Yahoo! July 17, 2000
End to Cuba Sanctions Called for
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 16 (AP) - After a weekend visit to Cuba that included a 10-hour meeting with President Fidel Castro, three U.S. senators called for an end to American trade sanctions and improved relations between the two countries.
While saying they believe that Cuba still must open up its economy and grant freedom of expression to its citizens, Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont., Daniel Akaka, D-Hawaii, and Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said that it was time for the Washington and Havana to improve relations.
The American lawmakers said improved relations would benefit both countries and help prepare Cuba for an eventual change in leadership. Castro, who will turn 74 next month, has been the nation's top leader since the triumph of the 1959 Cuban Revolution.
In their meetings with Castro and other top leaders, the senators said they got the impression that a peaceful succession in leadership was a primary concern. After arriving in Havana on Friday, the senators met with Vice President Carlos Lage, National Assembly President Ricardo Alarcon and a
number of Cabinet ministers.
During their stay, the lawmakers also discussed Cuba's human rights situation with a group of the nation's best known political opponents at the residence of Vicky Huddleston, head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana.
While many Castro foes assume that the leader's passing will automatically open the door to a market economy and representative democracy, communist leaders maintain that the current government and economic model will remain intact.
``My impression is that (Castro) thinks it will be smooth and that the tenets of what he believes will be preserved,'' Roberts told an afternoon news conference before the three headed back to the United States after their weekend visit. ``I don't think he is planning on retiring anytime soon.''
Nevertheless, the lawmakers said that the United States does not have to wait for a change in leadership to begin improving relations that could benefit people living on both sides of the Florida Straits.
The senators said a first step would be to lift U.S. trade sanctions against Cuba that have been in place for nearly four decades. All three support growing moves in Congress to eliminate restrictions on sales of food and medicine to the Caribbean island.
``Clearly the embargo must go,'' Baucus said. ``It gives Fidel Castro an excuse for failed economic policies.'' Just as important, ``it hurts American farmers'' who are looking for new markets for their products, he said.
``Cuba is no national security threat to the United States,'' Baucus said. ``We believe that the era of unilateral sanctions should be fading away.
``The Cold War has been over for 10 to 12 years now,'' he added.
Roberts, however, said that Cuba must be willing to do its part by initiating market reforms that will make American trade with Cuba viable. ``Free trade must involve sales to individuals and realistic financing,'' he said.
The Kansas senator said he supported increased cooperation by the two countries on issues of mutual concern, such as drug interdiction.
Under a program proposed by Republican Sen. Arlen Specter following his visit to Cuba a year ago, about $1 million had been set aside for joint interdiction efforts, Roberts said. He did not provide specifics.
Sen. Akaka, meanwhile, expressed interest in increased educational exchanges between the two countries that would allow American students to visit Cuba and Cuban students to visit the United States.
``Cooperation in education could create a dialogue,'' Akaka said.
Rowers Get Life Bans for Doping
LUCERNE, Switzerland, 16 (AP) - A Cuban sculler already qualified for the Olympics and two members of a women's crew from Belarus were banned for life for steroid use Sunday. All three athletes were caught in out-of-competition tests.
FISA, rowing's international federation, said Giovany Solo Lopez of Cuba tested positive for Nandrolone at a training camp in Mexico City.
He was a member of the Cuban men's quadruple sculls that had qualified for the Olympics in Sydney.
FISA also said tests at a training center in Belarus caught two members of that country's women's quad sculls team.
Natalia Lavrenenko tested positive for Epimetendiol, while teammate Natalia Stasiok was caught using Methyltestosterone.
Life bans are automatically imposed for steroid use under FISA rules, which punish only the individual if the test is conducted away from competition. If a rower tests positive during competition, the entire boat is disqualified and the result dropped.
FISA, one of the international federations with the tightest anti-doping regulations, was the first to introduce out-of-competition testing in 1983.
Castro Meets Elian for First Time
HAVANA, 15 (AP) - Cuban President Fidel Castro has finally met the 6-year-old boy who was the focus of his politics for much of the past seven months, official media reports said Saturday.
Castro visited Elian Gonzalez's family Friday to congratulate the child for completing first grade, according to Granma, the Communist Party daily.
The reports did not say where the meeting took place, but the government had prepared a house in west Havana for Elian, his father Juan Miguel and their family following the child's return from the United States.
``Comrade Fidel visited Juan Miguel and his family and was able to meet and greet Elian,'' said Radio Reloj. It said Castro gave Elian a copy of ``The Golden Age,'' a children's book by Cuban independence hero Jose Marti.
Castro wrote a dedication in the book: ``For when you are in the fourth or fifth grade and can enjoy one of the most tender works of Marti.''
It was the first reported meeting between the Cuban leader and Elian since the child returned from the United States on June 28. Castro had pledged that Cuba would avoid making the center of a media circus on his return to the island.
State television reported Friday night that Elian had received his first-grade diploma after a special effort by teachers to help him recover the time lost during his tumultuous stay in the United States.
Elian survived a boat sinking that killed his mother and 10 other would-be emigres trying to reach Florida.
After the child was rescued Nov. 25, a dispute over custody between relatives in the United States and his father in Cuba became a major international incident involving Castro and top U.S. officials.
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press.
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