Posted on 03/24/2005 9:31:41 PM PST by NormsRevenge
HAVANA (AP) - Two Republican lawmakers promised Thursday to try to ease U.S. restrictions against Cuba, saying tourism and trade can do more to undermine Fidel Castro's hold on the country than current U.S. policy.
Rep. Jeff Flake of Arizona said he will attempt to get Congress to eliminate funding for enforcement of the U.S. travel ban against Cuba, allowing more Americans to travel to the communist island.
"I don't think that the for the next four years we can maintain this policy," Flake told a group of international journalists.
Referring to America's four-decade old policy of isolating Cuba, Flake and Rep. Wally Herger of California said that U.S. policy-makers needed to take a more creative approach.
"We need to do what we did in Eastern Europe" by putting more Americans in contact with Cubans, said Herger. "Change will not come from the policies we've had in the past."
Tourists get out and among the Cuban people, Flake said. "They tip, they purchase, they have a corrosive effect on the regime."
Both lawmakers said they would also back other legislation aimed at making it easier for American food producers to sell to Cuba by easing new limitations on how communist Cuba pays for the goods.
Under a 2000 law that created an exception to the U.S. sanctions, American food and other agricultural products may be sold directly to the island on a cash-only basis. Cuba has contracted to buy about $1.2 billion in American goods since the island began taking advantage of the law in late 2001.
In recent months, new interpretations of the law by the administration of President Bush have tied up some sales by requiring that Cuba make the payments in full be before shipments leave American ports.
"Hopefully we can get this fixed," Flake said. "But make no mistake, the State Department is trying to make it more difficult to do these trades."
During their trip, which was winding up Thursday, Flake and Herger met with Cuban officials including Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, parliament speaker Ricardo Alarcon, and representatives of Cuba's food import agency Alimport.
The lawmakers, who expressed a deep commitment to supporting the island's government opponents, also met with several dissidents, including democracy drive organizer Oswaldo Paya, key religious leaders, and the chief of the U.S. Interests Section, the American mission here.
Flake, who visited Cuba several times in the past, said he was surprised by a new optimism among communist officials.
Despite predictions that the Castro government is nearing its end, "you certainly don't get that sense of urgency here," Flake said.
Rep. Wally Herger, R-Calif. speaks to reporters in the "Hotel Nacional" in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, March 24, 2005. Saying that American tourism and trade can do more to undermine Fidel Castro's government than current U.S. policy, Herger and Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. are promising to back more legislation this year to ease restrictions against the communist country.
Cuban currency won't be tied to U.S.
By VANESSA ARRINGTON, Associated Press Writer
http://www.bakersfield.com/24hour/world/story/2259131p-10425233c.html
HAVANA (AP) - In a move to further strengthen Cuba's national currency, Cuban President Fidel Castro announced that one of two types of money accepted on the island will no longer be automatically traded 1-1 to the U.S. dollar.
Beginning April 9, the exchange rate for the Cuban convertible peso will no longer be on par with the American dollar and instead will be tied to several foreign currencies, initially marking an 8 percent revaluation, Castro said in a televised speech late Thursday.
The Cuban leader said the move was necessary to create a Cuban economy no longer dependent on the U.S. dollar, which he noted is losing value against the euro and other major currencies.
Castro's announcement came a week after the communist government revalued the regular Cuban peso, a second currency used on the island, by 7 percent, marking the first change in that currency's exchange rate since it was frozen in December 2001.
The latest move will also help raise the value of the regular peso, said Castro, who has hinted repeatedly in recent months that he wants Cuba to have just one currency to eliminate the confusion and inequalities created among citizens after the American dollar was legalized in 1993.
The dollar was removed from circulation on the island four months ago and replaced by the convertible Cuban peso as the primary legal tender for many consumer goods.
While the regular Cuban peso is used for state salaries and most government goods and services, the convertible Cuban peso has been used for products such as electronics, clothing, cleaning supplies and food not provided on the government ration.
Under the new measure, Castro said, existing bank accounts in foreign currencies, as well as those opened before the measure takes effect April 9, would not be affected.
hmmm....the guy's name is Flake....
I am all for this....once Castro dies that is....
Despite that Cuban missile crisis, I can't see why we're trading with China and not Cuba. Our policy is almost skitzophrenic. They need to taste capitalism before Fidel croaks or power will end up shifting to the next dictator.
What idiots.
The restrictions are not in place to undermine Castro. They are in place because Castro stole US Business assets, and until those assets are recouped there should be no end to sanctions.
That's more of a banking matter, like the way we went after Iran's assets after they seized American property in the 70's.
But the travel sanctions are just silly. If you're an average American citizen who wants to go visit Cuba and see how Cuban families live, you can't legally do it. There is no Treasury Department exemption for that.
There is no logic to a system that lets you visit Iran, Sudan, Zimbabwe, Syria, North Korea, Turkmenistan, etc... but not Cuba.
I used to oppose this sort of thing.
Now that our country is murdering the disabled, I don't see that we can really hold ourselves above Castro anymore.
Not just Castro, I think. Everyone one of those murdering Movimiento 26 De Julio revolutionaries must die, and all U.S. property appropriated by those communists must be either returned or compensation paid to the owners or heirs.
I think the time has come to pull out those old news clips showing the Castro firing squads hard at work. Nothing will reform communist Cuba short of a regime change.
The quickest way to make sure Castro dies is to flood that island with capitalism - the sanctions have kept him alive, and the people without hope!
How so?
It is a contradiction. They want to try to do the same thing to Cuba as China: trade, trade, trade and then they'll be more free, free, free. It has been proven that this idea doesn't work.
China still has one of the worst human rights records and despite a booming economy, the people are still in chains.
Appeasement blows.
Typical libertarian. No principles of right and wrong. Doesn't want to pass judgment on a foreign country.
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