II
118THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 538
To prohibit the removal of Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism
until Cuba satisfies certain conditions, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
FEBRUARY27, 2023
Mr. R
UBIO(for himself, Mr. CRUZ, and Mr. SCOTTof Florida) introduced the
following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on
Foreign Relations
A BILL
To prohibit the removal of Cuba from the list of state spon-
sors of terrorism until Cuba satisfies certain conditions,
and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLES. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Fighting Oppression 4
until the Reign of Castro Ends Act’’ or the ‘‘FORCE 5
Act’’. 6
SEC. 2. STATEMENT OF POLICY. 7
It shall be the policy of the United States— 8
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(1) to support the Cuban people’s desire to hold 1
free and fair elections, which are supervised by re-2
spected international observers that respect the peo-3
ple of Cuba’s desire for freedom and democracy; 4
(2) to encourage the international community 5
to raise their voices in support of the Cuban people’s 6
desire to live freely; and 7
(3) to demand the release of all political pris-8
oners in Cuba. 9
SEC. 3. PROHIBITION ON REMOVAL. 10
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-11
sion of law, neither the President nor the Secretary of 12
State may remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors 13
of terrorism until the President makes the determination 14
described in section 205 of the Cuban Liberty and Demo-15
cratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (22 U.S.C. 16
6065). 17
(b) D
EFINEDTERM.—In this section, the term ‘‘state 18
sponsor of terrorism’’ means a country the government of 19
which the Secretary of State determines has repeatedly 20
provided support for international terrorism pursuant 21
to— 22
(1) section 1754(c)(1)(A) of the Export Control 23
Reform Act of 2018 (50 U.S.C. 4318(c)(1)(A)); 24
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(2) section 620A of the Foreign Assistance Act 1
of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2371); 2
(3) section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act 3
(22 U.S.C. 2780); or 4
(4) any other provision of law. 5
SEC. 4. REPORT. 6
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Not later than 180 days after the 7
date of the enactment of this Act, the President shall sub-8
mit a report to the Committee on Foreign Relations of 9
the Senate, the Select Committee on Intelligence of the 10
Senate, the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the House 11
of Representatives, and the Permanent Select Committee 12
on Intelligence of the House of Representatives that iden-13
tifies all terrorists and fugitives who— 14
(1)(A) have been convicted for a terrorism-re-15
lated offense in a United States court; 16
(B) fled the United States after being indicted 17
for a terrorism-related offense, but before standing 18
trial; or 19
(C) are members of a foreign terrorist organiza-20
tion; and 21
(2) are being provided safe haven in Cuba. 22
(b) F
ORM.—Each report submitted under this section 23
shall be submitted in unclassified form, but may include 24
a classified annex. 25
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SEC. 5. PROHIBITION OF FINANCIAL TRANSACTIONS BENE-1
FITTING THE CUBAN REGIME. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—No person subject to the jurisdic-3
tion of the United States may engage in a direct financial 4
transaction, including electronic remittances, with any en-5
tity or subentity that the Secretary of State, in consulta-6
tion with the Secretary of the Treasury, determines to be 7
under the control of, or acting for or on behalf of, the 8
Cuban military, intelligence, or security services or per-9
sonnel with which direct financial transactions would dis-10
proportionately benefit such services or personnel at the 11
expense of the Cuban people or private enterprise in Cuba. 12
(b) S
ENSE OFCONGRESSREGARDINGSANCTIONS.— 13
It is the sense of Congress that the Secretary of the Treas-14
ury should expand and tighten sanctions programs to en-15
sure beneficial ownership disclosure and material support 16
clauses to penalize tax havens for entities used by sanc-17
tioned countries, as was recently disclosed in the OpenLux 18
investigation of the Cuban military’s use of destinations 19
such as Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong. 20
SEC. 6. IMPLEMENTATION. 21
(a) U
PDATE ANDPUBLICATION OFENTITYLIST.— 22
Not later than 90 days after the date of the enactment 23
of this Act, and annually thereafter, the Secretary of State 24
shall— 25
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(1) in furtherance of the regulatory changes de-1
scribed in this section, identify the entities or sub-2
entities, as appropriate, that are under the control 3
of, or act for or on behalf of, the Cuban military, in-4
telligence, or security services or personnel, including 5
GAESA, its affiliates, subsidiaries, and successors; 6
(2) update a list of the entities and subentities 7
identified pursuant to paragraph (1) with which di-8
rect financial transactions would disproportionately 9
benefit such services or personnel at the expense of 10
the Cuban people or private enterprise in Cuba; and 11
(3) make the list updated pursuant to para-12
graph (2) available to the public. 13
(b) L
IMITATION.— 14
(1) P
ROHIBITED TRANSACTIONS .—Except as 15
provided in subsection (a) and section 8, the regu-16
latory changes described in this section shall prohibit 17
direct financial transactions with any entity or sub-18
entity on the list updated pursuant to subsection 19
(a)(2). 20
(2) A
LLOWED TRANSACTIONS .—The regulatory 21
changes described in this section may not prohibit 22
any transaction that the Secretary of the Treasury 23
or the Secretary of Commerce, in coordination with 24
the Secretary of State, determines is consistent with 25
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the policy of the United States, including trans-1
actions concerning— 2
(A) Federal Government operations, in-3
cluding operations at the Naval Station at 4
Guantanamo Bay and at the United States mis-5
sion in Havana; 6
(B) programs seeking to build democracy 7
in Cuba; 8
(C) air and sea operations that support 9
permissible travel, cargo, or trade; 10
(D) the acquisition of visas for permissible 11
travel; 12
(E) the expansion of direct telecommuni-13
cations and internet access for the Cuban peo-14
ple; 15
(F) the sale of agricultural commodities, 16
medicines, and medical devices sold to Cuba in 17
accordance with the Trade Sanctions Reform 18
and Export Enhancement Act of 2000 (22 19
U.S.C. 7201 et seq.) and the Cuban Democracy 20
Act of 2002 (22 U.S.C. 6001 et seq.); 21
(G) sending, processing, or receiving au-22
thorized remittances that do not wholly, or in 23
any part, benefit any entity or subentity on the 24
list updated pursuant to subsection (a)(2); 25
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(H) furthering the national security or for-1
eign policy interests of the United States; or 2
(I) any other activity that is required by 3
law. 4
(c) P
ROTECTION OFNATIONALINTERESTS.—Any ac-5
tivity conducted pursuant to subsection (a) or (b) shall 6
be carried out in a manner that furthers the national in-7
terests of the United States, including by appropriately 8
protecting sensitive sources, methods, and operations of 9
the Federal Government. 10
SEC. 7. REPORTING REQUIREMENTS. 11
(a) D
EFINEDTERM.—In this section, the term ‘‘ap-12
propriate congressional committees’’ means— 13
(1) the Committee on Foreign Relations of the 14
Senate; 15
(2) the Select Committee on Intelligence of the 16
Senate; 17
(3) the Committee on Homeland Security and 18
Governmental Affairs of the Senate; 19
(4) the Committee on Foreign Affairs of the 20
House of Representatives; 21
(5) the Permanent Select Committee on Intel-22
ligence of the House of Representatives; and 23
(6) the Committee on Homeland Security of the 24
House of Representatives. 25
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(b) REPORT ON THEINVOLVEMENT OF FIDELCAS-1
TRO, RAU´LCASTRO, ANDMIGUELDI´AZ-CANEL INPUB-2
LICCORRUPTION AND OTHERILLICITACTIVITIES.—Not 3
later than 60 days after the date of the enactment of this 4
Act, the Secretary of State, acting through the Bureau 5
of Intelligence and Research of the Department of State, 6
and in coordination with the Director of National Intel-7
ligence, shall submit a report to the appropriate congres-8
sional committees that describes— 9
(1) significant acts of public corruption in Cuba 10
that— 11
(A) involve— 12
(i) members of El Partido Comunista 13
de Cuba; or 14
(ii) senior officials of the Cuban re-15
gime, including members of La Asamblea 16
Nacional del Poder Popular, GAESA, and 17
the Ministerio del Interior; 18
(B) pose challenges for United States na-19
tional security and regional stability; 20
(C) impede the realization of freedom of 21
expression; or 22
(D) infringe upon the fundamental free-23
doms of civil society and political opponents in 24
Cuba; and 25
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(2) activities of the Maduro regime in Ven-1
ezuela taking place in Cuba, including— 2
(A) cooperation between Venezuela and 3
Cuba’s military personnel, intelligence services, 4
and security forces; 5
(B) cooperation related to telecommuni-6
cations and satellite navigation; 7
(C) other political and economic coopera-8
tion with the Government of Cuba; and 9
(D) the threats and risks that such activi-10
ties pose to United States national interests 11
and national security. 12
(c) N
OTIFICATION OFANYENGAGEMENT OF THE 13
U
NITEDSTATESWITHCUBA.—The Secretary of State, 14
in coordination with the Secretary of the Treasury, the 15
Secretary of Defense, the Attorney General, the Secretary 16
of Commerce, and the Secretary of Homeland Security, 17
shall notify the appropriate congressional committees of 18
any engagement of the United States with Cuba not later 19
than 14 days after such engagement to ensure that such 20
engagement is advancing the interests of the United 21
States. 22
SEC. 8. TERMINATION. 23
The limitation set forth in section 6(b)(1) shall termi-24
nate on the date that is 90 days after the date on which 25
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the President certifies to Congress that the Government 1
of Cuba— 2
(1) has taken the necessary steps to begin an 3
electoral process that is transparent, free, and fair 4
in accordance with sections 205 and 206 of the 5
Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity 6
(LIBERTAD) Act of 1996 (Public Law 104–114); 7
and 8
(2) has met the requirements for the termi-9
nation of the economic embargo set forth in section 10
204 of such Act. 11
Æ
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