>Date: Wed, 29 Nov 2000 22:39:35 -0500 >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Deluded, Arrogant US "Experts" Urge Changes in Cuba Policy >Deluded, Arrogant US "Experts" Urge Changes in Cuba Policy > >Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit > >[Arrogant enough to make recommendations on how the US should prepare >for a "post-Communist transition" in Cuba, deluded enough to think >that Fidel Castro IS the Revolution -- the old cold warriors produce >reports, living in the past. Cuba is not Iran or Guatemala, and this >is not 1953 or 1954. But let them dream on.--ny transfer] > >Wednesday November 29 8:34 PM ET (via Yahoo) > >U.S. Experts Propose Closer Ties with Cuba > >By Anthony Boadle > >WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A blue ribbon task force of U.S. conservatives and >liberals proposed on Wednesday easing relations with Cuba to prepare for a >post-Communist transition on the island. > >Their report recommended allowing Americans to travel more freely to Cuba to >increase personal contacts with the Cuban people as a way of fostering >political change. > >It also suggested lifting travel restrictions on Cuban Americans and raising >the limits on their cash remittances to relatives in Cuba. > >In more controversial recommendations, the task force said the United States >should increase its military contacts and widen cooperation with Cuba in >fighting drug trafficking. > >The panel recommended working with Cuba to support peace talks between >government and Marxist guerrillas in Colombia, where Cuba has played a >`constructive role'' in negotiations, the report said. > >It also proposed allowing U.S. companies who had property expropriated after >the revolution led by Fidel Castro (news - web sites) in 1959 to directly >negotiate settlements with the Cuban government, including equity >participation. > >A proposal to allow limited U.S. investment in Cuba's small private sector, >however, would not be possible without repeal of the 38-year-old U.S. trade >embargo against Cuba. > >The task force of 29 experts was headed by William Rogers and Bernard >Aronson, former top Latin American policy officials in Republican and >Democratic administrations. > >Their report lays out steps, short of lifting the whole embargo or >establishing diplomatic relations, that would prepare the United States for >the day political change occurs on the island. > >Travel Ban An Issue > >The proposals came one month after the U.S. Congress lifted the embargo for >food and medicine sales to Cuba, a step sought by American farmers and >pharmaceutical companies who maintain they are losing out in the Cuban >market. > >But Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, backed by Cuban >American legislators representing anti-Castro exiles in Miami, inserted a >ban on public and private credit, all but ruling out sales to cash-strapped >Cuba. > >They also managed to codify into law a ban on travel to the Communist-run >island by American tourists. > >Supporters of the embargo say increased travel will only put more dollars in >the coffers of the repressive state, which is already benefiting from >remittances by exiles estimated at between $500 million and $800 million a >year. > >Task force members said tourist dollars do not all end up in government >hands but help nascent private enterprises too. > >One Republican who has changed his mind on travel to Cuba, Mark Falcoff, >said the ban was unenforceable and should go because many Americans are >already traveling to Cuba. > >Change Inevitable > >Falcoff said the embargo on Cuba will not be lifted in the next two or three >years, but the climate of U.S. opinion is moving in that direction. > >`The political geography of this issue has changed,'' said Falcoff, an >expert on Latin America at the conservative Heritage Foundation think tank >in Washington. > >`The earthquake won't happen until it happens, but you can see the change >coming if you look at the movement of the tectonic plates,'' he said. > >Cuban American exiles, who want see the embargo as a tool to bring Castro's >government down, were disappointed with the recommendations. > >`The task force still believes it is possible to engage a regime that has no >interest in reform,'' said Dennis Hays, vice president of the Cuban American >National Foundation. > >Hays said opening American travel to the island 90 miles of Florida would >help the Cuban government without asking for any reforms in return. > >The task force recommended the United States support giving Cuba observer >status at the World Bank and the Inter-American Development Bank so Cuban >officials can learn how international financial institutions and modern >market economies work. > >But it opposed readmission of Cuba into the Organization of American States >until it embraces democracy and holds free elections. > >================================================================= > NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems > Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us > 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 > http://www.blythe.org e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >================================================================= > >nytcari-11.29.00-22:38:55-10103 > _______________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. 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