"there's an open resistance in Cuba now; a resistance which is being oppressed"
"the benefit of having Americans travel to Cuba outweigh the hard currency"
"But if our policy, ultimately, is to foster democracy, shouldn't these groups be evaluated on the basis of what they would do to foster democracy?"
"I would just advocate that if indeed we're going to allow people to travel to Cuba, and our hope is that somehow this travel to Cuba will help foster democracy..."
"So we've already conceded, the administration has, that there's a price to be paid, that we recognize that these trips are providing hard currency for a repressive regime."
"I would hope that we would establish a policy that clearly creates a nexus between the trips and our foreign policy toward the island, which is the hope of advancing democracy."
"Isn't that something we're concerned about?"
"So we make clear to people who are traveling to Cuba for people-to-people contact, we make clear to them that if they go too far in advocating for democracy or regime change that they could go to jail..."
"And my other concern is that Alan Gross was on the island for the purpose of fostering access to information."
"the only safe way to go to Cuba is to travel there and not really do anything more than, you know, cultural stuff, but really don't talk about politics because that could get you in trouble."
"we have never offered unilateral concessions to the Cuban Government in exchange for Mr. Gross."
"As you know, El Salvador is a tier-two country, which means it's a source, destination, and transit country for human trafficking."