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Castro Proves Embargo Foes Wrong Humberto Fontova Thursday, March 3, 2005 The hammer came down in Cuba again last month. "The Cuban state is reborn, like a phoenix with expansive wings!" Castro crowed to an "anti-globalization" conference in Havana. The crowd of 1,400 international "economists" went wild (naturally). The Maximum Leader was almost deafened by their ovation and acclaim. "Cuba's communist state is rising from the ashes of its post-Soviet economic crash with GREATER CONTROL [capitalization mine] over its economy," said a Reuters story from Feb. 14. Story Continues Below Unsurprisingly (for those who know something of Fidel Castro), Cuba...

# Monterrey, Mexico, Feb 27 (Prensa Latina) The US government-led biological warfare and economic blockade on Cuba have caused the Island economic damages estimated at more than $USD130 billion, a Cuban official asserted Sunday in Monterrey. Addressing a Friendship and Solidarity Meeting, the Vice President of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the People (ICAP) José Estévez blamed the US blockade for having caused Cuba losses for over $USD80 billion, while the biological warfare have meant some $USD54 billion in damage. At least 3,478 people have died and 1,099 have been seriously affected by biological weapons the United States has...

Democratic candidates hope disagreements among Cuban Americans over the Bush administration's new restrictions on travel to Cuba will convince some to abandon the Republican Party. By clamping down on travel and remittances to Cuba last month, President Bush tried to send a signal to Miami's Cuban exile community that he was serious about getting rid of leader Fidel Castro. But some candidates for office are trying to turn the tables and use the policy change to attract Cuban-American votes to the Democratic Party. One Democratic candidate for Congress in South Florida even managed to get more than 150 voters, mostly...

New Cuba embargo rules may be bad for Bush    Big News Network.com     Wednesday 21st July, 2004   New regulations restricting travel to Cuba from the United States may have gone too far and turned some Cuban-Americans against Bush, lawmakers said Tuesday. The new regulations ... have passed the tipping point in Florida, Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., said during a conference in the Rayburn House Office Building to discuss the current state of U.S. policy toward Cuba. New restrictions from the Bush Administration that went into effect at the end of June limit family visits to Cuba to once every three years...

Groups of American protesters have returned without incident to U.S. soil after deliberately defying new rules increasing travel restrictions to Cuba. . About 90 members of the Venceremos Brigade, a group that opposes U.S. policies toward Cuba, re-entered the country Monday on foot in groups of 15, carrying banners and pulling suitcases behind them. . While U.S. citizens have been making such trips for the past 35 years, the latest travelers were the first to directly challenge new rules that further tightened restrictions. The new rules, which took effect June 30, cut the amount of money Cuban émigrés can send...

House Votes to Overturn Bush Rules on Cuba 1 hour, 5 minutes ago Add Politics - U. S. Congress to My Yahoo! By ALAN FRAM, Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON - The House dealt an election-season setback to President Bush (news - web sites) on Wednesday by voting to overturn restrictions his administration has issued on the gift parcels that Americans can send to family members in Cuba. The 221-194 vote was won by a coalition in which Democrats were joined by nearly four dozen farm-state and free-trade Republicans to rebuff the president. The vote came just four months from an...

SALT LAKE CITY - If Iraq is understandably the current focus of the Bush administration's foreign policy, the president is not overlooking an irritant in America's backyard, namely Cuba and its communist leader, Fidel Castro. President Bush has just taken steps to stiffen his anti-Castro policy. This puts him at odds with some members of Congress as well as business leaders who favor a policy of relaxation, but does him no political harm with many Cuban-Americans in Florida, a state important in his reelection campaign. After a review of the Cuban situation by a presidential commission, Mr. Bush has issued...

This was on the A.N.S.W.E.R. site about a year ago. You can click on the link to see the names of the signers. Any guesses as to whose name is there? =========================================================== Statement supporting Cuba against Bush's attacksInitiated by the International A.N.S.W.E.R. CoalitionWe invite you to sign this statement in solidarity with the people of Cuba. Click here to sign. Click here to see the initial signers May 19-20: Nationally-coordinated local actionsSTOP BUSH'S NEW AGGRESSION AGAINST CUBAEn Españolpdf flyer in English    pdf en Español We, the undersigned individuals and organizations, view with great concern the intensifying campaign of subversion and...

Cuba moves are called 'too little, too late' Monday, May 10, 2004 Journal staff and wire report Newhouse News Service A proposal to tighten restrictions against visiting relatives in Cuba has drawn criticism from Union City residents, who say U.S. efforts should be aimed at Fidel Castro, not the people who are suffering under his regime. U.S. Rep. Robert Menendez, D-Hoboken, denounced the moves as political posturing in an attempt to secure more Florida votes in the upcoming November election. Florida is home to the nation's largest community of Cuban exiles, many of whom support a strengthening of the U.S....

Powell aide blasts policy on Cuba BY LESLEY CLARK lclark@herald.com As the White House last week prepared to put its stamp of approval on a range of Cuba sanctions recommended by Colin Powell, a senior aide to the secretary of state was quoted as calling the decades old-standoff against the communist island, the ``dumbest policy on the face of the Earth.'' The outspoken remarks appear in the June issue of GQ magazine. In the article, GQ writer Wil Hylton interviews several Powell aides, including Larry Wilkerson, Powell's chief of staff who is described in the article as having a ''mind...

WASHINGTON – Cuban President Fidel Castro usually offers an inviting target during U.S. presidential election campaigns. President Bush, accused by some in his party of not doing enough to confront Castro, offered them on Thursday what amounts to a policy of regime change in Cuba. "We're not waiting for the day of Cuban freedom, we are working for the day of freedom in Cuba," Bush told reporters. A presidential commission recommended that the United States subvert the planned succession in Cuba under which power would pass from Castro to his younger brother, Raul. Although Bush did not address that issue...

Cuban-American Alliance Education Fund Condemns US President George W. Bush's Anti-Cuba measures Washington, May 8 (RHC)-- The Cuban-American Alliance Education Fund, based in Washington, offered a press conference on Friday -- condemning US President George W. Bush's cruel measures against Cuba. During the press conference, the Cuban-American solidarity group said that the Bush administration is attempting to get the financial and political support of the right wing sector in South Florida for the November presidential elections. While Cuba eases travel to the island of Cuban nationals living abroad, the White House -- which attempts to show the world they support...

<p>Mexico City, , May. 8 (UPI) -- Mexico will not cooperate with U.S. plans to speed up the overthrow of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, local news sources reported Saturday.</p> <p>"Mexico will not subscribe in any way to the (U.S.) proposal that has been made, which is against Cuban sovereignty," said Mexican President Vicente Fox, reacting to the White House's tougher new restrictions on money moving to Cuba and plans to prevent Castro from passing power to a successor.</p>

Cuba said that U.S. plans to increase sanctions against the country are cruel and a violation human rights laws. Cuba's Communist party-controlled newspaper, Granma, suggested the U.N. Human Rights Commission should review the new measures. They include plans to reduce resources available to Cuba from worker remittances and gift packages from the United States as well as providing millions of dollars to support Cuba's opposition. The United States also plans to spend $18 million to use aircraft to broadcast into Cuba U.S. government-sponsored Radio and TV programs that the government of Fidel Castro now jams. Cuba said that the policies...

President Bush, declaring "we are working for the day of freedom in Cuba," took steps Thursday to end jamming of U.S. broadcasts to the island as part of a tough new strategy to hasten the demise of communist rule. Mr. Bush decided to order deployment of military aircraft to transmit signals of the Miami-based Radio Marti and TV, an effort to end Cuba's jamming of U.S. government broadcasts. The measure was one of a number of recommendations in a report prepared by a government commission on Cuba headed by Secretary of State Colin Powell. "We are working for the day...

WASHINGTON - A government commission is recommending to President Bush (news - web sites) a series of measures to cut U.S. dollar flows to Cuba as part of a broader policy to hasten the end of the country's communist system, an administration official said Sunday night.

A few hours ago, Kerry offered another shift in stance--this time on his policy in Cuba. During the beginnings of the Democratic primaries, Kerry reached out to snatch Cuban American voters by criticizing Bush on his lax attitude towards Castro. He assured that if he were in office, things would change in policy. But, according to the US News Wire, he definied where he stood. While maintaining that he would uphold the Embargo, he conceded that he planned to ease travel restrictions. I'm not the brightest guy in the world, but it would seem dropping the travel restrictions would be...

"The Republicans have allowed a communist dictatorship to flourish eight jet minutes from our borders! We must support anti-Castro fighters. So far these freedom fighters have received no help from our government." -- Democratic presidential candidate, Oct. 1960 "George Bush and the Republicans in Washington have run the most inept foreign policy in the modern history of this country! It has been a failure!" -- Democratic presidential Candidate, April 2004. No, friends, it didn't start with this campaign. Indeed, Kerry apes his idol (JFK) faithfully. Problem was, during the '60 presidential campaign Kennedy left out the sly smile, the shifty...

A YEAR AGO Cuba's Communist government cracked down on nonviolent dissidents, independent journalists, human rights activists, librarians and teachers. Within weeks, 75 of them were in prison, sentenced to terms ranging from 6 to 28 years after one-day closed trials. Carried out while the world's attention was focused on the war in Iraq, this was President Fidel Castro's attempt to destroy a pro-democracy civil society that had been peacefully emerging. A year later, the bad news is that those 75 political prisoners are still locked away, in many cases under inhumane conditions. The worse news is that Mr. Castro has...

It comes as no surprise to learn that John Kerry, who hates to take one position on an issue when he can take two or three, has come down strongly in favor -- and strongly against -- US policy in Cuba. As Peter Wallsten reported last week in the Miami Herald, when Kerry was asked during a Florida campaign stop where he stands on Fidel Castro's repressive regime, he answered, "I'm pretty tough on Castro, because I think he's running one of the last vestiges of a Stalinist, secret-police government in the world." And to make it clear that...