Legislature passes memorial asking President to press for UN meeting on Cuba atrocities

The Legislature has signed off on asking President Joe Biden and Congress to enlist the United Nations in stopping atrocities and genocide in Cuba.

Spurred by the uprising in Cuba last July when protesters took to the streets, and the crackdown that followed, Republican Rep. Tom Fabricio introduced the measure (CS/HM 43) ahead of the 2022 Session. It was adopted by House resolution on Feb. 9. Sen. Ileana Garcia took it up in front of the Senate, which approved it Thursday.

“The Cuban government continues to repress all peaceful attempts by the Cuban people to bring democratic change to the island nation by denying universally recognized civil liberties,” Garcia said. “It is the reason people have perished, drowned in international waters when fleeing in rafts.”

The legislation urges the President and Congress to call an emergency meeting with the U.N. Security Council to address the crackdown, which the legislation says, is “killing its citizens, torturing and silencing the will of its people.”

The memorial says the Cuban government is “using torture, violence and intimidation, and is withholding food, water, medicine, electricity, education and communication to the outside world in order to strangle the population into submission.”

The legislation also alleges that the Cuban government has used human trafficking, child labor, indoctrination, harboring terrorists, and terrorist activities.

Garcia said she and other Cuban Americans “are the dignity of the people being trampled.”

Garcia also noted that “other authoritarian regimes” are playing a role in the crisis.

“The resolution recognizes that the Cuban government is being supported by … Venezuela, China, Russia and Nicaragua and uses their support to continue to oppress the Cuban people,” Garcia said.

The memorial does not require the Governor’s signature.