Fwd: CubaCentral Weekly News Blast

[Guest guest]

I'm so pleased to hear that the Pastors for Peace finally got through. our

gubmint did everything it could to stop them. Speaks well for georgie boy's

" faith based " plan for humanitarian aid.

 

 

CubaCentral Weekly News Blast

 

 

 

Dear Mary:

 

This week, in a Detroit Free Press article on growing U.S. unrest toward the

Cuba embargo, the president of the U.S. Rice Producers Association plaintively

asks: " Will someone please explain this policy to me? "

 

It is hard to explain. Cuba sanctions and the travel ban restrict our freedoms,

divide Cuban families, punish U.S. businesses, and deny Cubans and U.S. citizens

the right to interact and learn from each other. An island ninety miles from

our shores, once that poses no danger to our national security, bound to our

country for centuries, remains the forbidden fruit of U.S. policy, the only

nation on the planet from which we isolate ourselves with so many restrictions

on travel and trade.

 

Hats off, this week, to Pastors for Peace, because they had the courage to bring

humanitarian supplies to Cuba, at great risk to themselves; and to Senator Max

Baucus for stopping numerous top-level nominations to the Treasury Department,

until they unwound foolish rules changes that blocked food sales to Cuba.

 

We are working for the day when these acts of courage become common place,

because the abnormal relations we endure now with Cuba due to U.S. policy are

normalized and depoliticized and reformed to work in the interests of our

people, on both sides of the Florida Straits.

 

This week in Cuba news….

 

1. Treasury Clarifies Agricultural Rules

 

Senator Max Baucus ended his hold on Treasury Department nominees when the

Treasury offered a clarification of the rules governing agricultural sales to

Cuba. Cash payment will still have to be made before the goods purchased leave

U.S. ports, but now the payment may be made through foreign banks acting as the

seller’s agent until the goods are received in Cuba. It is unclear whether this

will reverse the slump in sales to Cuba that has resulted from the new

regulation, as most U.S. companies trading with Cuba already used foreign banks.

But Senator Baucus stood up for his principles on this issue and was effective

in bringing about change in the rules.

 

Ag sales are important across the country. In fact, 94 heifers from Vermont are

arriving in Cuba in conjunction with a Vermont trade delegation that includes

Lt. Governor Brian Dubie. Vermont, like Louisiana (with its 3rd trade

delegation to Cuba this year), Senator Baucus' Montana, and Nebraska (Governor

Heineman is about to lead his delegation) are just a few of the states pursuing

increased agricultural sales to Cuba.

 

2. Republican and Conservative Support of Cuba Policy Diminishing

 

The push to reform America's Cuba policy is being led by a growing coalition of

Americans, spanning both political parties and the ideological spectrum as well.

According to an August 4, 2005 Associated Press Article by Vanessa Arrington,

the support of American agricultural and business associations, bastions of

right-leaning voters and donors, is making Cuba policy reform an even more

bipartisan goal. The article also notes the support of Republican lawmakers

Representative Jeff Flake (AZ) and Senator Larry Craig (ID), and predicts that

at some point the Bush administration will have to take into account these

changes in Republican views.

 

3. Pastors for Peace back in U.S. after Mission to Cuba

 

The Pastors for Peace Caravan to Cuba has returned from its aid mission. The

group has supplied aid to Cuba for more than a decade, purposely traveling

without a humanitarian license in protest of the restrictions on travel and

charity to Cuba. This year, the caravan was stopped by Commerce Department

officials at the Mexican border. After threatening to search the entire caravan

of 130 people and several tons of material aid, Pastors for Peace continued on

to Cuba, where they distributed their goods and services. Several computers

meant for Cuban schools were seized, and the organization is continuing to try

to recover them.

 

4. John Bolton Receives Recess Appointment

 

President Bush appointed John Bolton to be the U.S. Ambassador to the United

Nations without Senate Approval, during the Congressional recess that began

August 1. Bolton will begin his work at the UN shortly. Throughout his career

in the State Department, Bolton supported the hardest-line policy against Cuba,

including the tightened restrictions that went into effect last June.

 

Until next week,

 

The CubaCentral Team

 

Visit http://www.cubacentral.com for more Cuba news.

 

 

 

" Those who want the Government to regulate matters of the mind and spirit

are like men who are so afraid of being murdered

that they commit suicide to avoid assassination. "

President Harry S. Truman