Peter Deutsch: “The Skaggs amendment is clearly the wrong message at the wrong time. We are seeing specific things almost on a weekly…”

“The Skaggs amendment is clearly the wrong message at the wrong time. We are seeing specific things almost on a weekly basis occurring in Cuba which show the problems that the Castro regime is having. Internal leadership in terms of fighting the regime, demonstrations where people are literally putting their lives at risk on a weekly basis at the present time. To stop what we are doing now, to make a U-turn, to make a 90-degree turn in terms of the policies at the present time just does not make any sense at all. Let me focus in also on several specifics. One is the issue of the UHF ability which has not yet been tested. It is an ability in terms of having more people access to the station than exist today, but the message regardless is, I am sure that any of my colleagues who are supporting this amendment as they have spoken so eloquently already are not supportive of the Castro regime, are not supportive of his goals, are not supportive of his actions, but at the same time there is no question that changing the existence of both Radio and TV Marti would, in fact, support him in those goals. And I think the lesson of American foreign policy over this century has been not that we have looked at policies because they are easy, but because they are hard.”