Yahoo! July 20, 2000
Russia Debt Rescheduling Barred
By Jim Abrams, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 19 (AP) - The House voted Wednesday to bar the rescheduling or forgiving of Russian debt until Russia shuts down its intelligence listening post in Lourdes, Cuba.
Supporters said it made no sense to give Russia debt relief when it is pouring billions of dollars into an operation that props up the Havana government while eavesdropping on America's military, companies and private citizens.
But the administration opposes the legislation, arguing that Russia, like the United States, needs intelligence facilities to monitor and verify arms control agreements. Many Democrats opponents of the bill said it was a continuance of a 40-year-old failed policy of trying to isolate Cuba. The
bill passed 275-146.
Lawmakers said Russia leases the Lourdes facility from Cuba for up to $300 million a year and has spent more than $3 billion in recent years to operate and modernize the satellite station used to intercept U.S. telephone calls and computer communications. They cited reports that Lourdes was used
to intercept U.S. strategic information during the Gulf War.
It is similar to having a foreign aircraft carrier "bristling with satellites'' sitting off American shores, said House intelligence committee chairman Porter Goss, R-Fla.
It also underscores, said bill sponsor Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., "the continuing relation between the Russian intelligence service and the Cuban tyranny.''
The bill would prohibit the United States, as long as the Lourdes facility is operating, from participating in multinational agreements to reschedule payments on Soviet-era debts. Under an agreement reached with Russia's creditor nations last August, the United States is to refinance nearly $500
million in Soviet-era debt.
An amendment added by the International Relations Committee gives the president the authority to waive the ban if he feels it is in the national interest.
The Senate has yet to take up similar legislation, but Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Jesse Helms, R-N.C., has moved to block the refinancing package to protest the Russian military crackdown in Chechnya.
Democratic opponents of the bill referred to the administration's position that, while it has some concerns about Lourdes, both the United States and Russia need facilities to verify arms control agreements.
"Basically the administration is telling us to butt out of their ability to negotiate in the best interest of our country,'' said Rep. Maxine Waters, D-Calif.
Connecticut's Rep. Sam Gejdenson, the top Democrat on the International Relations Committee, said the real purpose of the bill's backers is to put "one more nail in Fidel Castro's coffin. For 40 years we have tried these plots,'' he said. "Let's not tie our Russian policy to a failed
policy in Cuba.''
The bill number is H.R. 4118
On the Net: House GOP legislative digest:
http://hillsource.house.gov/LegislativeDigest/Digest/Digest2000/Wk20pt1.htm
Cuban Player Defects to U.S.
By Jaime Hernandez, Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI, 19 (AP) - After being caught at sea on his first attempt to flee Cuba, baseball star Andy Morales has made it to U.S. soil.
Morales, who hit a home run last year in the Cuban team's 12-6 victory over the Orioles in Baltimore, was in temporary federal custody Wednesday.
The 25-year-old third baseman and eight other Cubans were picked up Tuesday by the Border Patrol on the Marquesas, a group of islands near Key West.
They were being questioned about whether they were smuggled into Florida, Border Patrol spokesman Joe Mellia said. Some members of the group said they paid $5,000 to be brought to the United States, Mellia said.
"I am happy that my son is safe and sound, that he will be able to play the kind of baseball he wants,'' the player's father, Adelso Morales, said from San Nicolas de Bari, about 30 miles from Havana.
Last month, Morales and 30 other Cubans were intercepted at sea near Key West by a Coast Guard cutter and sent back to Cuba.
Cubans who reach U.S. soil are generally allowed to stay after brief immigration processing, but those stopped at sea are returned.
"We're just amazed at this kid having so much courage to not only do it once but twice,'' his sports agent, Gus Dominguez, said Wednesday. "He certainly deserves a future here in the United States.''
Morales' wife, Daiyana, and their infant remained in Cuba, the father said. They already have U.S. approval to immigrate and are awaiting Cuban approval, he said.
Morales' in-laws and others gathered outside the federal Krome Detention Center awaiting his release. His father-in-law, Carlos Castillo, said the family plans to live with him in Miami.
About 35 Cuban baseball players have defected in the past 10 years. They include New York Yankees pitcher Orlando "El Duque'' Hernandez; his half brother, San Francisco Giants pitcher Livan Hernandez; and New York Mets shortstop Rey Ordonez.
Morales' agent did not address the question of which U.S. team his client might want to play for.
"We're just trying to make sure he stays in the country and gets asylum,'' Dominguez said.
Morales' father said neither he nor his wife had known that their son had planned the second trip.
The elder Morales said Cuban authorities allowed his son to keep playing baseball after the first failed attempt to leave. But he said his son was told he would not be allowed to play on the national team or travel outside Cuba.
After playing several games with the local team last month, he said his son became depressed and decided to abandon Cuban baseball altogether. The father said Cuban sports authorities insinuated his son was not a good player.
"He is not mediocre,'' the father said. "He is a baseball star.''
Parents Happy for Cuban Ballplayer
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 19 (AP) - A stream of neighbors kept coming to the front door, offering congratulations.
"I am happy that my son is safe and sound, that he will be able to play the kind of baseball he wants,'' Adelso Morales said Wednesday.
Morales, speaking from San Nicolas de Bari, about 30 miles from Havana, is the father of Andy Morales.
The son, a star baseball player for the Cuban national baseball team, succeeded in his second attempt to reach the United States.
The elder Morales said he began receiving phone calls from Miami on Wednesday morning. Andy Morales was in federal custody after landing in the Florida Keys.
The father said neither he nor his wife had known that their son had planned the second trip. The first time, the son and 30 other would-be Cuban immigrants had been repatriated to the island after the U.S. Coast Guard picked them up at sea.
Morales said Cuban authorities allowed his son to keep playing baseball. But he had been told he would not be allowed to play on the national team or travel outside Cuba.
After playing several games with the local team last month, his son became depressed and decided to abandon Cuban baseball altogether, Morales said.
What hurt the most were insinuations by Cuban sports authorities that Andy Morales he was not a very good player.
"He is not mediocre,'' the father said. "He is a baseball star.''
The 25-year-old third baseman hit a home run last year in a 12-6 victory by the Cuban national team over the Orioles in Baltimore.
The elder Morales said Andy's mother, Magdelena de Leon, had been deeply saddened after her son's first attempt to leave.
"She is happy now that her son is following his dream,'' said Morales, himself a baseball coach.
The couple had not heard from their son by late afternoon, but hoped to get a call that night.
The U.S. Border Patrol was holding the younger Morales and other members of his group during questioning about whether they were smuggled into Florida.
The wife of the baseball player, Daiyana, and their infant son, remained in Cuba, Adelso Morales said.
He said they have visas to emigrate to the United States and are awaiting the final approvals necessary from the Cuban government to leave. |