[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 488 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
<DOC>
119th CONGRESS
1st Session
S. 488
To impose sanctions with respect to foreign persons that engage in
certain transactions relating to Cuba and to impose sanctions with
respect to human rights abuse and corruption in Cuba, and for other
purposes.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
February 6 (legislative day, February 5), 2025
Mr. Scott of Florida (for himself and Mr. Tuberville) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Foreign Relations
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To impose sanctions with respect to foreign persons that engage in
certain transactions relating to Cuba and to impose sanctions with
respect to human rights abuse and corruption in Cuba, and for other
purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Denying Earnings to the Military
Oligarchy in Cuba and Restricting Activities of the Cuban Intelligence
Apparatus Act'' or the ``DEMOCRACIA Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS; SENSE OF CONGRESS.
(a) Findings.--Congress finds the following:
(1) The Cuban Communist takeover of 1959 established in
Cuba a one-party authoritarian state of the Cuban Communist
Party.
(2) Cuba is a totalitarian state, in which the Cuban
Communist Party has brutally oppressed the people of Cuba for
more than 60 years.
(3) Cuban democracy activists, including Las Damas de
Blanco (also known as ``Ladies in White''), a group composed of
wives and relatives of political prisoners, prisoners of
conscience, and peaceful activists in Cuba, are routinely
repressed, censured, beaten, and unjustly imprisoned by the
Cuban Communist Party.
(4) On July 11, 2021, protesters marched in the streets
throughout Cuba voicing their opposition against the communist
regime of Cuba.
(5) During those protests, Cubans in more than 40 cities
held demonstrations chanting ``Freedom!'', ``Down with the
Dictatorship!'', and ``Patria y Vida'' (``Homeland and Life'').
(6) Through those protests, the people of Cuba demanded the
end to communism in Cuba and access to food, medicine, water,
and electricity, basic needs that the communist system in Cuba
cannot provide.
(7) Cubans gathered outside of the headquarters of the
Cuban Communist Party chanting, ``Cuba isn't yours!''. In a
clear message, Cubans exercised their fundamental God-given
rights to peaceably assemble, express their political opinions,
and live free of censorship and oppression and demanded the
ruling elites, especially the Cuban Communist Party, release
its control of their government and give the power back to the
people.
(8) During the July 11, 2021, protests, the Cuban Communist
Party deployed a wave of terror throughout Cuba by--
(A) unleashing its secret police and some military
forces on peaceful protesters and unlawfully detained
them, including by--
(i) harassing and threatening people in
their homes;
(ii) abducting and torturing civil society
leaders and other Cubans peacefully exercising
their fundamental rights; and
(iii) detaining more than 800 Cubans for
peacefully protesting, who have gone missing
since the protests and demonstrations began,
including leaders from Cuban civil society
groups such as UNPACU, the San Isidro Movement,
the Ladies in White, and religious leaders; and
(B) in a crude and savage effort to silence the
Cuban people, cutting internet connectivity and mobile
services throughout Cuba, which prevented the Cuban
people from organizing and hid from the outside world
images and videos of the oppressive and brutal
crackdown by the Government of Cuba.
(9) In response to these demonstrations and protests, the
regime blocked access to social media, messaging platforms and
cellular services, and arrested and detained hundreds of
protesters, activists, and journalists, according to Cuban
human rights groups.
(10) The Human Rights Report on Cuba for 2020 set forth by
the Department of State found that Cuba is an authoritarian
state.
(11) A new constitution ratified in February 2019 codified
that Cuba remains a one-party system in which the Cuban
Communist Party is the only legal political party. Elections in
Cuba were neither free, fair, nor competitive.
(12) The Ministry of Interior of Cuba (MININT) controls
police, internal security forces, and the prison system. The
National Revolutionary Police are the primary law enforcement
organization of the Ministry. Specialized units of the state
security branch of the Ministry are responsible for monitoring,
infiltrating, and suppressing independent political activity.
The national leadership of Cuba, including members of the
military, maintain effective control over the security forces.
Members of the security forces have committed numerous abuses.
(13) Significant human rights issues in Cuba include the
following:
(A) Unlawful or arbitrary killings by the
Government of Cuba, including extrajudicial killings.
(B) Forced disappearances by the Government of
Cuba.
(C) Torture and cruel, inhuman, and degrading
treatment of political dissidents, detainees, and
prisoners by security forces.
(D) Harsh and life-threatening prison conditions.
(E) Arbitrary arrests and detentions.
(F) The detaining of political prisoners.
(G) Significant problems with the independence of
the judiciary.
(H) Arbitrary or unlawful interference with
privacy.
(I) Functional lack of freedom of the press, as
criminal libel laws are used against persons who
criticize leadership of the Government of Cuba and that
Government has engaged in censorship and internet site
blocking.
(J) Severe limitations on academic and cultural
freedom.
(K) Severe restrictions on the right of peaceful
assembly and denial of freedom of association,
including refusal to recognize independent
associations.
(L) Severe restrictions on religious freedom.
(M) Restrictions on internal and external freedom
of movement.
(N) Inability of citizens to change their
government through free and fair elections.
(O) Restrictions on political participation to
members of the ruling party.
(P) Corruption by officials of the Government of
Cuba.
(Q) Trafficking in persons, including compulsory
labor.
(R) Outlawing of independent trade unions.
(14) Officials of the Government of Cuba, at the direction
of their superiors, have committed most human rights abuses. As
a matter of policy, officials failed to investigate or
prosecute the individuals who committed those abuses. Impunity
for the perpetrators has remained widespread.
(15) The United States Commission on International
Religious Freedom recommended in its 2021 Annual Report that
the United States Government again place Cuba on the special
watch list under section 402(b)(1)(A)(iii) of the International
Religious Freedom Act of 1998 (22 U.S.C. 6442(b)(1)(A)(iii))
and recommended imposing sanctions on the Office of Religious
Affairs of Cuba.
(16) In the report specified in paragraph (15), the United
States Commission on International Religious Freedom raised
concerns regarding the denial in Cuba of religious freedom for
human rights activists, independent journalists, and
protesters, particularly in the wake of demonstrations that
started on November 13, 2020, calling for greater freedom of
expression in Cuba.
(17) Cuba was ground zero for a series of yet unexplained
attacks in 2016 on members of the diplomatic community of the
United States in Havana, Cuba.
(18) Cuba continues to provide safe harbor for adversaries
of the United States, including multiple fugitives from justice
in the United States, including William Morales, Charles Hill,
Victor Manuel Gerena, and Joanne Chesimard, who executed New
Jersey State Trooper Werner Foerster during a routine traffic
stop in May 1973.
(19) The Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act
of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7201 et seq.) prohibits the President from
imposing unilateral agricultural or medical sanctions against
Cuba.
(20) The defense, security, and intelligence sectors of
Cuba are the primary perpetrators of beatings, arrests,
detainments, and unjust imprisonments of the Cuban people.
(21) The Cuban Communist Party has a long history of
racism.
(22) No high level positions within the Cuban Communist
Party are occupied by Afro-Cubans.
(23) Many Cubans who suffered the worst treatment at the
hands of the security forces of the Cuban Communist Party are
Afro-Cuban, such as Dr. Oscar Elias Biscet, Jorge Luis Garcia
Perez, Berta Soler of Las Damas de Blanco, Guillermo Farinas
Hernandez, Orlando Zapata Tamayo, Luis Manuel Otero Alcantara,
and Ivan Hernandez Carrillo.
(24) On January 12, 2021, the Department of State
determined that Cuba has repeatedly provided support for acts
of international terrorism and was designated a state sponsor
of terrorism.
(25) On May 14, 2021, Secretary of State Antony Blinken
determined and certified to Congress that Cuba is not
cooperating fully with United States antiterrorism efforts.
(26) The Cuban Communist Party continues to support
international terrorist groups such as the Revolutionary Armed
Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army
(ELN).
(27) Commercial engagement with the defense, security, and
intelligence sectors of Cuba empowers the human rights abuses,
racism against Afro-Cubans, and support for international
terrorism by the Cuban Communist Party.
(b) Sense of Congress.--It is the sense of Congress that Congress--
(1) reaffirms subsection (a) of section 1704 of the Cuban
Democracy Act of 1992 (22 U.S.C. 6003), which states that the
President should encourage foreign countries to restrict trade
and credit relations with Cuba in a manner consistent with the
purposes of that Act; and
(2) urges the President to take immediate steps to apply
the sanctions described in subsection (b)(1) of that section
with respect to countries assisting Cuba.
SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF POLICY.
It shall be the policy of the United States--
(1) to support the desire of the people of Cuba for freedom
and democracy; and
(2) to work with allies and the international community to
seek to restrict and reduce the financial resources of the
Cuban dictatorship, which supports terrorism and perpetrates
injustice and human rights abuses against the Cuban people,
that being the Cuban military, security, and intelligence
sectors.
SEC. 4. IMPOSITION OF SANCTIONS WITH RESPECT TO FOREIGN PERSONS THAT
ENGAGE IN CERTAIN TRANSACTIONS RELATING TO CUBA.
(a) Imposition of Sanctions.--
(1) In general.--The President shall impose the sanctions
described in subsection (b) with respect to a foreign person if
the President determines that the foreign person, on or after
the date of the enactment of this Act, knowingly engages in an
activity described in paragraph (2).
(2) Activities described.--Except as provided in paragraph
(3), a foreign person engages in an activity described in this
paragraph if the foreign person provides financial, material,
or technological support to, or engages in a transaction with--
(A) a covered sector of the Government of Cuba, or
any entity or individual affiliated with such sector
(including an immediate adult family member of such
individual);
(B) an agency, instrumentality, or other entity
owned by an entity that is part of or associated with a
covered sector, entity, or individual described in
subparagraph (A) in a percentage share exceeding 25
percent;
(C) an individual who is a senior official of a
covered sector or entity described in subparagraph (A)
(including an immediate adult family member of such
individual);
(D) an agency, instrumentality, or other entity
operated or controlled by a covered sector, entity, or
individual described in subparagraph (A);
(E) an entity or individual--
(i) for the purpose of avoiding a financial
transaction with, or the transfer of funds to,
an entity or individual specified in any of
subparagraphs (A) through (D); or
(ii) for the benefit of an entity or
individual specified in any of subparagraphs
(A) through (D);
(F) a foreign person that is a military contractor,
mercenary, or a paramilitary force knowingly operating
in a military, security, or intelligence capacity for
or on behalf of the Government of Cuba; or
(G) a foreign person subject to sanctions pursuant
to the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (50
U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) or the Trading with the Enemy Act
(50 U.S.C. 4301 et seq.) with respect to Cuba or any
other provision of law that imposes sanctions or other
economic restrictions or limitations with respect to
Cuba.
(3) Exceptions.--The following activities engaged in by a
foreign person shall not be considered to be activities
described in paragraph (2) for purposes of imposing sanctions
described in subsection (b) with respect to the person:
(A) The sale of agricultural commodities,
medicines, and medical devices sold to Cuba consistent
with the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement
Act of 2000 (22 U.S.C. 7201 et seq.).
(B) A remittance to an immediate family member,
other than--
(i) an individual who is a high-level
member of the Cuban Communist Party; or
(ii) an individual who is an immediate
family member of an individual described in
clause (i).
(C) A payment in furtherance of the lease agreement
for, or other financial transactions necessary for
maintenance and improvements of, the military base at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, including any adjacent areas
under the control or possession of the United States.
(D) Assistance or support in furtherance of
democracy-building efforts for Cuba described in
section 109 of the Cuban Liberty and Democratic
Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (22 U.S.C. 6039).
(E) Customary and routine financial transactions
necessary for the maintenance, improvements, or regular
duties of the United States Embassy in Havana, Cuba,
including outreach to the pro-democracy opposition.
(F) Accessing the internet or providing cellular
services if the internet and cellular services have
been restored, are without interference from the Cuban
regime, and do not include any technology, services, or
communications backed by the Communist Party of the
People's Republic of China.
(4) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that
the President should, in making a determination of whether a
foreign person engages in an activity described in paragraph
(2), consider the provision of loans, credits, or export
credits by the person to be a form of significant financial,
material, or technological support as described in such
paragraph.
(5) Covered sector defined.--In this subsection, the term
``covered sector'' means--
(A) the defense sector;
(B) the security sector;
(C) the intelligence sector; or
(D) any other sector of the Government of Cuba
beginning 15 days after the date on which the President
certifies to Congress that such sector is involved in
carrying out human rights abuses or providing support
for international terrorism.
(b) Sanctions Described.--
(1) In general.--The sanctions to be imposed with respect
to a foreign person subject to subsection (a) are the
following:
(A) Blocking of property.--The President shall
exercise all of the powers granted to the President
under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act
(50 U.S.C. 1701 et seq.) and the Trading with the Enemy
Act (50 U.S.C. 4301 et seq.) to the extent necessary to