Otto J. Reich, the Cuban-born top State Department official in charge of Latin American affairs, said in a telephone interview that he has ordered a review of all areas of the policy, including the four-decades-old U.S. trade sanctions on the communist-ruled island. The review is scheduled to be completed within weeks, he said.
While not ruling out any outcome, Reich said the administration is seeking to make the policy more effective and thus is not likely to loosen the embargo -- a position that would have Congress and the White House headed in opposite directions.
…………. Reich, who will be officially sworn in Monday as assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs, said one area of innovation may be greater support for civil society groups in Cuba. Other U.S. officials say this may include support for human rights activists who are deemed ''traitors'' by the Cuban government.
The officials say they are considering ways to overcome the Cuban government's jamming of the U.S.-financed Radio and TV Martí, and new rules to limit travel by Cuban diplomats in the United States.
''We are going to review the whole thing,'' Reich said. ``The problem is that we have relied entirely on one component of the policy, the embargo.''
He added that U.S. foreign policy has a variety of tools at its disposal, including ''political, economic, diplomatic, informational and military components,'' and that some of these may be employed.
Asked specifically about the trade sanctions, Reich said that ``we are taking a closer look at the efficiency of our economic sanctions. I don't think we are going to loosen them. Unless we have changes in Cuba, we are not.'' [End Excerpts]
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Jeff Jacoby's three part series on Cuba "A walk in Havana" - "Keeping hope, conscience alive in Cuba" - "The US embargo and Cuba's future"--[Excerpt] And make no mistake: Doing business with Cuba means doing business with Castro. There is no private property in Cuba, no private enterprise, no private employers. Foreign investors must deal with the government. They cannot hire Cuban workers directly; a government agency chooses their workers for them. The investors pay Castro - in hard currency - for each worker; Castro in turn pays the workers a fraction of that amount - in all-but-worthless pesos.
So long as Cuba's dictator maintains his stranglehold on every aspect of Cuban life, ending the embargo would be counterproductive. It would do nothing to end the far more restrictive embargo that Castro imposes on the Cuban nation. It would give him the propaganda victory and the US dollars he craves, but it would do little to bring liberty or hope to ordinary Cuban citizens.
Every president since JFK has extended the Cuban embargo; to lift it in exchange for nothing - no free elections, no civil liberties - would be a betrayal of the very people we want to help. ''Tiende tu mano a Cuba,'' says Paya when I ask what he thinks of American policy, ''pero primero pide que le desaten las manos a los cubanos.'' Extend your hands to Cuba - but first unshackle ours.[End Excerpt]
The "embargo" does not work because it is only an American "embargo". It means nothing to Fidel, except propaganda, since every other country in the world does business with Cuba.
The embargo is stupid. During the Cold War, we traded with Russia; we currently trade with China. What makes Cuba special? Nothing.
And as for the Cuban cigars, I loathe the day the embargo is lifted because the market will be flooded with millions of fakes. In addition, to meet demand, the Cubans will pump out totally inferior product.
Yesterday on Firing Line, with his cynical smile, he showed how very uncaring about human suffering and unprincipled he is. He is unashamedly betraying President Bush’s policy against one of the worst terrorist states in the world.
Representative Flake, in proposing a project of law forcing the Executive power to ignore and violate the laws already in force that were promulgated by the Congress and signed by the President, denotes his faithful loyalty to his last name (a person marked by eccentric behavior or thinking). He wants to institute in our country a cafeteria rule of law in which each one picks whatever laws they want to obey or to ignore.
“Flake believes that by traveling more freely to Cuba, Americans will bring with them ideas and values that will help end the communist regime.” In other words, the contact with hundreds of thousands of European, Canadian, and Latin American tourists, have not been able to infest the Cubans with the virus of democracy. According to Rep. Flake, only by the contact with the American tourists, the virus of democracy and freedom can be transmitted.
This a case of extreme human insensitivity, the Washington politicians, women - bankers, business owners, and others - said they also support freer American travel to Cuba. Bread and circus, rum and sex, the American women representing the best our leftist zealots can offer; in the meantime, they continue ignoring the blood and tears of hundreds of thousands of Cuban heroes and martyrs while they feast and party with the tyrant.
Rep. Flake and his coterie of Castro’s sympathizers are disregarding Castro’s menace to our country and undermining President Bush’s war against terrorism.
“Flake believes that by traveling more freely to Cuba, Americans will bring with them ideas and values that will help end the communist regime.” In other words, the contact with hundreds of thousands of European, Canadian, and Latin American tourists, have not been able to infest the Cubans with the virus of democracy. According to Rep. Flake, only by the contact with the American tourists, the virus of democracy and freedom can be transmitted.
Is Rep. Flake joking or is he delirious? Unless the Americans he has in mind are the Marines, I don’t believe he would be fit to represent any State in the U.S. Congress.