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Caribbean-Latin America
Obama will use spring summit to bring Cuba in from the cold
2009-03-08
President Barack Obama is poised to offer an olive branch to Cuba in an effort to repair the US's tattered reputation in Latin America.
The fumble with Putin, the cold shoulder to Gordo, now this. What's next, a state visit for Hugo?
The White House has moved to ease some travel and trade restrictions as a cautious first step towards better ties with Havana, raising hopes of an eventual lifting of the four-decade-old economic embargo. Several Bush-era controls are expected to be relaxed in the run-up to next month's Summit of the Americas in Trinidad and Tobago to gild the president's regional debut and signal a new era of "Yankee" cooperation.
By cozying up to thugs. Yup, that's a new era alright ...
The administration has moved to ease draconian travel controls and lift limits on cash remittances that Cuban-Americans can send to the island, a lifeline for hundreds of thousands of families.

"The effect on ordinary Cubans will be fairly significant. It will improve things and be very welcome," said a western diplomat in Havana. The changes would reverse hardline Bush policies but not fundamentally alter relations between the superpower and the island, he added. "It just takes us back to the 1990s."

The provisions are contained in a $410bn (£290bn) spending bill due to be voted on this week.
For some reason Bambi can't just have a simple piece of legislation that would do this, he has to hide it in the omnibus pork bill.
The legislation would allow Americans with immediate family in Cuba to visit annually, instead of once every three years, and broaden the definition of immediate family. It would also drop a requirement that Havana pay cash in advance for US food imports.

"There is a strong likelihood that Obama will announce policy changes prior to the summit," said Daniel Erikson, director of Caribbean programmes at the Inter-American Dialogue and author of The Cuba Wars. "Loosening travel restrictions would be the easy thing to do and defuse tensions at the summit."

Latin America, once considered Washington's "backyard", has become newly assertive and ended the Castro government's pariah status. The presidents of Brazil, Chile, Dominican Republic, Ecuador and Guatemala have recently visited Havana to deepen economic and political ties. Brazil's president, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, is expected to tell Obama on a White House visit this week that the region views the US embargo as anachronistic and vindictive. Easing it would help mend Washington's strained relations with the "pink tide" of leftist governments.
Which must be one of our most important foreign policy goals, getting in good with the pink tide ...
Obama's proposed Cuba measures would only partly thaw a policy frozen since John F Kennedy tried to isolate the communist state across the Florida Straits. "It would signal new pragmatism, but you would still have the embargo, which is the centrepiece of US policy," said Erikson.

Wayne Smith at the Centre for International Policy, Washington DC, said: "I think that the Obama administration will go ahead and lift restrictions on travel of Cuban Americans and remittance to their families. He may also lift restrictions on academic travel. There are some things that could be done very easily - for example it's about time we took Cuba off the terrorist list. It's the beginning of the end of the policies we have had towards Cuba for 50 years. It's achieved nothing, it's an embarrassment."
The 'Centre for International Policy' would say that since it's one of the progressive mills that has sprung up in DC. Part of their funding comes from George Soros' Open Society Institute which is a pretty good clue.
Wayne Smith, a former head of the US Interest Section in Havana, famously said Cuba had the same effect on American administrations as the full moon had on werewolves.
Except Fidel allowed his country to be used as a trans-shipment point for drugs and has spent the last fifty years bashing up.
Cuban exiles in Florida, a crucial voting bloc in a swing state, sustained a hardline US policy towards Havana even as the cold war ended and the US traded with other undemocratic nations with much worse human rights records.
Gee, the people who know Fidel best think we should take a hard line towards him. Fancy that ...
To Washington's chagrin, the economic stranglehold did not topple Fidel Castro. When Soviet Union subsidies evaporated, the "maximum leader" implemented savage austerity, opened the island to tourism and found a new sponsor in Venezuela's petrol-rich president, Hugo Chavez.
So it didn't topple him but it exposed the 'paradise' to be a sham ...
When Fidel fell ill in 2006, power transferred seamlessly to his brother Raúl. He cemented his authority last week with a cabinet reshuffle that replaced "Fidelistas" with "Raúlistas" from the military.

Recognising Castro continuity, and aghast at European and Asian competitors getting a free hand, US corporate interests are impatient to do business with Cuba. Oil companies want to drill offshore, farmers to export more rice, vegetables and meat, construction firms to build infrastructure projects.
Notice that it would be easier to drill offshore Cuba than offshore Florida ...
Young Cuban exiles in Florida, less radical than their parents, have advocated ending the policy of isolation. As a senator, Obama opposed the embargo, but as a presidential candidate he supported it - and simultaneously promised engagement with Havana.
Typical Bambi, talking out of both sides of his mouth and speaking nothing but mush. And he got elected with it ...
A handful of hardline anti-Castro Republican and Democrat members of Congress have threatened to derail the $410bn spending bill unless the Cuba provisions are removed, but most analysts think the legislation will survive.

Compared to intractable challenges in Afghanistan, Pakistan and the Middle East, the opportunity for quick progress on Cuba has been called the "low-hanging fruit" of US foreign policy.
If you believe in coddling thugs ...
That Obama has moved so cautiously has frustrated many reformers. But after decades of freeze, even a slight thaw is welcome, and there is speculation that more will follow.
Posted by:Steve White

#9  See also RENSE > FPIF - AMERICA HAS TOO MANY OVERSEAS BASES; + SAME > GLOBALRESEARCH.CA - NATO BASES FROM THE BALKANS TO THE CHINESE BORDER.

ALso, SAME > HOW THE US FORGOT TO MAKE TRIDENT MISSLES + THE EU MUST SURRENDER POWER TO SURVIVE!?

And so the RISE OF "JUSTIFIED" OWG-NWO , in parallel or as coupled wid similarly "JUSTIFIED" US GLOBAL-GEOPOL DOWNSIZING AND RETREAT? BEGINS.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2009-03-08 19:08  

#8  Well, if Bambi screws it up badly enough maybe he'll miss all those electoral votes from Florida in 2012. Gotta look for a silver lining somewhere.
Posted by: Abu Uluque   2009-03-08 13:23  

#7  :)
It's aller about whatever it's about:

Viva Le Soupe
Posted by: Shipman   2009-03-08 12:22  

#6  Doc. you're not adressing my main point. The damn Gray Ghosties are going nuts and need me or vicey verse, depending.


:)
Posted by: Shipman   2009-03-08 12:12  

#5  To be clear, I'm for whatever brings the Castro boys and their evil regime down quickest. If that means keeping the embargo, keep it. If that means removing the embargo, remove it.

But I have no confidence that Bambi wants to bring down the commies. I see his moves precisely as a way to prop up the Castro boys, and that's bad.
Posted by: Steve White   2009-03-08 12:02  

#4  Hey, just think about the opportunities that will open up in the Classic Car market!!!

One thing that always puzzled me, given that everyone else in the world would trade with Cuba why was our embargo so painful for them?
Posted by: AlanC   2009-03-08 11:13  

#3  Let it happen. The Bonefish are getting out of hand and need supervision.

Seriously... Jeebus. It's time to examine the situation and conclude that the Commies done won in Cuba and our tactics ain't working worth a damn there. So let's try someting different.

Yes, Ima soft of Cuba.... but here's 2 reasons:
lil commies
Posted by: Shipman   2009-03-08 11:07  

#2  All those pseudo human rights groups should be proud that W is now gone. Now they can focus on other money raising schemes to keep their scam going. /sarcasm off

Posted by: Procopius2k   2009-03-08 11:06  

#1  How about another Mariel boat lift for those Cubans too poor to afford inner tubes?
Posted by: ed   2009-03-08 10:40  

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