United States, and would be more visible, were there no fear of ostracization. A secret ballot would certainly prove that, in my judgment. Second, within 3 years of lifting the embargo, $6.5 million in trade will move through Florida, as has been noted by others, and can be reaffirmed by the distinguished panelist to my left. Each billion in trade creates 20,000 jobs. This trade would enrich primarily Florida, carrying with it rich political dividends for Mr. Clinton.

Seventh: U.S. foreign policy toward Cuba is in a state of drift, and that drift is not in our national interest. If Castro's health were to fail, or what now seems unlikely but is a possibility, if the military were to stage a coup, Castro, as the CIA believes-and you know better than I do, you members of this panel-can be expected to use whatever force necessary to hold onto power, "even at the risk of a bloodbath." That instability could cause 20,000 to 80,000 Cubans to flee to the United States, says the CIA. A hard landing in Cuba would be far worse than what we are seeing in Haiti. The United States should focus on an orderly transition to a post-Castro Cuba, a soft landing, and help arrange for that. The United States is not doing this.

Let the free market and free movement of people remove Castro. U.S. nationals touring the island and U.S. trade have the potential, as I have noted, to ease him out in an orderly fashion, permitting concurrently the resolution and orderly settlement of claims and counterclaims on the corporate and individual levels, plus the democratic transfer of power, no takeover, thus avoiding a Haiti on our doorstep, and indeed worse than Haiti.

The belief that the U.S. embargo will bring Castro to his knees by starving the population into popular revolt is nowhere supported by my onsite reporting and my ongoing information.

To recapitulate: First, Castro's security forces are immense; second, 25 percent of Cubans are hardcore Fidelistas, and 50 percent today regard Castro as the embodiment of Cuban nationalism; third, fear of the return of Miami Cubans is everywhere in Cuba, thus retarding any popular revolt, lest they think they go from bad to worse; fourth, Castro's military is well cared for, and their idea of a revolt is a flight to Miami; and fifth, economic conditions in Cuba are in fact bettering, due to foreign investment, tourism and the legalized dollar, and that furthermore removes any possibility of a popular revolt.

My conclusion, the end of Castro is nowhere in sight. So why not use Castro? Use him to bring about an orderly transition to a peaceful, rejuvenated, friendly Cuba, which, if it comes about, will, ipso facto, remove Castro from power.

I support Chairman Rangel's bill, and I note that it does not reward Cuba MFN status, as we have awarded it and probably will correctly reaffirm it for the repressive People's Republic of China. Nor does it in any way limit the power in the Chairman's bill on the President to reimpose the embargo. In sum, the embargo should be lifted, first on tourism, then as Cuban reforms continue on trade.

Castro's last laugh may well be this: Without me, Castro, there will be no orderly transition. Our laugh and our lesson will be, with an orderly transition, there will be no Castro.

I commend the Chairman on his bill and on calling these hearings, and I thank you for the opportunity to give this testimony. I would only add, as you know, Mr. Chairman, that I am under a TV production deadline for the renowned program "The McLaughlin Group," so I must deprive myself of the brilliant proceedings after these prepared remarks.

Thank you.

Chairman RANGEL. Thank you.

I knew of your program before it became renowned, and I want you to know that I appreciate the fact that you took time to share your views with this panel.

Mr. MCLAUGHLIN. I am delighted to have been here, and I thank you again, Mr. Chairman.

Chairman RANGEL. The Chair now recognizes Jorge Mas Canosa. STATEMENT OF JORGE MAS CANOSA, CHAIRMAN, CUBAN AMERICAN NATIONAL FOUNDATION

Mr. MAS. Good afternoon, Mr. Chairman and distinguished members of the committee. I am grateful for the opportunity to testify before the subcommittee.

I have some remarks prepared here, but since I think this hearing is not only a test on diversity of ideas and opinions, and I think this has threatened the democratic spirit of our Nation and everyone in attendance. It is always a test on the patience of everyone here in this room, and specifically myself. Therefore, I will off the cuff offer some remarks here.

Chairman RANGEL. By unanimous consent, the statement that is written will be received in the record, in addition to the remarks that you care to make now.

Mr. CANOSA. I am grateful, Mr. Chairman.

No. 1, I have heard with tremendous patience all this testimony here from people who would like, and very renowned leaders, to have the embargo lifted. Those people are advocating an end to the embargo of the Čuban Government.

I have not heard from any one of them an end to the killing, to the suffering of the Cuban people, to the release of political prisoners, an end to the thousands who have been drowning on a daily basis in the Gulf of Mexico, trying to leave the island on anything that floats. I have heard the gentleman to my left saying that he provided services to both churches in Havana recently. I have not heard the gentleman to my left ever providing the service of offering a Mass for those who are in prison in Cuba, thousands and thousands of them.

It is important, Mr. Chairman, because those who have been advocating the end of the embargo of Cuba this morning and this afternoon, they have never expressed publicly, at least no one that I have heard, lifting the embargo of South Africa when it was in place, lifting the embargo of Haiti, North Korea, Libya, Iraq.

My question is what is the difference between the dictator in Haiti, Cedras, and Fidel Castro? What is the difference between him and Saddam Hussein? Saddam Hussein claimed that he was going to wage the mother of all battles. And we call Castro the father of all dictators.

And those who have any doubt, I will invite them to go to the steps of the Capitol this afternoon, and they will see there the names of 9,000 Cubans killed by Castro. Their names are there written by the hands of their friends and relatives and families who are living in the United States. Castro is the worst killer that any people living in the Western Hemisphere have ever suffered. So it is fine to discuss the merits or lack of merits of the embargo. But, let us talk about the criminal nature of Fidel Castro. Let us talk about the Cuban Democracy Act that your bill is trying to repeal. Everybody talks about the Cuban Democracy Act and the strengthening of the embargo. But nobody mentions that the Cuban Democracy Act, which has the overwhelming support not only of Cubans in Miami and Cuban-Americans, but also the Cubans in the island, beginning with the Afro-Cuban leaders in the democratic opposition in the island, the Angela Herreras and Caridad Acunas of Cuba, real black people who have been suffering at the hands of Fidel Castro.

Nobody mentions that those people support the Cuban Democracy Act, because the Cuban Democracy Act calls for humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people. And what is preventing the Cuban people from getting that humanitarian assistance under the Cuban Democracy Act? He has only one name and his name is Fidel Castro. He has a law that is well known by the 80-20 rule that any humanitarian assistance that could go to Cuba, 80 percent has to go into his hands, and 20 percent to the recipient. That is preventing great quantities of humanitarian assistance going to Cuba under the Cuban Democracy Act.

One point that has been missed constantly is that while the Cubans in Miami are accused of being responsible for killing the Cuban people and for starving the Cuban people, nobody mentions that Cuban-Americans are sending every year $400 million in humanitarian assistance, consisting of food and medicine, more assistance and more food and more humanitarian assistance than Castro has ever provided to the Cuban people.

And you hear testimony here today trying to blame the CubanAmericans for starving of the Cuban people, trying for us to pay a price because we succeed in this country. And if there is an American dream and an American dream alive today in the United States, it is the Cuban-American community, with the least amount of criminals, the least amount of criminality index of any group in the history of the United States.

Yes, we have succeeded and we have gotten into the American system. But we have not forgotten our brothers and sisters back in Cuba, and that is why we are here testifying today, and we are very grateful to you and to this country and to this system, because it provides this diversity of opinion and allows us to talk clearly and loudly about the suffering of the Cuban people.

I would like those people to answer me, why every time something is wrong in Cuba or someone is killed or someone is starved to death, they immediately try to blame the United States and the American people, the most generous people on the face of the earth. I came to this country when I was 18 years old. I had absolutely nothing. I came from a poor or low-middle class in Cuba. I was a stevedore, I was a milkman, I washed a lot of dishes at the hotels

in Miami Beach. And just this last week, I came to own a public company in the United States. Do you know what you call that, Mr. Chairman? Not only hard work, it is not the merits of the Cuban-American community, it is a tribute to this country, a great tribute to this country, the most generous people on the face of the earth and the best system that ever mankind has conceived.

And I have heard testimony here saying that we Cuban-Americans are guilty for the killing and the starving in Cuba. Let me assure everyone in this room and to you, Mr. Chairman, that Castro has been the largest recipient, the recipient of the largest assistance ever received by any nation or by any government. During the last 30 years, Castro received more help than all the nations of Western Europe and Japan after the Second World War under the Marshall plan. And if anyone is in doubt, there is the money, the words, the agreements of the Soviet Union who provided Cuba $6, $7 and $8 billion a year for 30 years.

Now we must ask what has happened to that tremendous amount of money, even bigger than the Marshall plan? Where is the money? Where is the infrastructure? Where are the factories in Cuba? Where are the gold reserves? What has happened to that assistance?

I have the answer. The answer was given to me by the head of the KGB 12 years ago in Moscow. He looked at my eyes and he said the worst repressive system that humankind has ever known is in Cuba, and that general told me that he helped to organize and to establish that repressive system in Cuba. He said it is the best organized, the best financed and most of the resources of the Cuban Government goes into that repressive system.

I know where the money is that came from the Soviet Union. It is in Angola, where 10,000 Cubans lost their lives, where Cuba did not have any vital interests to defend. It is all over Latin America. It was in Central America.

And here we are talking about providing Castro with more resources. The Cuban people have been under a ration book for the last 33 or 34 years. While Castro was the recipient of the largest assistance ever in the history of mankind or between the history of two nations, the Cuban people were under a ration book, and the execution wall was working and over 1 million Cubans went to jail in Cuba.

Mr. SHAW. I am sorry, Mr. Mas, we have got about 31⁄2 minutes to make a vote. Mr. Chairman, I suggest we might want to break here for about 5 or 10 minutes and come right back and let the witness continue.

Chairman RANGEL. I was very reluctant to do this, so that my absence would not be misinterpreted as a lack of respect for the remarks that you are making.

Mr. MAS. I understand, Mr. Chairman. The exercise of democracy is very important. Go and vote.

Chairman RANGEL. We will go vote and we will return.

[Recess.]

Chairman RANGEL. We will resume our hearing.

Mr. Mas Canosa, someone said you were just about to make up your mind which way you were going on this issue.

Mr. MAS. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for allowing me to resume my testimony.

I would like to say this: I have to speak on behalf of my community, the Cuban-American community. For the few or for the many that I represent, as chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, I think that to express in derogatory terms opinions about the Cuban-American community is uncalled for. It is not only a hardworking community, but it is a community that in 30 years has established over 64,000 small businesses, which produce three times the GNP of Cuba.

Also, reference has been made to the Cuban lobby. Mr. Chairman, all we have done is to play by the rules. Here we are. When I was in school here, I was encouraged to get into the system, to get into the American system, and this is precisely what we have done.

Now I hear remarks today about the political action committees of the Cuban-Americans and the Cuban American Foundation blaming us for what is going on in Cuba.

What is wrong in Cuba is Fidel Castro. The person who is responsible for all the miseries that are going on inside Cuba is Fidel Castro, not the Cuban-Americans, who came up here because of the persecution of Fidel Castro. And they talk about the Cuban lobby, but no one talks about the Castro lobby, which is here and is well organized, and they want to blame the Cuban-Americans, because the Cuban-Americans hold foreign policy of the United States hostage. That is not the case.

But I will ask, would we like to have U.S. foreign policy on Cuba held by Castro? I would prefer 1 million times that American citizens-and that is what we are, American citizens-to have an input and influence on the formulation of U.S. policy toward Cuba. We are no less than anyone around this room, and we are no less than the Jewish community or the Irish community or the black community, or any community who has many legitimate interests in this country.

So I could tell the gentleman who spoke about the Cuban lobby that the Cuban lobby is in good health, strong and growing, and will be stronger and stronger every day. And those who are trying to blame the Cuban-American community for the shortcomings of the Cuban people and the economic problems, I am going to say two words here, boniato and malanga, and those Cubans who are here know what boniato and malanga are.

It is a typical Cuban potato that doesn't need anything from America to be grown in Cuba. And what has happened that the Cuban people cannot eat malanga and boniato for the last 25 years? The answer is the failed policies of Fidel Castro, who is interested only in three things: No. 1, himself; No. 2, himself; and, No. 3, himself, and that he has used that huge assistance from the Soviet Union to consolidate his power. When everybody is introducing democratic reforms, he is digging in his heels and saying that "socialism or death" is the only option and alternative for the Cuban people.

Let me say this, Mr. Chairman, and I will finish with this. This Cuban-American community that is so heavily criticized and the many references that have been made here by our fellow American