Posted on 05/12/2002 2:55:27 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Gene Hall remembers well the fall of 1962.
An 8-year-old farm kid growing up in East Texas, Hall held his breath with the rest of the world as President Kennedy faced down the Russians, forcing them to remove their missiles from Cuba and narrowly averting nuclear war.
"It was the most frightened I have ever been in my life," Hall recalled.
But decades later, when Hall, now a spokesman for the Texas Farm Bureau, found himself in Havana dining with Cuban President Fidel Castro, he thought not about the 13 days of the Cuban Missile Crisis but of the six days it would take to get Texas food to Cuban mouths.
"You can't change history, but you eventually move on from it and make new history," said Hall, who was among a group of Texas farmers who toured Cuba in 1999 and 2001 seeking a new market for their products.
"We represent Texas farmers and ranchers, who are very patriotic people, but we wanted to go down there to see for ourselves," he said. "We found a nation of friendly people, who like Americans, who are eager to purchase American goods, and there is no doubt that Cuba is an important potential market for surplus Texas farm products."
In fact, if the U.S. government would ease restrictions on trade with the island nation of 12 million just 90 miles from the Florida shore, Texas farmers stand to earn millions yearly on sales of rice and other crops.
The bureau has been a strong proponent of removing trade barriers with Cuba in recent years.
Hall said that commitment is wavering slightly after the U.S. State Department last week accused Cuba of researching biological weaponry and sharing the data with "other rogue states."
"We want to know more about that," he said.
But Hall and other Americans who have visited Cuba said they came away feeling that Cubans are genuinely interested in Americans as friends, neighbors and potential business partners.
They hope former President Carter's historic visit to Cuba this week will help build on the relationship they have begun.
Isolated in the Caribbean by the policies of its communist dictator and by the United States' four-decade trade embargo, Cuba buys its rice from the Far East. Shipping takes six weeks.
Texas could sell virtually its entire crop to Cuba at good prices, Hall said, and could get it from the Port of Houston to the port of Havana in under a week. "Texas would have a huge advantage in this market," he said.
That attitude is common among many in the United States, said Sally Grooms Cowal, president of the Washington, D.C.-based Cuban Policy Foundation.
"If you take the Bush administration's word for it, there is a monolith of anti-Cuban opinion in the United States," Cowal said. "But in fact, in Congress, in state legislatures, in the business community, there is a tremendous desire to get on with things. The average American thinks, `Why continue with this policy?' "
Cowal, whose group supports lifting the embargo and the ban on Americans traveling to Cuba, estimates that Cuba is a potential $1.24 billion-a-year market for U.S. food products and agricultural chemicals.
That's not huge, given the amount of trade the United States conducts with other nations, but the state-by-state numbers are appealing, Cowal said, especially during economic hard times.
Arkansas Farm Bureau President David Hillman agrees. His state already has sold some agricultural products to Cuba under a tightly controlled trickle of trade permitted between the countries beginning last year.
Like Texas, Arkansas stands to cash in if the U.S. government opens up more trade with Cuba. Hillman estimates his state could sell Cuba $168 million worth of chicken and farm products per year, giving the economy a much-needed boost.
"It just makes sense to everybody," Hillman said. "We fought a war with Vietnam, and yet we trade with them every day. We trade with China. Eventually, we ought to be trading with Cuba."
Cuban exiles, who fled the country for Florida shortly after Castro's rise to power in 1959 after a bloody revolution, strongly disagree. The embargo, they said, is essential to keep up the pressure on Castro to halt his government's human rights abuses and return the island to democratic rule and a capitalist economic system.
The Bush administration is siding with the politically powerful exiles, whose might in Florida could be key to the re-election of that state's governor, Bush's brother Jeb.
"We are not going to help Fidel Castro stay in power by opening up our markets to Cuba," said Cuban-born Otto Reich, whom Bush appointed as the State Department's top official for Latin American affairs over the objections of the U.S. Senate. A democratic transition in Cuba could be expedited, Reich said earlier this year, by "not throwing a lifeline to a failed, corrupt, dictatorial, murderous regime."
Hillman, however, said he sees trade as a lifeline not for Castro but for struggling U.S. farmers and for starving Cubans, who wait in long lines for a rationed food supply with little variety.
"Why do we want to punish the Cuban people because of the stand Fidel Castro has made?" he asked.
Hall agreed. "Food is a priority, and they are buying it from somewhere," he said. "Why not from Texas?"
First - Cuba is free to buy U.S. goods now, but because of their sorry track record of unpaid bills owed to other countries, we want cash, not U.S. taxpayer backed loans. The average Cuban never truly benefits from foreign trade, as these goods are funneled through Castro's tourism business which caters mainly to Canadians, French and Germans. Jobs in this tourism industry are given to communist members in good standing. Others are paid by Castro with pesos for labor reimbursed in dollars to Castro by foreign companies. His cut is 90%. This access to subsidized imports allows Castro to export terrorism and anti-American assistance around the world.
Second - Sally Grooms Cowal, former president of the Cuba Policy Foundation headed Youth for Understanding, housed Elian Gonzalez in Washington D.C. after the raid called by the Clinton Administration and carried out by Janet Reno's Justice Department. He was held there and Ms. Gooms Cowal was assisted in his care by an entourage sent by Castro before his return to Cuba. She has since left as president of that group, having been bankrolled in her new endeavor, the Cuba Policy Foundation by Smith Bagley of the Reynolds Tobacco Company and a strong support of pro Castro efforts.
Showdown over U.S. Cuba policy nears
Reich vows to defend Cuba embargo: 'Murderous regime' criticized in wide-ranging policy statement
Smith Bagley's Arca Foundation: Left Wing Stooges create another front for Castro
Bush nominee deserves better than old grudges
Third - Otto Juan Reich, Bush's recess appointment as Secretary of Western Hemisphere Affairs, was denied a Senate hearing by Christopher Dodd, who chose to smear an honorable man unable, under the rules of nomination, to speak in his own defense. Dodd, a fan of Manuel Noriega, needless to say has a strong affinity for Castro and an intense dislike for Otto Reich. Reich has had to deal with serious matters neglected and left to drift under the Clinton administration. Due to this inattention to foreign policy in this hemisphere, many of our neighbors to the south are experiencing economic and political strife. Castro has been grooming Hugo Chavez, president of Venezuela. They have developed a strong communist bond and are currently setting that oil rich country up as the center of Anti-American anti-capitalism in this region. Colombia has been fighting the FARC terrorist group that attacks and kidnaps civilians while training terrorists from around the world. Chavez and Castro are supporters of this large paramilitary, narcotics bankrolled, terrorist organization operating in our region.
Colombia 'Worried' FARC Crossing Into Venezuela
FARC: A Terrorist Regime Waits in the Wings
_________________________________________
Don't subsidize a tyrant --Miami Herald *** While the embargo restricts most U.S.-Cuba trade, it does not impose a humanitarian burden. Cuba frequently has bought wheat from Canada, rice from Vietnam, and medicine from Europe, Asia and Latin America. Donations of food and clothing and the licensed sale of U.S. medical products are permitted.
The real cause of Cuba's hardship is not the embargo but the state's Soviet-style economy. Traditional exports such as sugar cost the regime more to produce than they sell for on the global market. Tourism brings in hard currency but not nearly enough to provide for Cuba's needs. Debt payments are so uncertain that major trade partners often must extend new loans.***
Friends of Fidel--Washington Times *** Louisiana rice and Illinois wheat producers should not assume that selling to Havana is synonymous with getting paid. U.S taxpayers should be wary. Mr. Castro desperately needs credits and subsidies, and Washington is being pressured to provide them.
If the United States begins to subsidize trade with Cuba estimated at $100 million a year five years from now, U.S. taxpayers could be holding, or paying off, a $500 million tab. That´s real money.
Before extending Mr. Castro credit, grain growers should visit any street corner in Manhattan and observe a game played there. Called three-card monte, it consists of convincing the player that he knows exactly where the card carrying his money is. Until it disappears. In this game, the gambler takes his own chances. Where trade with Mr. Castro is concerned, the U.S. taxpayer will be left holding the losing card. ***
U.S. embargo of Cuba remains strongly in place, U.S. official says *** Gutierrez said the Bush administration's mission is ``to see a rapid, peaceful transition to a free and democratic Cuba,'' and that the embargo is a key component of U.S. strategy to do that.
``The United States has not changed any rules . . . or moved in any way to encourage these sales,'' Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez's statements were part of a Bush administration effort to dispel speculation that the food shipments scheduled to begin arriving in Havana this month could lead to more permanent trade relations between the two nations.***
Not all that many years ago, I heard about a decades-old U.S. escrow account with millions of dollars of embargoed payments owed to Cuba's telephone company (owned by the state) for long distance telephone calls made to Cuba. I wonder if that pot of cash has been freed up now.
When I lived in the islands, I talked to several tourist that had visited Cuba. They talked about the wonderful warm Cuban people. Because of Castor's control none of the tourist money helped the people, they wouldn't go back.
Would this really help our small farmers? Is this just more to the large guys that just got a windfall farm bill?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.