 | Raul Castro has more economic sense than Nancy Pelosi. Figures ... |
HAVANA - Sometime next year, Cuba plans to begin drilling a major oil field off its northern coast that might do what little else has done -- bring change to U.S-Cuba relations. In a rare confluence of circumstances, oil could grease the wheels for the two bitter enemies to come together in the middle of the Florida Straits out of mutual need, experts say.
Getting there would require a sea change in U.S. policy -- namely putting a major hole in the U.S. trade embargo imposed against Cuba in 1962 to topple Fidel CastroÂ’s communist government. If the embargo stays as is, a nearby source of oil will be off-limits to the energy-thirsty United States and the American oil industry will miss out on billions of dollars of business.
| We could just drill on our side of the Florida Straits, but no-o-o-o-o-o ... |
Embargo opponents rule out change until President George W. Bush, who has toughened the embargo, leaves office next year. Even then they can expect a fight from influential Cuban-American leaders, who argue that helping Cuba produce oil will aid the Cuban government and undermine the 46-year-old embargoÂ’s reason for being.
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