Posted on 01/24/2003 6:24:59 AM PST by MeekOneGOP
Politically diverse group calls for ties with Cuba
GOP ex-congressman, business leaders, former Texas governor on panel
01/24/2003
WASHINGTON - A bipartisan advisory group, including a former Republican congressman, business leaders and influential Cuban-Americans, issued a report Thursday that renewed calls for the Bush administration to break with what they called 41 years of a failed policy.
The conclusions of the 16-page report, "U.S.-Cuba Relations, Time for a New Approach," aren't unique. But the makeup of the commission and the people articulating the message of normalizing ties with Cuba are new.
The commission's members include Peter Magowan, president and managing general partner of the San Francisco Giants; former Texas Gov. Ann Richards; Carlos Saladrigas, chairman of Premier American Bank in Miami; Thomas Wenski, auxiliary bishop at the Archdiocese of Miami; and William Frenzel, who served in the U.S. House of Representatives from 1971 to 1991.
"Despite the diverse perspectives of our members, we agree that the time is ripe for engagement, not isolation, and that should become the core of U.S. policy toward Cuba," said former U.S. Ambassador to Mexico James R. Jones. "Our national interest and security require we begin a dialogue with Cuba."
Mr. Jones chaired the Cuba Policy Advisory Group under the auspices of the Center for National Policy in Washington.
The report, which calls on the Bush administration, the Cuban government and Congress to begin a "negotiated normalization" process, sets the tone for what's expected to be another showdown this year with the Bush administration over Cuba policy.
It comes amid a growing sentiment that the days of the decades-old policy are numbered. Miami's Cubans, who once dominated the anti-Castro debate, are no longer as uniformly hard-line as they once were. Many now speak in favor of normalization, joining farmers from the Midwest and policy leaders from the Northeast.
President Bush has vowed to veto any move aimed at easing the embargo. He has said a substantial softening of U.S. policy would come only after the communist government of President Fidel Castro is out of power.
Among the recommendations from the report are a moratorium on harsh, negative rhetoric and removal of the current limit on remittances that can be sent legally to people in Cuba.
The report also calls for a streamlining of bureaucratic regulations to make it easier for Americans to sell food, medicine and medical products to Cuba and to expand the types of products that may be sold.
E-mail acorchado@dallasnews.com
President Bush has vowed to veto any move aimed at easing the embargo. He has said a substantial softening of U.S. policy would come only after the communist government of President Fidel Castro is out of power.
(1) The suffering of the Cuban people has nothing to do with our embargo. Cuba freely traded with France, Italy, Germany, Japan, China, Brazil, Argentina, Russia, etc. all throughout our embargo. If a tiny nation of 11 million can't make a decent living selling to those enormous markets, it's their own fault.
Ending our embargo won't help them.
(2) Countries who trade with Cuba soon learn that Cuba is an undependable trading partner and a bad risk. Cuba currently owes billions of dollars to Italy, Germany, et al. and has brazenly refused to pay its debts. Is there any reason to believe that the US would be treated any better than they are?
Ending the embargo would cost us billions.
(3) Cuba would deal with the US the same way it deals with other countries. Certain firms would get special deals for being Castro's buddies, others would be frozen out. Firms that traded in Cuba would pay fat kickbacks to the regime, and when they wound up not getting paid would cash in on the payment default insurance they bought from the US Import/Export Bank. The US taxpayer would wind up footing the bill.
Ending the embargo is the same thing as paying Castro to rob us.
ONLY FOOLS OR CRIMINALS OPPOSE THE EMBARGO.
I see...and I suppose that they cried out for this during the 8 failed years of the Klinton administration, too?
From its seedy Soviet-built headquarters in Budapest, the World Federation of Democratic Youth (WFDY), created half a century ago as an international Soviet-front organization under the control of the Soviet Communist Party Central Committee and the KGB, and somehow still alive, goaded the protesters on with inflammatory statements of support. When the Genoa violence subsided, WFDY issued a release saluting the protesters and condemning vehemently "the brutal and cruel attack and treatment of the demonstrators by the Italian security forces" and the "cold-blooded killing" of a masked protester who was trying to slam a fire extinguisher through a police-car window.
"In the 1980s we observed that Marxist-Leninist antidemocratic groups were consistently supported and helped by misguided members of the left wing of the Social Democratic parties in Europe and a number of other regions," says Constantine C. Menges, a former national intelligence officer at the CIA who is now a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute in Washington. "Regrettably, they seem to have learned little from the revelations that followed the unraveling of communism in Eastern Europe, and it appears that many of these misguided groups and individuals are back supporting antidemocratic, radical causes. As examples, they are supporting the [Hugo] Chavez regime in Venezuela and the communist guerrillas in Colombia."
Inspired by Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi and Cuba's Fidel Castro, military strongman Chavez is turning oil-rich Venezuela into a populist, anti-U.S. dictatorship, say U.S. intelligence sources. They tell Insight that Chavez is providing a safe haven for the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) narcoguerrillas, an 18,000-man insurgency that began decades ago as an offshoot of the local Communist Party and still clings to Marxist-Leninist ideology.
U.S. policy during the Clinton administration provided Colombia, a country twice as large as France, with the means to combat drug producers and traffickers but deliberately restricted the use of U.S.-supplied military equipment to prevent Bogotá from effectively fighting the FARC. A U.S.-brokered "peace" process helped give the FARC a protected sanctuary the size of Switzerland in the heart of the country. Now, Colombia faces the prospect of disintegration as the cocaine- and heroin-financed FARC gains military ground.
Economic hard times and the difficult transitions from populist welfare-state regimes to market-based systems are creating hardship and malaise across much of Latin America, including Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) member Ecuador and industrial powerhouses Argentina and Brazil. Far-left politicians now run the Western Hemisphere's most populous cities: Mexico City and São Paulo, Brazil. Masked Zapatista gunmen spouting Marxist rhetoric gained political legitimacy last year in Mexico, entering into negotiations with the government and even dictating terms in the name of an oppressed Indian minority in the southern part of the country. Across Mexico, Zapatista leader Subcomandante Marcos, a swaggering figure in a black ski mask who smokes a pipe, enjoys a cult following of sorts. Tourists even can buy chic Marcos postcards at airport gift shops. Snip .
"Many of the international communist-front organizations are continuing to operate, but they now are hiding behind one level of cover - groups that are in the antiglobalism coalition," a veteran U.S. intelligence officer explains. "A lot of funding has come from the Communist Party of India. The North Korean Communist Party has taken over some coordination in recent years." Some analysts hypothesize that the People's Republic of China might be trying to jump-start the machinery of the old Soviet front groups, using North Korea as a "funding cutout." But the fronts have changed their terminology: Marxist-Leninist rhetoric is gone, replaced by antiglobalism themes. "It doesn't arouse the concern of Western governments or get stereotyped as being antidemocratic," says a longtime observer. "Though there is a considerable organizational structure behind the antiglobalist movement, it isn't totally coordinated. Much is spontaneous." Spaulding notes, "These rallies have been organized by a combination of Marxists, anarchists, ecologists, feminists and gay-rights activists. And nobody has been able to get control." [End Excerpt]
Bush holds firm to Cuban embargo, readies tough new policy against Castro ***WASHINGTON - The White House rejected pleas by former President Carter and farm-state lawmakers to lift the trade embargo against Fidel Castro 's Cuba on Wednesday, pledging an even tougher U.S. policy to undermine "one of the last great tyrants left on earth."
President Bush will hew to a hard-line stance against the Castro government while seeking ways to ease hardships on the Cuban people when he spells out the policy next week, advisers said. The president hopes to curb what aides concede is growing momentum to ease restrictions against Cuba. "The president believes that the trade embargo is a vital part of America's foreign policy and human rights policy toward Cuba, because trade with Cuba does not benefit the people of Cuba - it's used to prop up a repressive regime," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.***
Bush's hawks making way to Latin America, too*** THE Bush White House can't seem to help itself. Even as it appears ready to swoop down on Iraq, it is also elevating hawks to new perches on the Latin American branch. The White House announced on Jan. 9 that it will name Otto J. Reich to the position of the National Security Council's special envoy to Latin America -- a position that was specially created for him after his recess appointment as assistant secretary of state for the Western Hemisphere expired. The move will keep the highly controversial Reich in government and does not require Senate confirmation. Under the Reagan administration, Reich headed the Office of Public Diplomacy, which aimed to create public support in the United States for the Nicaraguan anti-Sandinista rebels, also known as the Contras. Congress later closed down the office because a comptroller's report found that the office engaged in "prohibited, covert propaganda activities" during the Iran-Contra affair. ***
REAL AXIS OF EVIL - Venezuela and CUBA***Fattah represents the tip of an iceberg, according to security officials, confirming that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has been setting up a terrorist regime to overthrow the constitution of the oil-rich South American country. A dedicated disciple of Fidel Castro [see "Fidel's Successor in Latin America," April 30, 2001], Chavez is plugging international terrorist networks into the country's security services, financial system and state corporations as part of his plans to clone Cuba's revolution and turn Venezuela into a terrorist base.
The president's scheme also involves government-sponsored armed militias, or Circulos Bolivarianos, modeled on Cuba's Revolutionary Defense Committees. These militias are taking over police stations around the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and invading the facilities of the state-run oil company, PDVSA. Indeed, the latter is presided over by an ex-communist guerrilla leader, Ali Rodriguez Araque.
Following the blueprint that Castro drafted for Chile's Salvador Allende, a minority president who similarly imported thousands of Cuban paramilitaries to overthrow the constitution of Chile and establish a Marxist-Leninist regime there, Chavez is facing an internal rebellion against his plans. With 80 percent or more of the national revenues cut off by an oil strike, he is faced with difficult choices. Chavez may be forced to order his navy to take over some 20 oil tankers that are refusing to load. Since he cannot entirely rely on the loyalty of his armed forces, he is expected to bring in the Cuban advisers.
Cuba's Direccion General de Inteligencia (DGI) special-operations teams already are positioned at the port of La Guaira, according to Venezuelan navy sources, who report that Cuban undercover agents are using the local merchant-marine school. Sources say that they could be studying Venezuela's oil-tanker fleet as part of contingency plans to prepare for commandeering of some of the tankers by a U.S.-trained Venezuelan intelligence officer. A Cuban special-assault unit reported to be occupying the second and third floors of the Sheraton Hotel in La Guaira also could be part of the plans to break the strike and impose a terrorist dictatorship.
During the last few weeks, Chavez has moved to control the military high command with his closest acolytes. Gen. Luis Garcia Carneiro, who has been leading the Caracas-based 3rd Infantry Division in operations to disarm the metropolitan police, now is the effective head of the army.
Possibly thousands of Arab terrorists as well as Colombian narcoguerrillas are being protected by DISIP, which has come under the control of Cuba's DGI, according to members of the Venezuelan security agency. European diplomatic officials in Caracas confirm that Cubans are operating DISIP's key counterterrorist and intelligence-analysis sections. According to a variety of sources, 300 to 400 Cuban military advisers coordinated by Havana's military attaché in Venezuela, navy Capt. Sergio Cardona, also are directing Chavez's elite Presidential Guard and his close circle of bodyguards, some of whom can't even sing the words to the Venezuelan national anthem. As many as 6,000 Cuban undercover agents masquerading as "sports instructors" and "teachers" also are reported to be training the Circulos Bolivarianos and even operating naval facilities.
"I quit my job when I got tired of doing dirty work for Chavez with the Cubans looking over my shoulder," Ferreira tells Insight, claiming that Interior Minister Rodriguez Chacin and other presidential aides repeatedly pressured him to launder the identities of terrorists and narcotraffickers transiting through Venezuela. He also was ordered to deceive U.S. authorities on the activities of a Hezbollah financial network whose files were requested by the FBI following the Sept. 11 attacks.
Chavez gave instructions to destroy records on 10 suspected Hezbollah fund-raisers conducting suspicious financial transactions in the islands of Margarita, Aruba and Curaçao, and the cities of Maracaibo and Valencia, according to Ferreira. The Venezuelan president also dissolved key military counterterrorist units by firing 16 highly experienced, U.S.-trained intelligence officers at the time of the terrorist plane attacks in New York City and Washington. Circulos Bolivarianos leader Lina Ron celebrated the event by burning an American flag in the center of Caracas. ***
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***In a July 11 letter to the House Appropriations Committee, Secretary of State Colin Powell and Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill wrote: "Trade by other nations with Cuba has brought no change to Cuba's despotic practices, and it has frequently proved to be an unprofitable enterprise." Unprofitable, indeed. France, Spain, Italy and Venezuela have suspended official credits to Cuba because Castro has failed to make payments on its debt, including debt incurred on agricultural purchases. In fact, according to Powell and O'Neill's letter, two foreign governments have approached the United States to complain that Cuba's payments of cash for U.S. agricultural products have meant that they are not getting paid at all.
.Critics of current policy claim that Cuba is purely a matter of Florida's electoral politics, but the facts show otherwise. While announcing his "U.S. Initiative for a New Free Cuba" in May, President Bush declared that, "Cuban purchases of U.S. agricultural goods ... would be a foreign aid program in disguise." Current policy toward Cuba has saved taxpayers millions in export insurance, subsidies, and de facto foreign aid. All, because trade with Cuba does not represent trade with Cuban business owners, entrepreneurs or consumers; Trade with Cuba is trade with the Castro government itself, which monopolizes virtually all enterprises and exploits Cuban workers as their sole employer. National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, recently wrote that, "In Cuba, Fidel Castro is still the one man through whom everything has to go. Any trade that goes through Cuba is going to strengthen Cuba's regime."***
Europe Excludes Cuba From Aid Funds [Full text] NADI, Fiji (AP) - The European Union has excluded Cuba from a multibillion-dollar pool of aid because of its poor human rights record and lack of democracy, a spokesman for a group of former European colonies said Friday. Cuba is a new member of the African Caribbean Pacific group, or ACP, which is holding a leaders' summit at a palm-fringed island resort near the Fijian town of Nadi. The 63 national delegations are trying to forge a single negotiating position ahead of trade talks with Brussels in September. Central to the talks is a 25-year pact signed by the EU and ACP in 2000, known as the Cotonou agreement, which promises $12.7 billion in aid to ACP states over the next five years if they show efforts to improve human rights and root out corruption.
As a latecomer to the ACP, Cuba has not signed Cotonou. EU Trade Commissioner Pascal Lamy, who is attending the summit, on Friday rejected overtures from ACP leaders to give Cuba quick access to the agreement, said ACP spokesman Hegel Goutier. The EU believes Cuba cannot satisfy basic principles of the agreement, especially with respect to democracy and human rights, said Billie Miller, deputy prime minister of Barbados, who heads the Caribbean grouping at the summit. Miller said she had formally appealed on behalf of Caribbean nations to the EU to fast track Cuba's inclusion. The head of Cuba's delegation, Ricardo Cabrisas, called the EU decision "a humiliation and slap in the face for Cuba," Goutier said. Lamy told delegates that the EU wanted to see more political reform from Havana, Goutier said. [End]
Coddling Castro***America's continued embargo of Cuba is not, as the CSG and its allies contend, a "failed policy." Quite the contrary; the sanctions have caged in Castro, limiting his financial resources. His communist government was forced to do something our Congress hasn't done in a very long time: cut the public payroll. The Cuban regime had massive layoffs in the early 1990's, precisely because Castro didn't have access to American cash. The laid-off workers, estimated at 250,000, created a new self-employed class of cab drivers and home-based restaurants and bed-and-breakfasts, though the government tightly restricted growth factors such as capacity and total volume. When the self-employed sector started to become too successful, Castro put the squeeze on through more red tape and punitive taxes. Cuban officials now brag that they managed to pare back the self-employment rolls by some 100,000 people.
Looking at the experience of the self-employed, it is easy to foresee that if the Cuban people did manage to benefit from booming trade and travel, Castro would respond immediately and put a stop to it, just as he has done time and again. In the 1980's, crop shortages were wreaking havoc on the Cuban economy. Acting as any economist would, Castro allowed farmers to sell off excess crops, a move clearly designed to spark increased production. It worked--a little too well. Some of these farmers were turning excess production to "exotic" crops, such as garlic. Many of these co-op farmers became filthy rich, at least by Cuban standards. Castro brutally shut down what he termed "Garlic Millionaires," and the policy abruptly ended in 1986.
With Castro getting up there in years, the last thing America should do is to institutionalize communism. Whoever succeeds Castro will have a very difficult time without Castro's cult of personality or access to American capital. Our policy should be predicated on the desire for tyranny in Cuba to die with Castro, something recognized by President George W. Bush.***
The question here is not one of "what is good for the farmers" but what is good for everyone involved.
Cuba has a long record of nonpayment, so no farmer (and we're not talking farmers really, but agricultural companies) is going to take their word. They will instead go to the US Export/Import Bank and get the bank to insure them against losses and guarantee their sale.
When Cuba refuses to pay, as it always does, then the Bank, being a government program, will tap the US taxpayer.
Therefore, the dictator gets to prop up his regime that much longer while forcing the US taxpayer to foot the bill.
It's a guaranteed profit for the farmer and a guaranteed loss for the taxpayer.
Under the current system, it's a slightly lower guaranteed profit for the farmer and a guaranteed loss for the European taxpayer.
What's better for America?
Rather than permitting agricultural companies to collude with Communists to defraud the US taxpayer we should simply stay out of Cuba or refuse to insure agricos against losses.
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