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Excerpts of Jeb Bush's letter to Gov. Ventura

I want to share some information that I hope will provide you with a broader and more-realistic picture of life in Cuba. While I don't expect you to cancel your trip, I strongly believe doing so would be the right thing to do. I encourage you to consider other options as you look for opportunities to expand international trade for your state.

Recently, it has become politically popular for U.S. elected officials to travel to Cuba. But we should never forget that the people of Cuba don't share the same basic freedoms and rights that the residents of Florida and Minnesota enjoy. The reason: Fidel Castro denies them the opportunity to exercise the unalienable rights that we have come to take for granted in America.

Speaking out against government policies, fighting for what you believe, or attempting to change the established order to create a better society will make you an ''independent'' or ''maverick'' in the United States. In Cuba, you become a ''dissenter'' and an ''enemy of the revolution'' and are summarily thrown in jail.

As a strong supporter of worker rights, you should be aware of the abysmal conditions that hard-working Cubans must endure. For example, when foreign companies use Cuban laborers, the companies pay the Castro government in dollars or other hard currency, but the workers are paid in near-worthless pesos. In effect, Castro skims off the top and leaves the workers with a tiny fraction of what is rightfully theirs. He uses the difference to finance his oppressive regime and ensure its continued existence.

While in Cuba, ask about the Varela Project, a petition initiative --legal under the Cuban Constitution -- that calls for a referendum on open elections, freedom of speech, protection from state-sponsored political retribution and the establishment of free enterprise.

The initiative is led by the courageous Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas, who is being honored by the National Democratic Institute with its 2002 Democracy Award. The award is scheduled to be presented to Payá in Washington, D.C., on Sept. 30. So far, he has not been granted a visa from the Cuban government to travel to the United States. Ask every Cuban official you meet, including Castro, when Payá can expect to receive his visa.

Because your trip concerns the establishment of trade agreements, it should be noted that Cuba is not the economic windfall some U.S. companies are hoping for, nor is it the kind of business partner that Minnesota corporations are accustomed to working with. The Cuban government repeatedly fails to pay its bills, and many nations have stopped doing business with the island. The current business state of affairs in Cuba has been described as ''uneasy, unreliable and uncertain.'' That should not come as a surprise from a failed economic system that still considers private business and profits as evil. The result is a standard of living for Cubans that has gone in just a few decades from one of the highest in Latin America to one of the lowest.

Now is not the time to encourage expanded trade and grant unrestricted tourist travel to Cuba. Dollars generated from such activity are funneled into the coffers of the Cuban military and internal security forces. In fact, expanding tourism travel was exactly what Castro did in 1991 after he lost his stipend from the collapsed Soviet Union -- a stipend he earned by spying on the United States and inciting revolution throughout the Western Hemisphere.

Moreover, Cuba is a bad credit risk. Even the European Union, with many current and former Castro allies among its members, complained to the Cuban government about ''delayed payment, excessive government fees, and inconsistent and sometimes outlandish rules.'' France, Spain, Italy and Venezuela have suspended official credits after being left holding the bag filled with millions of dollars in IOU's.

I will commit to working with you in searching for new business and trade opportunities with nations other than Cuba. I will direct my office to research potential overseas ventures from which Florida and Minnesota can mutually benefit. There are many more-lucrative markets with countries that believe in democracy, free trade and respect for human dignity.

In a recent letter to Congress, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Treasury Paul O'Neill reminded lawmakers that the relationship between the United States and Cuba remains one of ''continued hostility.'' Cuba continues to harbor criminal fugitives and supports international terrorist organizations. While our military are protecting us from terrorists, Castro's government claims that the U.S. operation in Afghanistan has engaged in ''war atrocities.'' This type of rhetoric normally would be dismissed as absurd if it weren't so offensive to our uniformed personnel.

President Bush announced on May 2his''Initiative for a New Cuba,''a series of steps that the United States expects Castro to implement in return for a more-normalized diplomatic and trade relationship. While no one expects Castro to cede power, he continues to be unwilling to make even the most basic changes. We should not participate in his continued oppression of the Cuban people.

While in Cuba, meet with dissidents and other human-rights defenders. You will get another view and insight, directly from those who suffer under Castro's totalitarianism. They will tell you that lifting the trade embargo and allowing unrestricted travel will serve only to maintain the status quo and delay the peaceful transition to democracy and free enterprise that the Cubans have been waiting for and so justly deserve.

VOICE OF AMERICA SILENT AS TERRORIST THREAT LOOMS SOUTH OF THE BORDER

Wes Vernon
NewsMax.com
Washington
NewsMax
Colaboración:
Armando F. Mastrapa III
New York
La Nueva Cuba
Septiembre 23, 2002

A Castroite with extensive ties to international terrorism is leading in the polls in Brazil’s current presidential campaign, and thanks to Clinton holdovers in Washington, the U.S. is not able to reach the Brazilian people with the truth about the front runner and the dangers he represents to his country and the entire Western Hemisphere.

If Luis Inacio da Silva is elected next month, it will add Brazil to Fidel Castro’s Cuba and Hugo Chavez’s Venezuela as nations right in our own backyard who pose a threat to the security of the post-9/11 United States.

What’s more ironic is that several months ago, the Voice of America’s governing board made a decision to cut its broadcasts to Brazil in Portuguese, the dominant language in that country. That means that just as terrorist-friendly regimes increase in this hemisphere, the U.S. voice is muted.

"It was a preposterous decision,” stormed Robert Schadler, a onetime chief of staff at the U.S. Information Agency, predecessor to the Broadcasting Board of Governors (BBG), now dominated by Clintonites, which presently oversees VOA. Schadler also formerly held a variety of responsible positions at VOA itself.

"Brazil, I think, is the seventh largest country in the world,” added Schadler, now a leader of the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation, "It’s clearly the dominant country in South America.”

In an interview with NewsMax.com, Schadler said, "A Voice of America that gives an American perspective on America and international issues [in Brazil] is absolutely vital and very inexpensive.”

Writing in the Washington Times August 7, Hudson Institute Senior Fellow Constantine C. Menges said if da Silva is elected, "the results could include a radical regime in Brazil re-establishing its nuclear weapon and ballistic missile programs, developing close links to state sponsors of terrorism such as Cuba, Iraq, and Iran, and participating in the destabilization of neighboring democracies.”

Menges, a former member of the National Security Council, points out that this could lead 300 million people in six countries coming under the control of radical anti-U.S. regimes and the possibility that thousands of newly indoctrinated terrorists might try to attack the United States from Latin America.

"With Mr. Castro’s support,” Menges writes, "Mr. da Silva founded the Sao Paulo forum in 1990 as an annual meeting of communist and other radical terrorist and political organizations from Latin America, Europe, and the Middle East. This has been used to coordinate terrorist and political activities around the world and against the United States.”

The Sao Paulo Forum is still very much in business and pursuing its goals. Its last meeting was held in Havana, Cuba in December 2001. That meeting sharply condemned the Bush administration’s leadership in the war against international terrorism after 9/11.

When Menges talks about the threat from a Brazil under da Silva’s leadership, he is not merely theorizing. The Brazilian presidential candidate has said Brazil should have nuclear weapons and move closer to China, which has actively courted the Brazilian military.

Free Congress Foundation President Paul Weyrich notes that the Clinton loyalists dominating the BBG have persistently thwarted the objectives of the Bush administration. "even deciding to practically shut down broadcasting in Latin America without consulting Assistant Secretary of State Otto Reich, who argued it was important to maintain a U.S. presence on the airwaves there.”

Schadler told NewsMax that he has good reason to suspect that budget considerations drove this move.

"I believe…. that this issue was tied to the idea that they need to have a major initiative in the Middle East with music [programming],” he said.

That raises another issue that can backfire against the U.S. that NewsMax.com will deal with it in separate report.

Suffice it to say that the terrorist threat against the United States is increasing in Latin America, and the U.S. voice is missing in action, so to speak.

On Thursday, NewsMax.com e-mailed the International Broadcasting Bureau—the sister organization of VOA with an inquiry. The spokesman was referred to us by the State Department under whose umbrella both the VOA and IBB operate at the direction of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The question read as follows:

"It is my understanding Portuguese language broadcasts to Brazil were cancelled due to budget constraints. Now that a Castroite is up in the polls to lead that country in the upcoming election …. in hindsight, should those broadcasts to Brazil have been given a greater priority? Will they be reinstated?”

We gave the IBB a deadline to respond, with over 24 hours to come up with an answer. As we went to press late Friday, no reply had been received.