Transcripts For CSPAN2 Institute For Policy Studies Discussion On U.S.-Cuba Relations 20240713

Good morning. Welcome to the policy studies with the status of us cuba relations. And for those who dont know sometimes the wording is hard to remember to build more equitable and Peaceful Society those transformative policies into action. And i have the Events Coordinator here and i will also mention some relevant associations to organize for peace justice and community and now for the blockade against cuba and the normalizing of relations and also against all unilateral decisions by extension cuba. And with that current relation of us and cuba with those popular misconceptions and then to hear about the benefits of a normalized relations for both the people of cuba and the people of the United States. But a lot of people know why that mistake happened. But now since 2014 it is now the official embassy. And then we open up her question and answer and then we will be done appointed first secretary june 2015 to the then cuban intersection and worked in the ministry of Foreign Affairs to serve at the Cuban Embassy as a member of the city of havana graduating from the havana faculty of law also masters of science in foreign relations. [applause] thank you so much for coming today i really believe this is an important moment. So there is a vote in the United Nations right now about this. In 2015 when i came i started to say we are in the best moment in almost 50 years and now i will try to explain about the history of the past and the present and what we want for the future this is a presentation with 46 american universities and to talk about us cuba relations. So this is something that people recognize that day here in washington dc and you can see how similar they are. There is a lot of history between cuba and the United States. So i am willing to start right now with some opening questions. I agree the thesis is very important but i start with this question and people say cuba is famous because of cigars and music some people remember the olympics but what do you know about cuba . So i really believe there is a lot of misinformation about cuba so one student said i know i love lucy. [laughter] you remember the tv series and i said wow. And then to know Ricky Ricardo how many of you would . This happens every time for many reasons they want to see the cuban history. So go there and see the real cuba this is a key question so why not . What about china cracks it has wonderful trade relations with vietnam. So according to what i have rea read . So according to what i hav. The only country in the wod starting the war right now. So im going to start with this. Its what you see in the movies. And they you dont remember this from the 80s or 90s. Its a part of the territory and you have a base that nobody wants but according to this. We have the soldiers shooting back in the 60s and people dying from that so its a new tv series and according to that, the delegation. They are not in cuba. Probably you should go to another country to see that they believe it is true so if you want a good recommendation they tried to create the idea that they tried to open the door through the mafia you can see it was showing through the second part. So lets start with this. Its worse than in cuba during the batista regime to call for justice and i wont even go farther to some extent in the batista regime in agreement with the first that is perfectly clear. In the early cases, people dont know and this is 1963, one month before he was assassinated in dallas and some people believe at that point he was trying to improve relations. Remember he tried before president kennedy took office. The cia organized a bad and decided this is going to be easy. We are going to take power and it was a disaster. We have later been missing so probably at this point it was more about the situation in cu cuba. I have to be brief we are against the clock. This is cuba. This is our gdp and is very important because anytime you compare them with the g7, its not fair. We dont have the same resources. By the way this comes from the world bank and the United Nations so you can check all this data but if you dont believe me, go to cuba. This is the gdp per capita and you can see the legal force in cuba. What about the private sector, the property that is right now recognizing the new constitution approved in the referendum. Life expectancy from 71yearsold and the mortality rate is a wii at 8. 2 and for that reason in more than 60 countries around the world not only venezuela but now since the 60s we have more than 400. We dont produce enough food and i will talk about the. They have access to improve the services into this is how much we have spent on education you can see we spend 12. 8 of the g gdp. Weve spent 2. 9 and we have enough resources to. Thats good to know but dont give it too much time. But in any case this is very important. Remember the gdp, people say why, because we dont have all the resources we want on healthcare and education and we have many things we are proud as i show. Let me Say Something here very important. I dont come here to say we are perfect or to say we are the best country in the world. I come here to say we are proud of many things and we are a country that works. We can Work Together and do many things together. We are facing similar challenges and a lot of people want us to be partners and friends to be very honest after four years here i saw a lot of respect for the cuban people a lot for many reasons and i believe we should have better relations. More information about cuba according to the United Nations out of the 189 countries every time that you read in the media, no we do not have what you have here but that isnt poverty. We have none of the things you have here but we have the social Justice System in this is something that for me was interesting. Weve placed number 30 so according to bloomberg we have a Better Health system. My point isnt to compare. You are not going to read that in the media. All the things youre going to read about our bad things. Its probably the worst in the world for the reason against cuba its not propaganda. 1959 before the revolution, we dont have probably less than ten gold medals. To practice the sport its not about money but its about passion this year they were serious because they dont have a good player anymore. So its not about money. Its about passion. [laughter] so, i put this because this is part of the new moment between cuba and the United States. It is nothing new. You can see that the first player came in in 1871 and since that time we have 230 playing mainly baseball. For that reason we were number three and we have four in the whole frame. Ive been there three times in cooperstown. You can play in the National Hockey league but if you are a cuban you have to defend in order to play in Major League Baseball. Unfortunately, as kinsey, on december 19, cuba signed an agreement to Major League Baseball and the union and the new administration counseled that deal. They agreed to sign with cuba and it wasnt about the sport that was about the human traffic they are part of the human traffic. More information about cuba you can see first person of this ancestry was cuban, the only country in the world to visit the criteria for the sustainable development. The first country in the world to receive transmission of hiv and syphilis and according to unicef child found attrition. So again a country that is proud of many things. We can do better and improved many things but we dont deserve sanctions for more than 60 years. At the end they are hurting the people of cuba. This is about hunger and you can see cuba is not a concern. You can see that right now it is in the case of cuba. Cuba is number two National Parliament. 53 of the parliament we are talking about a members of the f the National Parliament and you can see how many things we are proud to say according to the global agenda gap it was 23 out of 149. This is the reality. So, intranet. The need for technology and more resources but now we open it for everybody in cuba and again still expensive and still slow. But its not about the well its about the resources in health and education. Last year for the first time, 51 of the population was able to access. Again according to the United Nations they are using internet in 2017. The United States, 87. Can we compare these resources . So again, its not that we dont want to open the internet. And we did it because in our case its important for the Education Development so we believe it is an important tool. Lets save the question before the end. People say which ones are the most important for you, we are doing business with all the countries of the world and you can see that an export canada is our main partner. This comes from the Congressional Research service. You can see venezuela, china and spain so when they come and say i want to do business with cuba what can you say to us because we are doing business with everybody and you can see in 2016 before the new administration came we are receiving of these business delegations. There are people here that want to do business. You can see everything is because of this and we dont say that, but we say that the blockade is the most further development. We can see that. This is also very important. We have the relationship with 191 countries of the United Nations Member States we have 100 cuba that is huge for a small country like cuba we have 142 and again that is huge for a country like cuba. This is something we are very proud i mentioned before its not only with venezuela. We work against the epidemic when president obama was in office and we thank doctors to stop the epidemic in the United States providing some facilities and physicians and we are proud of that. We have been helping in 30 Different Countries and you can see here how many have graduated from 157 countries in the 60 years of the cuban revolution and we have this school of medicine and we have doctors and physicians for 103 countries. The United States is part of that we have more than 100. So, lets go to the recent history. December 17, 2014. President obama announced to the world the new moment between cuba and the United States and that was big news, breaking news. Everybody was talking about that and i would like to say we didnt see the armageddon after that. But we found that both suspicious and cuba this is part again of what happened in the history between cuba and the United States. After that, if we have to go more quickly. I believe this happened and even the cubanamericans support this. We had a different history. Also for the first time supported relations and this is very important. This is research you can see even in december so after the last president ial elections we have 73 of support for ending the embargo and 75 of support to establish diplomatic relations. 199114 of the support. In 2016, 53 which is all the generations of cubanamericans. 1996 to 2016 days 80 of support between cuba and the United States. According to the census i dont know what they did there because the weather is so different. They are in miami and we are talking about probably more than 1 million so for that reason this is area important into the National University made the polls here. Im not going to show all of them but this is more recent and 2018. 26 , only 12 work while in only 5 work very well so you can see that 80 , more than 80 if we are talking about cubanamericans in 2018 so its not the last century. But this is also very important. You can see that only 10 of the American People back in 1996 had a good opinion about my country. But in 2016, 64 for the first time and as you can see how this is changing and 92019 only 44 have a good opinion about my country and you know what, i dont worry about that. If we go back to a policy that allows more exchange between cuba and the United States people have better numbers than in 2016 and more support because what happened right now is when americans go to cuba they go back and say it isnt so bad. It isnt the hell do you say. Cuba is proud of this worthless and the Current Administration is trying to take every opportunity for you to go to cuba and we are going to talk about that. This is the same poll you can see the opinion of americans about almost every country and the first one, canada, 92 of support and britain, 87 of support and the countries that are below cuba and you can see cuba has 44 but you can see all the countries and you can see that the United States, the Current Administration is open to sit down with almost every country, almost every country but not with cuba. Dont get me wrong. Im a diplomat. I believe that we need to sit down and talk and use the promise of the tool but how can you explain that you are willing to sit down with the taliban and not with cuba . Spigots part of this idea how can you explain you are willing to sit out of almost every country and not with cuba. Its cuba and enemy or a threat, we dont have Nuclear Weapons. Somebody told me thats the reason. [laughter] its difficult to explain after two years that weve proven we can do many things. Why not. Why are we going back again . Because this is a new this isnt a new policy. Its going back to the past. So, president obama visits cuba and you can see according to the new york times, they see restoring diplomacy with cuba as mostly good for the u. S. We gave the opportunity and that was broadcast live to all the country and use the president of the United States i have to go with congress to lift the argo. The last president of visited was Calvin Coolidge back in 1928. I always say someone here from 1928 . I want to know how but i remember president obama said the last president to come i only need three hours. That is how they ar we are so c. So, more information, and cuba we believe that the bilateral relationship in the United States when we are no longer under the regime and with no specific programs funded to our way of life what does that mean . Is that since we established a diplomatic relationship with the United States. You have the financial regime, you occupy part of cuba and you are sending money to destroy. Not to build schools or hospitals but to help the cuban people to destroy everything that i showed before. If you want to understand what is the embargo and sanctions, you can go right now to the state department into this document is public. It is what the where they say wa communist country where socialist country that has a secret document a secret document until 1991 but now is public and you can see what they say. The lowest estimate i have seen is 50 of people who support castro. I see governments that have less support. One day going directly here we need to deny money and supplies to cuba to bring the overthrow of the government. The policy of the United States over cuba is huge, creating hunger and desperation. When they say it is just an excuse, what is the excuse . Why do you have one excuse . We dont need an excuse. Let us fail. You believe we are so bad that is the policy. Lets go to the other one. President obama the last state of the union speech, 50 years of isolating cuba failed to promote democracy and set us back in latin america. That is what they did in the house. Opening the door to commerce positioning ourselves to improve the life of the cuban people, to consolidate our leadership, recognizing that the cold war is over and lift the embargo. The cold war is over but look at this. This, last year, happened again, last year, former ambassador of the United States, retweet and lack of freedom on the United States. Tomorrow the United Nations will appear and in cuba and the us. And 189 votes, the General Assembly to end the embargo against cuba and now biden resolution, every year this has been happening since 1992. Last year you have two votes, the United States and israel. Yq this something you need to think about. Cubanamericans dont want it. Almost every country in the world dont support the us embargo. That is a good question, we need a good answer. Our people, everybody in the society. This is now the Current Administration is not only trying to keep the census but are open to new ideas. They open the door to this that allow people here to introduce us courts against everybody for using trafficking properties that were nationalized in cuba in 19591961. When president clinton signed this law he put a waiver to the treaty. It was not in place. Every president since president clinton put the same waiver every six months. The Current Administration did not have a waiver. The United States is in the middle of a conflict with some countries around it but it is important to understand we not only nationalize properties from the United States. Cuba has been able to negotiate canada, france and switzerland. The only country that refused to sit down to negotiate was the United States because they believe this is going to be only 6 months or a few years. It is not that we dont want to initiate. Weve been doing that with many countries. Around the world. I dont have much time, this is what we believe. In cuba we dont want the base and you dont need the base. It is not a small piece of land. It is quite the territory of manhattan. According to a treaty in the pressure in the 30s and you are there forever. Even if we dont want. Both countries need to agree and one room in your house. We need to agree. This is not about money, twice the territory of manhattan. 4085 per year but look at this. This is Congressional Research service, the congress, 364 million in funding. This is a way of life. Some people with this money and good to see Even Congress recognized they are sending money to promote democracy. It is to promote democracy. Look at this. This is a sponsor of radio and television. With Research Service from 1984 and 2019, you, american taxpayer spend 900 millions against propaganda against cuba. Washington against the United States, you are using our National Hero for propaganda with your money. For that reason a couple years ago there was a bill in congress, stop wasting taxpayer money and they recognize they only reach 11 of the cuban population so wasting money we could use. What are the opportunities . This is one of the main opportunities we have. Every place i visit the farmers are close to cuba. We are talking about the 2 billion market because cuba by 70 , 80 , we produce no food. We produce medicine by the biotech industry but not enough food. 80 of the food we need, 2 billion. It is prohibited by you to give cuba a portion of clothes. The reason we buy and this is the last number, the Horticultural Department has, we by 300 million in 2014 but in other countries, 1. 8 billion. Do you know how much we pay for transportation . It is not money we dont have but money we spend because the sanctions i there. Since the United States sells to cuba, in 2001, we have to buy 6 billion. We have credits and try to explain to a farmer, arkansas, georgia, he has a market that is almost there because it is a communist country. What about china . Another opportunity, the biotech industry, Governor Cuomo from new york, first time we create an enterprise between cuba and the United States to produce the love counselor. These are things we were able to do because in the former administration they grant a license. Imagine if we have no sanctions in place what else we can do. It is good for both. I try to explain we are going to put more money to the farmers but food in the table of the cuban people, buying Nuclear Weapons or weapons, talking about food. According to the state department, one of the top 7 destinations, wanting to go to cuba. Students want to go to cuba. If you have a question i can talk about that. Almost 300 marchers, people enjoyed everything but the Cuban National Baseball Team this year an agreement with little leagues it. In the near future in the world series, that is bad. Dont believe it. We signed an agreement and they cut the agreement with baseball. This is something people need to know. We sign agreements with all these airliners, the flight to cuba. We sign agreement with all these cruise liners and all these companies for communication between cuba and the United States and these companies. Air b b report 40 million to the private sector in the first few years so we are talking about the private sector in cuba. What they did, you cannot stop for a few hours and they lost the opportunity to go to cuba and now recently they announced they are going to suspend 29 destinations in cuba and only to fly to caracas. The cuban americans are going to be effective for this but they have family. Why this is happening. Costing the United States 6 billion in the first four years so i have to go, almost ending but before the elections. We said we are ready to work with the next us president , we are ready to work with the next us president. Last year he made this, respectful, on the basis of mutual respect. The will of the cuban people and the aspiration of most us citizens by cubans living here. The new president made that decision. And blaming cuba about almost everything. The Administration Made the promise during the campaign but at the beginning, i want to better deal. After that exchange he has been cutting almost everything, trying to put more hospitals but this is very important. He won the cuban american vote in florida. I dont know how he knows that. These are the results in broward and miamidade. You can see donald trump lost both districts or counties. And not a close results. How can you say in a place with more cubans you won more cuban american votes. Cuba is changing not because the United States wants but the cuban people want. We have a new government, a new National Parliament you can see here. We have a new constitution. Look at this, that, 600 members of the National Parliament and more than 300 are new members and they are sending castro here. Why people say castro and again the excuse if you want an excuse you will be able to find one excuse and if you want to change you sit down and talk. Why the change . Probably you remember what happened to your diplomats but that was the first excuse, diplomats were under attack and use see nobody is talking about that anymore. They have not been able to show any evidence but even now there is the newest body from canada that say, a neurotoxin cost this. We have dengue in cuba and they are trying to avoid that. We dont say this is the truth but this is something to consider. Everything was like a spy movie. They proved nothing but took a lot of measures to punish cuba and punish the American People. September 11, 1980, a cuban double that was shot and killed in new york and nothing happens to diplomats in havana ever but we lost a cuban diplomat here who was shot and killed. September 11th, terrorism, we commemorate september 11th before that. This is the idea. Venezuela, the situation in venezuela. Mister bolton and Mister Pompeo for the venezuelan government, far less then both is far less important than senior officials according to that. The cia, we dont have the cia. You are saying we dont have a responsibility, but you keep using that and you see what ambassador bolton put in his twitter account. Go back to 2002. The under secretary of state Mister Bolton said cuba was attempting a program, the National Intelligence office and state department, weapons expert, disagreed. In a fit of rage, they were reassigned. This is 2002 when he said that and so it is nothing new for Mister Bolton but they use that but you know what . When youre president tweets, they do not immediately for the purpose of the destruction of the constitutional venezuela, full and complete embargo with what we replace on the island of cuba and return to the island and the foreign minister say the secretary advisor of bolton is a liar, there are not enough troops in venezuela. No one taking part in security operations. There were a lot of menace, you have a blockade for over 60 years what are you saying . This is very serious. The president saying something that is not true. If you go back to 1962, president kennedy was able to show business to cuba with todays Technology Nobody has been able to do that. So i put this in my twitter, i say next time you hear about the castro to ready, you should know it was real. Nevertheless the embargo against these real dictators are overthrown and Marco Jimenez it was the real thing. Nothing happened but because we are here i put this in my twitter a few days ago because if you want to talk about terrorism, remember in this capital. According to the cia, it was important to president reagan, he was behind the bomb. Nothing happened. This is what secretary shultz wrote to reagan, an active state terrorism securing our capital. Generally considered to be friendly. No one said pinochet was friendly and the United States never put an embargo or blockade or sanctions. So this is for the future. Our Foreign Policy is based on principles. The way we develop it with the United States this is based on history and principles. I put also this. Cuba has demonstrated is not afraid of relations with the us based on goodwill. The us, the will of the minority of its own citizens has to double down and escalate on failed policies to stop sanctions and normalization. It is important. What is the definition of insanity . Doing the same thing over and over expecting a different result. Us policy is the same. I hope you have more reason to go to cuba and have normal relations. I hope in the future, they have been able to go to cuba. I always use of this. Pope francis was very important when he visited cuba or the United States after and was important in the communication, do unto others as you would have them do unto you. We dont put sanctions on the United States. We dont attack the United States. Let us not be blind to our difference but our common interest and the means by which those differences can be resolved and if we cannot end now our difference at least we can help make the world safer. In the final analysis our most basic link, we all inhabit this small planet and breathe the same air and cherish our childrens future. This is an official of president kennedy talking about the soviet union. Why not with cuba . Thank you so much. I did it. You dont have anything to apologize, that was a great presentation. You get to ask questions and we can entertain comments. I am going to moderate the question and take the prerogative for the first one and some given your presentation, i have heard the saying cuba is abandoning socialism. An interesting question and it was related i will come back. If you see how many have questions or comments. I will give people numbers. 123. Your number . Okay. We are going to stop with that one in the first round. I dont believe in that. The people of cuba support the idea of the society we want to have in the future based on social justice, equal opportunities for everybody. The minority of the cuban people dont believe in capitalism and the solution of the problem, we see right now that capitalism only works for the 1 . We want to improve our life but we understand there is a part we can to and if we dont have the sanctions we faced for 60 years. In the new constitution, at the beginning if you compare with the old constitution we remove the word communism from the paper. As part of the debate, we want to repeat that as part of the project. A huge minority, 80 . I really believe it is not going to be nothing but with the minority of the cuban people report. We have equal opportunities, it is not about race or wealth but opportunities for everybody. You talked about cubans sitting down with the fbi. Also the fbi, cia, trying to appeal for the cc of terrorism, correct me if im wrong that sitting down trying to appeal and what the result was. Go into a little bit about that. With the fbi back in the 90s, we were suffering terrorist attacks, deliver information about who is behind this. Who is killing people in cuba and we deliver that information going after the people doing this, going after people that provide information. 16 years in jail in the United States, not fair of course and what happened, something happened to our diplomats, a sonic attack or whatever, bring all your technology and they came several times when they came back, there is not evidence of that and you will see that and they, using the narrative they changed that but the Scientific Community says it is impossible to talk about microwaves in this case and using that explanation it is more different. If you could speak up. A quick comment and a question. My comment is im misunderstand socialism and this country and landgrant colleges because these are socialized processes. I dont understand why cuba does not produce significantly more food. I remember farmers from Pennsylvania Association talking about agriculture and having glowing reports about the ecological environment, no pesticides or chemicals. Producing food in the right way. We dont use machinery or pesticides. This is my opinion because it is easy to go to the university and become a lawyer or diplomat or architect or physician people dont want to go back to the farm. We dont have immigrants to do the work or the machinery we have here so in the United States and europe, billions of dollars to subsidize that. When we tried to help and encourage people to produce, all the money that we want, we believe we need to produce food. We dont need to depend on others but this is the situation we have. My father was a farmer. He was not able to go to the university. That is what we have right now, the food we produce in cuba is healthy because we believe it is important. The health care system, we need to help people because somebody is paying for that. People dont need to go to the hospital, that is what we do. Thank you for the question. In latin american countries, 187 countries in cuba, us, israel and brazil with colombia and ukraine notwithstanding. A very important question and thank you for that. I didnt know about the results because i was talking here. It was a huge victory for cuba. [applause] i need to be honest. I need to believe the blockade is real. People say it is not real or people that defense say it is not real. Why we have the us ally voting with cuba and the European Union why they vote in support of cuba. Its not solidarity but they recognize it is real and they want to do more business with cuba. The United States every year put a lot of pressure in many in africa they leave the room before the vote and this is something interesting. Ive been in Congress Talking about this and i dont believe in the United Nations. Wait a minute. We have a lot of divisions in the United Nations but in the case of the blockade everybody is to gather so those the president of brazil doesnt support you and it is a chain for him. I believe people in brazil, for what happened todays vote i have to be very honest but you have limits and they put another question at other times you see the results so i believe it was a huge victory but it is not about to say that we win but it is a victory. It is not fair and where the sanctions happen anymore and needs to recognize this is not for the good of the cuban people but this is only to hurt the cuban people, thank you so much. My question is about internet access. Part of the issue, you cant import the technology. You have domestic access. Where is the technology coming from . We signed agreements with china, providing the technology and presentation to improve the access to the internet and in the past we only had access to the cables on the island. Sorry for my english. It was more expensive for cuba to access internet. We only had internet at the university. I saw for the first time internet. It was very difficult. And the improvement we are doing. They dont receive license to do business with cuba and there is a new, that is old measure, 10 of american, everything is american or chinese, if you need a license to bring something to cuba with 10 it is difficult to acquire that and too expensive. I was in cuba two years ago. Some of the prevailing theories i still here is we have such a hard policy on cuba because of cubans in florida who are basically republicans who had lands confiscated during the revolution who represent a big voting and donating block. Florida is a swing state and that is why one of the main reasons for the policy is how would you comment on that . I can say that every time, according to the information we see i dont know about the money about the boats it is not what was in the past. When you see the results and even now i mentioned 2016, the 115th congress we have cubanamericans in florida, now we only have one. There is a lot of change and i believe there are people who have a lot of power but they are a minority so i really believe if someone opened relations with cuba there will be more support without the blockade because with president obama we were not able to do more because the blockade was there. You will see more opportunities that will be better. The other parties cuba is not a priority. When i go to the hill they are dealing with many real priorities and cuba is not part of that but i dont see many cubans that will vote next year for a president that is cutting the opportunity for them to send money to cuba or to help cuban families. Can you imagine how much they will spend because they cannot fly directly and i believe in the late 50s, 60s, 70s and 80s you see a real change. That will be very soon. I confess and intel expert on cuba but very wellinformed on us policy and its history. I would suggest to you that it is not possible for you to have normal relations with the United States. For over 100 years it has been the cardinal principle of american, domestic, and Foreign Policy to oppose socialism or anything like it wherever it appears. This will not change. In my opinion only the bet you you can mobilize 1 Million People in a popular militia, prevented the United States from invading the country. Thank you so much for coming. People inside the United States i noticed you had statistics about many things but not racial changes. I have to be very honest. I only put statistics that i believe we received attacks in the media and i recognize some people use the racial issue but it is not a perfect presentation. Sometimes i dont have all the information i once. I want to use international sources. We can improve that. It is going to be really brief because i dont have all the information either but racism is the result of centuries of colonialism. No country on earth the way things are can be post racial. They make a lot of advances which if you have universal things they will benefit everybody you cant legislate. It is complicated to offer that. There are issues with color is him and everything everywhere, where there hasnt been it is a complicated question. It is complicated and that will take some stuff. I am from pakistan. I want to know how has cuba survived this long and maintained the position for the use policies. I am only 40 years old so in 1959 the history of cuba and only one person, i really believed we made social revolution because we had the support of the majority of the cuban people. I will try to use this because it is interesting. In 1959 people say it is only a few months, they are going to collapse. No way for a social revolution in 1959. We had bay of pigs, the missile crisis saying we will not invade you anymore and the soviet union. 1991 the soviet union disappeared so it is fantastic. They are going to collapse and in 2016 the same people, castro is there. What is my idea . What is my point . The cuban people support what we have. For that reason what we say, a consensus and support, i really believe the day they dont have the support of the cuban people nobody can imagine, when the soviet union disappeared, i remember those days i was a kid in cuba. We didnt have enough food or transportation and why . Yours do there. The minority were able to keep fighting saying this is what we want. The economy to all the countries and we allow Foreign Investment the way canada, spain, are you opening the door . Know. We open the door the United States is one of the countries. If we buy for example chicken in brazil why not in the United States . We will spend the same amount of money and have more chicken and talking about mobile, alabama, 32 hours by see and have the chicken. It is about that but we opened the economy to that but opening the door completely, to have something that is good. Thank you for your remarks, very informative. Thinking back to the results, does the environment work . You if you look at this geopolitical underhanded objective of the embargo it had and continues to work very well to the point that more people dont have that. Piggybacking on that i have some ideas having gone to cuba but i would be interested to hear what it represents because obviously the small island of cuba is doing something under the skin of this society. Is that the International Solidarity . What is the embodiment of it . The gentleman in front of me saying it could never ever change because that is a very defeatist attitude in this embargo is not just a concept. For the sake of human people this is an issue we see everywhere. We must not have that attitude. Correct me if im wrong but the United States is constituted by capitalism but if things change and we can get a Foreign Policy that it will change but right now regime change the other question after this and you can remember. I want to take the last two questions. I was trying to say i work with a network of people trying to insert Health Equity to public spaces internationally and really interested in cuba to share more information. Trying to think of examples of collaboration we could have with the embargo. Speak to that and what people might be looking for. On a note of hope, what i heard, they made a recent poll, apparently the ideological, about socialism it seems coming up of some representatives until the socialists have brought up questions and those going to the dictionary are finding out socialism is not the evil they thought it was. On a second note the day before yesterday opened the sale of brazilian shares which nobody bought for this offer. And finally for the last 20 years i have seen studies of the topic, i am a social scientist, looking for a change in research, nobody the was a social scientist in the us had to do with occupational labor studies and the radiofrequency syndrome. This is old debate since 1974 between scientists in the us and europe and the former soviet union. Theres been a big debate that exists or doesnt exist. Now this equation in the works is the process, a lot of development indicate there is a such thing i have not researched the whole thing as far as islamic attacks in havana but i do not believe it is an accident that in the background, i dont know how many of you are aware of it into the United States the framework that uses microwave radiation is changing to g5 and very few people understand the framework for the telecommunication, very few people. We have to it is going to be quick. In the background of that, should alert us to look into it because it is described too much, those radio frequencies but in the background of this change the g5, a lot of Health Issues that should be looked and studied. Try to remember i would like to do that under the skin of the blockade. And i think it is important to understand 70 of the cuban population was born after the blockade was in place. 70 doesnt know the reality. I believe a lot of cubans dont think about the blockade even when they have these accomplishments they dont think of the blockade but how we can do better. How we can improve our life. We dont care, we dont think about that. If we want to use buses from china or belarus which are not good, no problem. It is about the mentality of countries that dont surrender and always trying to improve their life and trying to build the biotech industry in the 90s when the soviet union disappeared and why spend all this money on the industry . It is important to do it now. The blockade affect the cubans, on an everyday basis. Why do we have to do this and not that . Why do we have access to only one source . People dont think about that. How can we improve the relation . What is under the skin why does the us persist in the blockade . It is part of the this is my personal opinion. As a diplomat you have to be careful but cuba is not a threat to the United States. How can you explain the blockade in place and we can show all this to the world. After four years i realized we have opportunities in other areas so cultural interchange supporting interchange. There are opportunities for everybody. There is something really important. You go to cuba, you dont see americans as the enemy. Nobody is going to attack you because you come from the United States. You will find opportunities to engage. The nationals or the world series. People feel welcome in cuba and cuba is open to engage in almost every area. The priority right now, we think about that but theres opportunity for that and the last we need to work to gather about what happened in havana but you cannot blame the country. To be very honest, happening in another country, not all but china, some diplomats suffered the same. Cbs put a special on this and you see what the diplomats say about that. You dont see the same reaction against china. We are not behind this. We did nothing wrong. All the diplomats. If something happened we need to Work Together. Thank you so much. We have to end. I will thank you for your questions, it enhanced the learning process. I hope we leave here wanting to normalize us cuba relations and the blockade sitting on the information but thank you for coming. I studied the literacy campaign. It is such a model and it would be a wonderful model. A documentary filmmaker is in the audience. [applause] [inaudible conversations] we take you live to the u. S. Senate chamber for a pro forma session with no legislative business on the agenda. You are watching cspan2. The presiding officer the senate will come to order. The clerk will read a communication to the senate. The clerk washington, d. C. , november 8, 2019. To the senate under the provisions of rule 1, paragraph 3, of the standing rules of the senate, i hereby appoint the honorable cory gardner, a senator from the state of colorado, to perform the duties of the chair. Signed chuck grassley, president pro tempore. The presiding officer under the previous order, the Senate Stands adjourned until 3 00 p. M. On tuesday, november