Posted on 05/20/2002 3:35:25 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Without major steps by Cuba to open up its political system and its economic system, trade with Cuba will not help the Cuban people. It will merely enrich Castro and his cronies and prop up the dictatorship.''
WASHINGTON - In a major policy statement this morning, President Bush will announce several steps to ease the hardships faced daily by Cubans and shore up administration efforts to break Fidel Castro's 40-year hold on the island.
Among the measures:
o Offering scholarships for study in the United States to family members of political prisoners and to Cuban students and professionals trying to build independent civil institutions.
o Negotiating for direct mail service between Cuba and the United States. Mail must now go through a third country.
o Providing direct assistance to Cubans through nongovernmental organizations, sidestepping the Castro regime's role in assistance.
o Facilitating and permitting humanitarian assistance by American religious and other nongovernmental groups.
Following his speech at the White House, Bush, accompanied by prominent Cuban-American political leaders, will fly to Miami to join a celebration at the James L. Knight Center of the 100th anniversary of Cuba's independence. He will also attend an exclusive Republican fundraiser for his brother, Gov. Jeb Bush.
In the Washington speech, titled Initiative for a New Cuba, Bush will, as widely expected, reaffirm the U.S. economic embargo of Cuba and challenge Castro to move his regime toward ''a fully functioning democratic society,'' a senior administration official said.
Bush will also uphold a ban on most U.S. citizen travel to Cuba, the official said, insisting on anonymity. The travel ban was defied by tens of thousands of Americans last year who risked heavy federal fines.
The president's initiative will challenge Castro to play by the same democratic rules as every other nation in the Western Hemisphere.
''That means freedom to organize, no political prisoners, access to the media [for candidates)] and international monitors for elections,'' the official said.
SPEECH EXCERPTS
Cuba's National Assembly holds elections next year, and Bush will encourage Havana to ''offer Cuban voters the substance of democracy, not just its hollow, empty forms,'' according to excerpts from the speech provided by the White House on Sunday evening.
''Opposition parties should have the freedom to organize, assemble and speak -- with equal access to the airwaves,'' the excerpt sheet states. Cuba must open up to ``objective, outside observers.''
In a warning to Capitol Hill, where a growing number of legislators want to loosen the four-decade-old embargo, the president will pledge not to ease the pressure on the Castro regime unless it moves toward dramatic structural democratic reform, the official said.
''We will not lift the embargo until such time as the Cuban government holds free and fair elections,'' the official said.
The speech excerpts state:
```Without major steps by Cuba to open up its political system and its economic system, trade with Cuba will not help the Cuban people. It will merely enrich Castro and his cronies and prop up the dictatorship.''
RENEWED DEBATE
Bush's initiative also calls on the Cuban government to allow independent trade unions and to end discriminatory practices against Cuban workers.
''Full normalization of relations with Cuba -- diplomatic recognition, open trade and a robust aid program -- will only be possible when Cuba has a new government that is fully democratic, when the rule of law is respected, and when the human rights of all Cubans are fully protected,'' the excerpts state.
Jimmy Carter's recent trip to Cuba, growing debate about the island in Congress and the administration's policy review all have elevated discussion about Cuba to new levels.
Earlier Sunday, prominent leaders of the pro- and anti-embargo movements squared off on ABC's This Week news show, offering sharply different views on how to topple the hemisphere's last strongman.
DOUBLE STANDARD?
The U.S. government employs a double standard by trading with one-party communist regimes in China and Vietnam, affirming that commerce may open the way for political freedoms, while shunning Cuba, said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., a leader of a new 40-member congressional bloc seeking an easing of tensions with Cuba.
''We concede that if we engage in China, North Korea, Vietnam, that we can bring them closer to democracy and a more rapid transition. Yet in Cuba, we say the opposite is true,'' Flake said.
Cuba's leader ''is a dictator,'' responded Jorge Mas Santos, head of the Cuban American National Foundation, a leading exile group fighting to increase pressure on the Castro regime.
''We cannot appease a dictator, a man who leads a country that's on the terrorist list,'' he said, referring to a State Department list of seven nations believed to sponsor global terrorism.
Mas Santos rejected the lifting of a U.S. travel ban to Cuba, which has been largely off-limits to U.S. citizens for four decades.
HOTEL SITUATION
Cuba's hotels and tourist facilities are segregated, Mas Santos said, ``similar to the apartheid system that was in South Africa.''
Flake, for his part, said the U.S. government is lenient on Cuban Americans who flout laws restricting them to one trip a year to Cuba or send more than $100 a month to relatives on the island. He said Cuba is receiving $700 million a year, much of it in ''excess remittances'' by Cuban Americans.
With that said and for those who will read on.
What has it done in 40 years?......except make some refugees feel good and perhaps protect a few property owners who lost land in the "revolution" ( read take over)...those lands are gone never to be reinstated.
We trade with and prop up dictators all over this world, sometimes I think Castro is left in power just so we have a "local" bully to hate
If we wanted to democratize cuba we would and do it easily. We'd storm across the island in a week and be done. I've been told and read time and time again the people there want liberty.great , lets go in take it over allow them elections and leave....sounds simple enough, well its not.....the damn liberals would go crazy that we are an empire.......The truth is we are an empire look at the new "seat belt road blocks and the intrusions into privacy......we are a empire undeclared one that still for the moment fears the populace it rules.......another couple terrorist attacks and the people will roll over and then the empire will extend without delay.....it will be promoted in the streets.
That will signal the true end to the American experiment...I fear it will happen sooner ..rather than later.
Good find.
Providing direct assistance to Cubans through nongovernmental organizations, sidestepping the Castro regime's role in assistance.
Facilitating and permitting humanitarian assistance by American religious and other nongovernmental groups.
Crumbs. Here they go again – they are going to give our money away to these robber organizations just like the 2 billion dollars of our money the government has been giving to Colombia (Plan Colombia) which is ending up in private pockets. From the beginning, a lot of us could have told them that would happen. Nobody needed a crystal ball.
Someone pointed out yesterday that Castro no longer has the Soviet Union to prop him up, and therefore in the last few years the embargo has been a whole lot tougher on Cuba than previously.
Bump!
Giving taxpayers money to foreigners should be a felony and congresscritters imprisoned. PORK projects of any kind should be treated as felonies - it's theft from your pocket & mine. It's socialism and vote-buying.
My what a informed response.
Ignorant of what facts...that we are at war, that a boycott of 40 years has done nothing...that cubans living here send millions to families and that possibly President Monroe was right about "Manifest Destiny"
Time we cleaned up our own back yard.
LOL!!!
I agree with you. It truly, truly makes me sick!
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