Pub.L. 104-115 To guarantee the continuing full investment of Social Security and other Federal funds in obligations of the United States. <> ...

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Public Law 104-114
104th Congress

                                 An Act


 
 To seek international sanctions against the Castro government in Cuba, 
      to plan for support of a transition government leading to a 
        democratically elected government in Cuba, and for other 
            purposes. <<NOTE: Mar. 12, 1996 -  [H.R. 927]>> 

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled, <<NOTE: Cuban Liberty 
and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996.>> 

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE; TABLE OF CONTENTS.

    (a) <<NOTE: 22 USC 6021 note.>>  Short Title.--This Act may be cited 
as the ``Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 
1996''.

    (b) Table of Contents.--The table of contents of this Act is as 
follows:

Sec. 1. Short title; table of contents.
Sec. 2. Findings.
Sec. 3. Purposes.
Sec. 4. Definitions.
Sec. 5. Severability.

   TITLE I--STRENGTHENING INTERNATIONAL SANCTIONS AGAINST THE CASTRO 
                               GOVERNMENT

Sec. 101. Statement of policy.
Sec. 102. Enforcement of the economic embargo of Cuba.
Sec. 103. Prohibition against indirect financing of Cuba.
Sec. 104. United States opposition to Cuban membership in international 
           financial institutions.
Sec. 105. United States opposition to termination of the suspension of 
           the Cuban Government from participation in the Organization 
           of American States.
Sec. 106. Assistance by the independent states of the former Soviet 
           Union for the Cuban Government.
Sec. 107. Television broadcasting to Cuba.
Sec. 108. Reports on commerce with, and assistance to, Cuba from other 
           foreign countries.
Sec. 109. Authorization of support for democratic and human rights 
           groups and international observers.
Sec. 110. Importation safeguard against certain Cuban products.
Sec. 111. Withholding of foreign assistance from countries supporting 
           Juragua nuclear plant in Cuba.
Sec. 112. Reinstitution of family remittances and travel to Cuba.
Sec. 113. Expulsion of criminals from Cuba.
Sec. 114. News bureaus in Cuba.
Sec. 115. Effect of Act on lawful United States Government activities.
Sec. 116. Condemnation of Cuban attack on American aircraft.

           TITLE II--ASSISTANCE TO A FREE AND INDEPENDENT CUBA

Sec. 201. Policy toward a transition government and a democratically 
           elected government in Cuba.
Sec. 202. Assistance for the Cuban people.
Sec. 203. Coordination of assistance program; implementation and reports 
           to Congress; reprogramming.
Sec. 204. Termination of the economic embargo of Cuba.
Sec. 205. Requirements and factors for determining a transition 
           government.
Sec. 206. Requirements for determining a democratically elected 
           government.

[[Page 110 STAT. 786]]

Sec. 207. Settlement of outstanding United States claims to confiscated 
           property in Cuba.

   TITLE III--PROTECTION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS OF UNITED STATES NATIONALS

Sec. 301. Findings.
Sec. 302. Liability for trafficking in confiscated property claimed by 
           United States nationals.
Sec. 303. Proof of ownership of claims to confiscated property.
Sec. 304. Exclusivity of Foreign Claims Settlement Commission 
           certification procedure.
Sec. 305. Limitation of actions.
Sec. 306. Effective date.

                  TITLE IV--EXCLUSION OF CERTAIN ALIENS

Sec. 401. Exclusion from the United States of aliens who have 
           confiscated property of United States nationals or who 
           traffic in such property.

SEC. 2. <<NOTE: 22 USC 6021.>>  FINDINGS.

    The Congress makes the following findings:
            (1) The economy of Cuba has experienced a decline of at 
        least 60 percent in the last 5 years as a result of--
                    (A) the end of its subsidization by the former 
                Soviet Union of between 5 billion and 6 billion dollars 
                annually;
                    (B) 36 years of communist tyranny and economic 
                mismanagement by the Castro government;
                    (C) the extreme decline in trade between Cuba and 
                the countries of the former Soviet bloc; and
                    (D) the stated policy of the Russian Government and 
                the countries of the former Soviet bloc to conduct 
                economic relations with Cuba on strictly commercial 
                terms.
            (2) At the same time, the welfare and health of the Cuban 
        people have substantially deteriorated as a result of this 
        economic decline and the refusal of the Castro regime to permit 
        free and fair democratic elections in Cuba.
            (3) The Castro regime has made it abundantly clear that it 
        will not engage in any substantive political reforms that would 
        lead to democracy, a market economy, or an economic recovery.
            (4) The repression of the Cuban people, including a ban on 
        free and fair democratic elections, and continuing violations of 
        fundamental human rights, have isolated the Cuban regime as the 
        only completely nondemocratic government in the Western 
        Hemisphere.
            (5) As long as free elections are not held in Cuba, the 
        economic condition of the country and the welfare of the Cuban 
        people will not improve in any significant way.
            (6) The totalitarian nature of the Castro regime has 
        deprived the Cuban people of any peaceful means to improve their 
        condition and has led thousands of Cuban citizens to risk or 
        lose their lives in dangerous attempts to escape from Cuba to 
        freedom.
            (7) Radio Marti and Television Marti have both been 
        effective vehicles for providing the people of Cuba with news 
        and information and have helped to bolster the morale of the 
        people of Cuba living under tyranny.
            (8) The consistent policy of the United States towards Cuba 
        since the beginning of the Castro regime, carried out by both 
        Democratic and Republican administrations, has sought to keep 
        faith with the people of Cuba, and has been effective in 
        sanctioning the totalitarian Castro regime.

[[Page 110 STAT. 787]]

            (9) The United States has shown a deep commitment, and 
        considers it a moral obligation, to promote and protect human 
        rights and fundamental freedoms as expressed in the Charter of 
        the United Nations and in the Universal Declaration of Human 
        Rights.
            (10) The Congress has historically and consistently 
        manifested its solidarity and the solidarity of the American 
        people with the democratic aspirations of the Cuban people.
            (11) The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 calls upon the 
        President to encourage the governments of countries that conduct 
        trade with Cuba to restrict their trade and credit relations 
        with Cuba in a manner consistent with the purposes of that Act.
            (12) Amendments to the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 made 
        by the FREEDOM Support Act require that the President, in 
        providing economic assistance to Russia and the emerging 
        Eurasian democracies, take into account the extent to which they 
        are acting to ``terminate support for the communist regime in 
        Cuba, including removal of troops, closing military facilities, 
        and ceasing trade subsidies and economic, nuclear, and other 
        assistance''.
            (13) The Cuban Government engages in the illegal 
        international narcotics trade and harbors fugitives from justice 
        in the United States.
            (14) The Castro government threatens international peace and 
        security by engaging in acts of armed subversion and terrorism 
        such as the training and supplying of groups dedicated to 
        international violence.
            (15) The Castro government has utilized from its inception 
        and continues to utilize torture in various forms (including by 
        psychiatry), as well as execution, exile, confiscation, 
        political imprisonment, and other forms of terror and 
        repression, as means of retaining power.
            (16) <<NOTE: Fidel Castro.>> Fidel Castro has defined 
        democratic pluralism as ``pluralistic garbage'' and continues to 
        make clear that he has no intention of tolerating the 
        democratization of Cuban society.
            (17) The Castro government holds innocent Cubans hostage in 
        Cuba by no fault of the hostages themselves solely because 
        relatives have escaped the country.
            (18) Although a signatory state to the 1928 Inter-American 
        Convention on Asylum and the International Covenant on Civil and 
        Political Rights (which protects the right to leave one's own 
        country), Cuba nevertheless surrounds embassies in its capital 
        by armed forces to thwart the right of its citizens to seek 
        asylum and systematically denies that right to the Cuban people, 
        punishing them by imprisonment for seeking to leave the country 
        and killing them for attempting to do so (as demonstrated in the 
        case of the confirmed murder of over 40 men, women, and children 
        who were seeking to leave Cuba on July 13, 1994).
            (19) The Castro government continues to utilize blackmail, 
        such as the immigration crisis with which it threatened the 
        United States in the summer of 1994, and other unacceptable and 
        illegal forms of conduct to influence the actions of sovereign 
        states in the Western Hemisphere in violation of the Charter of 
        the Organization of American States and other international 
        agreements and international law.

[[Page 110 STAT. 788]]

            (20) The United Nations Commission on Human Rights has 
        repeatedly reported on the unacceptable human rights situation 
        in Cuba and has taken the extraordinary step of appointing a 
        Special Rapporteur.
            (21) The Cuban Government has consistently refused access to 
        the Special Rapporteur and formally expressed its decision not 
        to ``implement so much as one comma'' of the United Nations 
        Resolutions appointing the Rapporteur.
            (22) The United Nations General Assembly passed Resolution 
        47-139 on December 18, 1992, Resolution 48-142 on December 20, 
        1993, and Resolution 49-200 on December 23, 1994, referencing 
        the Special Rapporteur's reports to the United Nations and 
        condemning violations of human rights and fundamental freedoms 
        in Cuba.
            (23) Article 39 of Chapter VII of the United Nations Charter 
        provides that the United Nations Security Council ``shall 
        determine the existence of any threat to the peace, breach of 
        the peace, or act of aggression and shall make recommendations, 
        or decide what measures shall be taken . . ., to maintain or 
        restore international peace and security.''.
            (24) The United Nations has determined that massive and 
        systematic violations of human rights may constitute a ``threat 
        to peace'' under Article 39 and has imposed sanctions due to 
        such violations of human rights in the cases of Rhodesia, South 
        Africa, Iraq, and the former Yugoslavia.
            (25) In the case of Haiti, a neighbor of Cuba not as close 
        to the United States as Cuba, the United States led an effort to 
        obtain and did obtain a United Nations Security Council embargo 
        and blockade against that country due to the existence of a 
        military dictatorship in power less than 3 years.
            (26) United Nations Security Council Resolution 940 of July 
        31, 1994, subsequently authorized the use of ``all necessary 
        means'' to restore the ``democratically elected government of 
        Haiti'', and the democratically elected government of Haiti was 
        restored to power on October 15, 1994.
            (27) The Cuban people deserve to be assisted in a decisive 
        manner to end the tyranny that has oppressed them for 36 years, 
        and the continued failure to do so constitutes ethically 
        improper conduct by the international community.
            (28) For the past 36 years, the Cuban Government has posed 
        and continues to pose a national security threat to the United 
        States.

SEC. 3. <<NOTE: 22 USC 6022.>>  PURPOSES.

    The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to assist the Cuban people in regaining their freedom 
        and prosperity, as well as in joining the community of 
        democratic countries that are flourishing in the Western 
        Hemisphere;
            (2) to strengthen international sanctions against the Castro 
        government;
            (3) to provide for the continued national security of the 
        United States in the face of continuing threats from the Castro 
        government of terrorism, theft of property from United States 
        nationals by the Castro government, and the political 
        manipulation by the Castro government of the desire of Cubans to 
        escape that results in mass migration to the United States;

[[Page 110 STAT. 789]]

            (4) to encourage the holding of free and fair democratic 
        elections in Cuba, conducted under the supervision of 
        internationally recognized observers;
            (5) to provide a policy framework for United States support 
        to the Cuban people in response to the formation of a transition 
        government or a democratically elected government in Cuba; and
            (6) to protect United States nationals against confiscatory 
        takings and the wrongful trafficking in property confiscated by 
        the Castro regime.

SEC. 4. <<NOTE: 22 USC 6023.>>  DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act, the following terms have the following 
meanings:
            (1) Agency or instrumentality of a foreign state.--The term 
        ``agency or instrumentality of a foreign state'' has the meaning 
        given that term in section 1603(b) of title 28, United States 
        Code.
            (2) Appropriate congressional committees.--The term 
        ``appropriate congressional committees'' means the Committee on 
        International Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of 
        the House of Representatives and the Committee on Foreign 
        Relations and the Committee on Appropriations of the Senate.
            (3) Commercial activity.--The term ``commercial activity'' 
        has the meaning given that term in section 1603(d) of title 28, 
        United States Code.
            (4) Confiscated.--As used in titles I and III, the term 
        ``confiscated'' refers to--
                    (A) the nationalization, expropriation, or other 
                seizure by the Cuban Government of ownership or control 
                of property, on or after January 1, 1959--
                          (i) without the property having been returned 
                      or adequate and effective compensation provided; 

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