same airport, the Miami International Airport, but this

00:39time four agreements were signed with the United States government. What type

00:45of agreements are those? Do you have any idea Mr. Jacobstein? Thank you very much

00:53for your question. So in terms of TSA I would say TSA has

00:57coordinated with the Cuban Civil Aviation Authority and the Cuban

01:01Authority for airport and services for years on airport security measures and

01:05best practices always in the US interest. But signing agreements with the

01:10Cubans do you think the Cubans ever once they sign they ever fulfill their

01:14promise? So I just say in terms of the visit of the FAA I don't want to speak

01:19on behalf of the Department of Transportation or the FAA. Yeah but you're

01:22at the State Department you know everything that the United States

01:24government is doing vis-a-vis Cuba. I would say the rationale for this visit

01:29is clear and very much in the US national interest. We're interested in aviation safety.

01:32You're gonna tell me that the Cubans are going to help the Americans fight

01:37terrorism if they are in the list of terrorist states? So maybe and maybe you

01:44can clarify this. I'm not sure why maybe you guys are trying to create a scenario

01:51where you can take Cuba off the list of terrorist countries. Do you think that's

01:57what you guys are doing by granting the by saying you see the Cubans are here

02:02Miami and they're signing agreements and they're gonna help us fight terrorism?

02:07Tell me. Absolutely not. Oh good. You're not gonna take Cuba off the list of

02:13terrorist countries? Is that what you're telling me? You asked me about these

02:15visits. These visits are intended to promote aviation safety and security

02:19especially for US passengers. That is fundamental and critical to us. We want

02:24all these passengers including Cuban Americans who go back and visit their

02:27family members. I agree with that but at the same time you're talking to Cuba

02:33officials. So go back to is not what Cuba wants which we know what they want is

02:38what the United States in this case the Biden administration is looking for

02:42which I really would like to be wrong in thinking that you're just laying the

02:46groundwork so you can take Cuba off that list and I just want you to tell me

02:51that I'm wrong. Am I wrong? You're not planning to take it off. So as I've said

02:57before US law establishes specific statutory criteria for sending in a

03:02state-sponsored terror designation. I am not asking you that. I'm asking you something

03:05different. Do you think the State Department at this hour is trying to

03:09it's creating the conditions and the scenario in order to take Cuba off the

03:14list of terrorist? At this time there's no review ongoing on at this time

03:19there's no ongoing review on the state sponsor of terror designation. You have until

03:22July 12th to start that to start that ongoing or to start that investigation

03:30or that study because you have a specific date. So you're telling me right

03:35now of course is what is July I mean is June what 28th but you have until July

03:3912th. So what are you guys planning to do July 13th? There's no specific time

03:47frame for for a review but at this oh yes six months before you need to review

03:52according to the law you need to review six months before and then you take them

03:55off or you leave them on. So July 12th would be the day. I don't think that's

04:00accurate to say that July 12th is the day but I would I just would say again

04:05that should any review happen any future review would be based on the law and

04:09criteria established by Congress. Can you just ask yes or no if you guys are

04:14thinking about taking Cuba off the list and the only reason why I'm insisting on

04:18this is because if you were to do that you're giving that cruel and despicable

04:24regime oxygen to do what you just said right now a thousand political prisoners

04:30are in jail just because they went out and they they claim Libertad. So can you

04:37tell me yes or no are you guys thinking about taking Cuba off the list or not? I

04:41would just say again any review of Cuba's status on the SST should one

04:45happen would based on the law and the criteria established by Congress. That means yes you are thinking

04:50about doing it. It does not. And that is very bad but we will talk about it further now

04:55but I want to congratulate you at the same time because there's a new app

04:59application on your phone called ta ta ta which I'm not gonna say it but it's

05:04very good and there's good news for the Cubans because now for what I hear

05:09coming from the Biden administration you're gonna have an app that the Cubans

05:15are gonna be able to use and then when a TEDSAT shuts down then this this app is

05:21going to allow the Cubans to connect to another form of Internet and that's

05:26great so en espanol para los cubanos no estan solos aqui en el congreso estamos

05:31haciendo todo lo posible para que haya una aplicación en el teléfono que se

05:35puedan conectar en el internet cuando TEDSAT tumba la señal. Do you anything

05:40about that? I'm not tracking this specific issue but happy to discuss our

05:44efforts. But you just said it right now that you want a digital you said digital

05:48connectivity that's number one and Mr. Howell said it too. If you give

05:53connectivity to the Cubans you're giving them the possibility of them

05:57demonstrating in the streets of Havana and everyone will see them even though

06:01they're being beaten by the regime. That's great connectivity that's all we

06:05need. Do you agree? Yes the administration supports the Cubans people access there

06:09to an open interoperable secure and reliable Internet. U.S. regulations

06:14already allow for certain activities to support the Cuban people's access to

06:19information on the Internet and the actions announced by OFAC by the

06:22Treasury Department on May 28th including supporting greater access to

06:26U.S. Internet services applications e-commerce platform that builds on that

06:30support. And then on top of that I would say our programs through the Bureau of

06:36Democracy Human Rights and Labor they increase Cubans on island ability to

06:41access information and to communicate freely and securely using digital

06:45security best practices and censorship circumvention tools. So this is very much

06:49at the top of our mind. Good and we're gonna work with it because I'm just

06:53saying it to you and to the Cuban people who are watching this hearing that

06:58there's there's hope coming and I don't want to extend my time too much and I

07:03don't want to fatigue my colleagues patients just one more Honduras. The State

07:07Department was supposed to give Congress a report on democracy in Honduras. It was

07:12due last week. What happened? I will follow up to on the status of the report

07:20as soon as I'm back. All right but why do I haven't you finished it? Sometimes

07:25these reports lag in time for a number of reasons but I don't have anything

07:28further than that. You're not giving me but I'm giving unfortunately Madam

07:32President Xiomara Castro I'm giving her an F on the report because democracy is

07:37not being protected in Honduras and I'm gonna give you two examples. Madam

07:44President just honored Nicolás Maduro the highest honor of Hondurans can give.

07:51How embarrassing for the Hondurans the Francisco Morazan medal to Nicolás

07:58Maduro really and Madam President is China's best friend in the region and

08:05not only that she has established colectivos Chavez style. You know what

08:09those are? That she formed sort of a power military a group of people with

08:13guns so they can go and attack the police so in my book she gets an F. What

08:19do you say about that? Thank you very much so our goal. I'm sure she thanks you

08:25too. Our goal through the root causes strategy in Central America is to focus

08:30on promoting democracy prosperity. Talk to me about Honduras specifically how do you

08:35view what she's doing? Specifically in Honduras there are a number of areas in

08:39which we cooperate on migration management on investment

08:42facilitation. We recently signed a memorandum of understanding on gender

08:46based violence. Yes there are there are challenges as well and for example just

08:51last fall there were violent attacks on members of Congress during the selection

08:56process for the Attorney General and so we in response used the section 353

09:02report to put in sanction in place for Ricardo Arturo Salgado Bonilla who's a

09:07current minister. Are you sending Madam President the message that she should

09:12not be messing with Honduras democracy and she should not be moving to the left

09:17like Chavez, Maduro, Ortega, Fidel. Are you sending that message? Throughout the

09:24region we absolutely focus on the need to have. What do they what do they

09:28respond in exchange? Good governance is critical in all the country of Central

09:31America. What do they respond what do they tell you when you send that very

09:35noble message? We have countless conversations I won't get into the

09:40internal diplomatic conversations but this is something that's top of mind

09:43along with our focus on shared economic prosperity, anti-corruption, migration

09:47management and a host of issues. Finally another 30 seconds Nicaragua. As you

09:52said Rosario and Daniel they have a big piñata. They are now Nicaragua has

09:58become this platform for people to arrive to come to the United States. We're

10:03talking about thousand flights. Each person pays ten thousand dollars. You've

10:09had 300,000 people from all over right here. You have 300,000 people coming to

10:23Nicaragua and happens that eight of them were terrorist members of ISIS. They

10:30wound up in New York. So what list would you put Ortega on? Absolutely this is top

10:39of mind for us. No one should profit off of vulnerable. What are you gonna do

10:42about it? We've taken a number of steps which I outlined. Tell me two of them.

10:46For example we implement a new three C policy Secretary Blinken announced in

10:51November 2023 in which we're revoking visas for charter airlines who are

10:56facilitating a regular migration through Nicaragua. We put in place a number of

11:00sanctions just on May 15th. Why don't you put them on the list of terrorist

11:03countries as well? Can you do that? Put Nicaragua? I mean they're sponsoring

11:08terrorists. They're letting terrorists go through there to come here. Happy to take

11:12back your recommendation. I would say that would you agree with that? We've

11:16taken a number of very robust steps to deal with the irregular migration

11:19challenge and you've seen a reduction in the charter flights. It's still a huge

11:23challenge and I'm working very closely in particular with commercial airlines

11:27the International Air Transport Association on the margins the Los

11:30Angeles Declaration ministerial meeting that Secretary Blinken attended in

11:34Guatemala put out a robust statement on the work they're doing. So we're working

11:37both inside of Nicaragua and outside of Nicaragua to address this critical challenge.

11:41Thank you for your efforts. I yield back. And sorry I appreciate that.

11:47Your patience. Ranking member now representative. I will recognize the ranking member for five or more minutes.

'I Just Want You To Tell Me That I'm Wrong': Salazar Grills State Dept Official Over Cuba Policy

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