Archive for the ‘Failed US Policy’ Category
Will the US Miss Out on Cuba’s Golf Course and Construction Boom?
While the US economy continues to struggle especially with construction and land development, Cuba just implemented two new reforms. One allows farmers to sell the food they grow in a free market, possibly beginning basic capitalism which could spread throughout Cuba.
The other reform allows foreign investors to lease land as long as 99 years. European Investors will be building hotels, resorts and golf courses. Of course construction workers, equipment operators, architects, building supply vendors and the like will prosper. But none of these workers or investors will be from the US or economically hard hit Florida, only 90 miles away, because we’re still in the dark ages of diplomacy.
Right-Wing Scare Tactics Against Cuban Travel
Blogger Yoani Sanchez was detained briefly in Cuba according to Reuters:
Sanchez, 34, told Reuters the agents forced her and blogger Orlando Luis Pardo into a car as they neared the demonstration in Havana’s Vedado district, took them to a spot near her home and dropped them off, throwing her purse on the street as they drove away.
And now the right-wing is all up in arms, according to the hate group that calls themselves the Heritage Foundation:
Certainly Congress has the power to change the laws so Americans can travel to Cuba, but can they make Cuba safer or freer? Or will the promised U.S. tourist bonanza just help the Cuban regime buy more police cars, hire more secret police, and tighten the noose of repression that encircles the necks of the Cuban people?
I certainly believe Cuba has a ways to go in fundamental human rights as do most who believe in establishing relations with the regime, but shining the light of day on Cuba is the best way to do it. Not promoting lies and falsehoods as the Heritage Foundation is famous for.
Recent Developments: Cubans to Get Email Access, Blogging Becomes More Popular, And TWTEA is Under Review
TWTEA
President Obama has a decision to make on Trading with the Enemy Act (TWTEA), the original legislation that was used to implement the Cuban embargo. According to Caribbean Net News:
TWTEA, enacted in anticipation of World War I in 1917, grants the president wide-reaching economic authority in times of war. In 1933, the act was extended to apply to national emergencies, only to be returned to an exclusively war-time power in 1977. It currently allows for the continuation of sanctions initiated in the 44 years between, as is the case with Cuba, which was declared an “international emergency” by President Kennedy in 1963, through annual renewal by the president. Cuba now stands as the only country subject to TWTEA
Hopefully President Obama will let TWTEA expire and continue to build a bridge with the Cuban People.
Blogging Becoming Popular in Cuba
There is hope for the Cuban people and that is becoming more apparent a bloggers are speaking out about the conditions within their country. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists:
Despite vast legal and technical obstacles, a growing number of Cuban bloggers have prevailed over the regime’s tight Internet restrictions to disseminate island news and views online. The bloggers, mainly young adults from a variety of professions, have opened a new space for free expression in Cuba, while offering a fresh glimmer of hope for the rebirth of independent ideas in Cuba’s closed system.
Cubans to Get Email Access
Cuban post offices may be getting access, according to the AP:
Many post offices already offer public computers, but they are linked to a national intranet – an extremely limited list of Cuba-only Web sites.
Cubans there can send and receive international e-mail, but direct access to the rest of the Web is blocked, limits far stricter than those imposed even in China or Saudi Arabia.
Internet supervisors at two Havana post offices said Wednesday that while authorities are preparing to apply the law and have even installed new, faster PCs in some locations, they did not know when the new rules will go into effect.
Robert F. Kennedy Never Supported Travel Ban According to Daughter
Writing in the Washington Post Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, daughter of Robert F. Kennedy, says her father never supported banning or prosecuting US citizens travel to Cuba. During the time the senior Kennedy was Attorney General:
In December 1963, the Justice Department was preparing to prosecute four members of the Student Committee for Travel to Cuba who had led a group of 59 college-age Americans on a trip to Havana. My father opposed those prosecutions, as well as the travel ban itself.
Cuban American National Foundation Calls for “A Break From the Past”
A leading group of Cuban exiles is calling for the US to expand relations with the Cuban government and help the Cuban people. According to the NYTimes:
“For 50 years we have been trying to change the Cuban government, the Cuban regime,” said the foundation’s president, Francisco J. Hernandez, a veteran of the Bay of Pigs invasion in April 1961. “At the present time, what we have to do is change the emphasis to the Cuban people – because they are going to be the ones who change things in Cuba.”
Bush Loyalist Sentenced for Stealing Taxpayer Money Directed to Cuba
The Bush term was a foreign policy disaster, nowhere was that as obvious as his Cuba policy. Felipe Sixto, a former Bush White House aide was sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison Wednesday for stealing nearly $600,000 taxpayer dollars. According to AP:
Felipe Sixto apologized for stealing from the Center for a Free Cuba, telling U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton that in addition to his own greed and selfishness, he “wanted to provide a lifestyle for my family I could not afford.”
Cuban-American Travel Restrictions Lifted – Long-Range Bombers May be Based in Cuba
According to the Miami Herald, Bush era Cuban-American travel restrictions have all but ended.
Cuban Americans are now free to visit relatives on the island once a year and stay as long as they like, using a new license issued by the Obama administration. The rules now allow:
- A trip every 12 months with a general license that does not require an application process.
- Passengers wanting to travel again within the same year can apply for ‘’specific licenses.” Approval will be given case by case.
- A broader definition of who qualifies as family and can be visited.
- A per diem spending of $179.
Russia Considers Cuban Air Bases for Long-Range Bomber
As if we need another reason to move forward in normalizing relations with Cuba, General Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of the Russian air force’s strategic aviation is considering placing air bases for Tu-160 bombers in Cuba. According to AFP:
Russia could use bases for its strategic bombers on the doorstep of the United States in Cuba and Venezuela to underpin long-distance patrols in the region, a senior air force officer said Saturday.
“This is possible in Cuba,” General Anatoly Zhikharev, chief of the Russian air force’s strategic aviation staff, told the Interfax-AVN military news agency.
The comments were the latest signal that Moscow intends to project its military capability in far-flung corners of the globe despite a tight defence budget and hardware that experts consider in many respects outdated.
Senator Luger: Deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests
Richard Lugar, the Ranking Foreign Committee Ranking Minority Member has released “CHANGING CUBA POLICY — IN THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL INTEREST.”
From the Huffington Post, Senator Luger states:
Economic sanctions are a legitimate tool of U.S. foreign policy, and they have sometimes achieved their aims, as in the case of apartheid South Africa.
After 47 years, however, the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of “bringing democracy to the Cuban people,” while it may have been used as a foil by the regime to demand further sacrifices from Cuba’s impoverished population.
The current U.S. policy has many passionate defenders, and their criticism of the Castro regime is justified. Nevertheless, we must recognize the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuban regime in a way that enhances U.S. interests.
This is an excellent sign that change has come to Washington concerning Cuba-America Policy.
Obama Should Visit Cuba Like Nixon Visited China
We’re only a few days away from the inauguration of President Barack Obama and again Cuba is in the news.
Obama has signaled that he may close Guantanamo Bay on his first day in office as he works to reverse Bush’s long standing policy on detainees.
An article by William M. LeoGrande and Peter Kornbluh at the Los Angeles Times has written an op-ed piece declaring that Obama should go to Cuba similar to the way Nixon visited China in 1972.
U.S. policy toward Cuba today, like policy toward China in 1972, is overdue for change. Relations broke down 50 years ago because Washington was unwilling to countenance a Latin American client state escaping the orbit of U.S. hegemony, and because Fidel Castro was determined to do just that.
In 1972 Nixon faced much of the same old school thinking that prevails today. Let’s hope Obama makes a bold move to normalize relations with Cuba and ends the Cuban embargo soon.
Obama to Order Closing Guantanamo Bay Sooner Rather than Later
Obama may order Guantanamo Bay closed in his first week in office according to this report from ABC:
President-elect Barack Obama is preparing to issue an executive order his first week in office — and perhaps his first day — to close the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, according to two presidential transition team advisers.