Bitter Disappointment for Progressive Cuba Policy

Bitter Disappointment for Progressive Cuba Policy
Monday, 22 November 2010, 9:29 am
Press Release: Council On Hemispheric Affairs
The Mid-Term Elections: An Easy Prediction for the Future of U.S.-Cuba Relations
by COHA Director Larry Birns and Research Associate Kelsey Strain

As the April 2009 Summit of the Americas drew to a close in Trinidad and Tobago, President Obama’s statement that the U.S. was prepared to seek new relations with Cuba favorably resonated with the assembled Latin American leaders. But up to now, only minimal progress has been made in implementing a new policy, with the exception of relaxed restrictions on travel and remittances for Cubans living in the United States. Echoing the same formulaic slogans uttered by former U.S. presidents for half a century, Obama, on the relatively rare occasion that he has anything to say about Latin American issues, continues stress a “wait and see” approach, in which Havana will have to earn the right to be a negotiating partner.

Undeniably, in the year and a half following the 2009 summit, Cuba repeatedly has demonstrated its willingness to begin thawing its frozen ties with Washington, giving Obama a timely opportunity to make substantial changes in U.S. policy towards the island. However, since then, the administration has appeared to be increasingly uninterested in moving matters forward. Placing the Cuba issue within the broader context of U.S.-Latin American relations, the hope for a bold revision of hemispheric policy under Obama’s administration has been diminished. Simply put, U.S.-Latin American diplomacy hovers alarmingly close to nonexistence, and is almost indistinguishable from what it was during the Bush presidency. What is more, it is unlikely that much will change with a right wing majority-Republican House taking over in January.

The Implications of the Mid-Term Election Results

Although a handful of surviving House liberals and centrists will continue to maintain a strong opposition to travel restrictions and the trade embargo, Cuban policy is likely to remain on the backburner for the time being in Washington, if not completely at a standstill. Veteran Republican Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, herself a Cuban-American, is expected to block any remaining efforts to change the U.S.’s modest policies. Taking over as chairwoman of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) will replace Democratic Representative Howard L Berman, who collaborated with Republican Senator Richard Lugar in April 2009 to formulate a convincing argument in favor of terminating the embargo.

Ros-Lehtinen’s track record and her sustained, aggressive stance on Latin American issues demonstrate that she has little tolerance for regional dissidents who oppose the United States’ hemispheric policies. Her extremist line of moderation when it comes to the U.S.-hemispheric issues is shockingly uncompromising. For example, in 2006 she candidly stated, “I welcome the opportunity of having anyone assassinate Fidel Castro and any leader who is oppressing the people.” Additionally, she has supported every coup that has attempted to overthrow left-leaning governments in Latin America. In 2002, shortly after the coup in Venezuela, she declared that Venezuelan Pedro Soto, who called for Hugo Chávez’s overthrow, was a “great patriot,” despite the fact that Chávez had been elected through a fair and democratic process. In a similar situation, she strongly supported last year’s coup in Honduras, and she continues to help block any movement by U.S. diplomats favoring dialogue with Venezuela and its fellow ALBA nations.

More:
http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1011/S00414/bitter-disappointment-for-progressive-cuba-policy.htm

http://narcosphere.narconews.com.nyud.net:8090/userfiles/70/RosLehtinenBush.JPG.jpeg http://www.cubademocraciayvida.org.nyud.net:8090/media/0%200%200%20a/1-1-A-A-1.jpg

"La Loba" ("The She-Wolf" as she's called in Cuba) beat tracks to Honduras to huddle immediately with the coup-leader, Roberto Micheletti, and lend her "moral" support, conducting her own foreign affairs, even after U.S. President Obama requested Congresspeople to leave the foreign relations to the White House at that sensitive time.

Editorials:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x571547

See my response to your posting in Editorials:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x571547

It doesn't take people long to get a sense of the fact you come prepared with facts, intelligence, and impeccable character.

Disappointment comes when expectations aren't met. Bitter disappointment comes when unrealistic expectations aren't met.

Where was the writer when Obama flip flopped on US/Cuba policy when campaigning in Miami? (When I posted the video to DU's vid forum, with "Flip Flop" in the OP title, I got holy hell from DUers for using "flip flop" and Obama in the same sentence.) Did the writer really think that Hil's appointment would resolve the US's stance towards Latin America? Has the writer actually been following Obama/Hil and Plan Colombia? It is being completely unrealistic to have expectations of change considering the continuum of US money, US policies, and US players involved.


I had no expectations. Especially after Honduras.


As I've stated many times here, the basis and reason for US/Cuba policy has almost NOTHING to do with Cuba. Its about money and power, hand in hand with corruption, in the US.

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The Obama Administration started out well on Cuba and then fell into the trap of Cuban American exile politics where intensity overcomes rationality, and both national and political self-interest.

There was broad agreement in all spheres of the US government for opening non-tourist people-to-people travel before Labor Day. Then the White House was snookered by Sen. Bob Menendez and Rep. Debbie Wasserman-Schultz into delaying the announcement until after the mid-term election.

One of their goals may have been to sabotage the House campaign of Joe Garcia who would have seriously damaged their hard-line monopoly in Congress.

What is the White House excuse now for not making the announcement?

We are asking that people write directly to the White House here

http://www.change.org/fund_for_reconciliation_development/petitions/view/mr_president_be_bold_on_people_to_people_travel_to_cuba

and ask their Representative and Senators to weigh in with the President here

http://www.change.org/fund_for_reconciliation_development/petitions/view/ask_congress_to_support_presidential_action_on_cuba_travel

John McAuliff
Fund for Reconciliation and Development
www.ffrd.org

Get real. He flip flopped during his campaign - before there was an Obama administration.

Obama Flip Flops on Cuban Embargo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7OjOQ6xz1b8

He agrees with RW whackos....

Cuban American David Rivera opposes end Cuba blockade
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IZuQPkUctN0

We knew going in that candidate Obama had backed away from his earlier opposition to the embargo.

As angry as I am at his and the Democratic Congress failure to deliver on travel, I am also disappointed at the virtual silence of most progressives on the issue.

Obama does deserve credit for these steps:

1) Ending all restrictions on travel and remittances for Cuban Americans

2) Enabling Cuban academics to come to the US

3) Enabling Cuban musicians and other cultural figures to come to the US

4) Lowering the level of rhetoric and ending the provocative role of the US Interests Section in Havana

However, he could easily:

1) End all restrictions on non-tourist travel

2) Remove Cuba from the absurd designation as a State Sponsor of Terrorism

3) Allow Cuba to trade dollars internationally

4) Ease agricultural sales and humanitarian donations.


We did not elect a radical, but we did think we had chosen a good liberal. We need to make our reasonable expectations known to White House strategists in ways they cannot ignore.

For more on strategy go here http://thehavananote.com/2010/11/time_strategic_reset

John McAuliff
Fund for Reconciliation and Development
www.ffrd.org

Takes congress to do most of it.

I still have hope. But my hope is tempered by lifelong experience.

Welcome to this forum. :hi:



edit: But my hope is tempered by lifelong experience. Including the excruciating experience of my dear Cuban father in law dying in hospital and my not being able to go to say goodbye and give comfort to my beloved Cuban in-laws. They still can't come here. The Obama admin still hasn't changed Bush's OFAC policies on granting visitation visas to non elite Cubans. Its kinda hard for me to filter this through rose tinted glasses. Its clearly cruel and unusual collective punishment.

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Everything I listed is completely within executive authority.

There is a legal argument that the President can suspend any part of the embargo except tourism. The attorney Bob Muse originated it, but Carlos Pascual, then VP at Brookings, now US Ambassador to Mexico, and Vicki Huddleston, former head of USINT now at the Pentagon, wrote an op ed in the Miami Herald which also argued the point.

That took place when everyone believed that Obama was in fact an agent of change.

When did the terrible experience of not being able to obtain an emergency visa take place. It is exactly the kind of emergency situation that USINT today would try to accommodate.

John

and avenue for action for now.

The more I hear of her, the more I loathe her.

She's got her extremist right-wing IGNORANT agenda and she fancies herself an expert on Latin American affairs.

SHE is the kind of person who cheered when the RW extremists were slaughtering people in El Salvador or Guatemala.

She's the one who fought to get mass murdering bomber Orlando Bosch admitted back into the US after over 30 other countries refused to even let him inside their borders. Her campaign manager was Jeb Bush, and he and she both pressed President George H W Bush to override the findings for exclusion made by Assistant Attorney General Joe D. Whitley.

Orlando Bosch was readmitted because of them, and lives in peace in Miami where he's considered a hero, and the Miami City Commissioners even created an annual Orlando Bosch Day, and named a street for him. Makes you sick!

Also, in recent years, she attempted, during _{George W. Bush's} pResidency, to arrange asylum in the U.S. for political opposition characters from Venezuela, so they can do goddawful things and skip the country to hide out here, free from prosecution.

Just found a quick reference to it, and there are far more for anyone wanting more information on the subject:

~snip~
Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, Connie Mack, Lincoln Díaz-Balart and Mario Díaz-Balart, all Republicans from the state of Florida, and Jerry Weller, Republican from Illinois, sent a letter to the U.S. President to ask him to order the Department of Homeland Security to temporarily stop the deporting of Venezuelans.

"We strongly believe that the Chávez government in Venezuela at this time is persecuting its citizens for their political views," said the representatives in the letter released on Monday, March 26th at a press conference in Miami.

~snip~
The representatives have requested that Venezuelans be given an immigration status similar to that given to Nicaraguans and Hondurans after Hurricane Mitch in 1998, and to Salvadorans following a 2001 earthquake. Or, as an alternative, the legislators asked that Bush grant asylum to Venezuelans, as was done for Nicaraguans who left their country in the 1980's after the Sandinista government came to power.

The temporary protection for Venezuelans could be implemented under a program called "Deferred Enforced Departure" (DED), which defers deportation of immigrants who could be endangered if sent back to their home countries, for reasons of political instability or other reasons. According to the U.S. lawmakers, the DED they are asking for is for political reasons or where there is a disaster in a country. "As a matter of fact, the freedom and lives of Venezuelans who return are endangered," said Lincoln Díaz-Balart.

More:
http://venezuelanalysis.com/news/2304

She and the other hardliner Cuban politicians have no respect for the truth. The truth actually condemns them all. The kind of world they supported in Cuba, and in Florida is racist, heavy handed, and brutal. Not that many years ago, Human Rights Watch said that the First Amendment free speech right is endangered in Miami due to the opporession of the Cuban reactionary faction's control of Miami's laws and culture.