I'd like to first say that I'm grateful to Canada. At the UN Human Rights Council, it has taken a strong position in defence of human rights in Cuba.
In terms of Magnitsky sanctions, I think that individuals like Raúl Castro, who directly participated in the extrajudicial killings of Cuban Americans with the shooting down of the Brothers to the Rescue, which was 30 years ago this past week.... Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas—a human rights defender who organized a petition drive called the Varela Project, which tens of thousands of Cubans signed, and who was recognized by the European Union with the Sakharov Prize—was murdered. The Inter-American Commission on Human Rights confirmed, in a report that came out in June 2023, that he was murdered by agents of the Cuban government. Those actions alone justify placing Magnitsky sanctions on Raúl Castro and on people in the hierarchy of the chain of command who executed those types of criminal actions.