Yahoo! July 21, 2000
House Votes To Lift Cuban Limits
By Alan Fram, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 21 (AP) - Despite a pair of decisive victories in the House, supporters of removing sanctions against U.S. food and drug sales and travel to Cuba say they are unsure what will get through Congress this year.
``This improves the likelihood we'll have some sanction reform,'' Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., said Thursday after the House voted 301-116 for his language ending enforcement of current restrictions against drug and food sales in the communist nation. ``But there are many members of Congress,
including people in the leadership, who oppose lifting sanctions this year.''
Opponents of lifting four-decade-old trade sanctions against Fidel Castro's regime include House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, and Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss.
The House also voted 232-186 to stop enforcement of restrictions against travel to Cuba. That provision was sponsored by Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C.
Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., said the votes ``enhance'' the chance that a compromise he reached last month with DeLay and House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., would become law.
In that deal, food and medicine sales would be allowed to Cuba and four other countries, but Cubans could not pay for the transactions with credit from U.S. banks or the U.S. government. That restriction - which critics have said means few sales to Cuba would take place - is something he might
seek to change, Nethercutt said in an interview.
Both sets of prohibitions - along with a ban against trading most products to Cuba - have been in effect since 1963.
Earlier Thursday, lawmakers voted 241-174 to kill a broader proposal by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., that would have ended enforcement of U.S. prohibitions against virtually all trading with the Caribbean island nation.
Yet the two approved provisions represented a major victory for farm and business lobbies who want expanded markets and a coalition of conservatives and liberals who argued that increasing Cuban contacts with American products and people would accelerate Castro's downfall.
And they were clearly a blow to the efforts of Lott, DeLay and other leaders to head off some action on the issue this year.
Across the Capitol, the Senate approved a separate spending bill for agriculture that would lift sanctions against food and medicine sales to Cuba. It also would prevent presidents from blocking shipments of food and medicine to any country without congressional approval.
President Clinton has said he favors drug and food sales to Cuba.
The issue also has echoed on the campaign trail.
Texas Gov. George W. Bush (news - web sites), the likely GOP presidential nominee, opposes lifting sanctions. His likely Democratic rival, Vice President Al Gore (news - web sites), has said he does not want to erode the president's embargo authority but also favors increased contacts with
Cubans ``without helping the Castro government.''
During Thursday's floor debate, anti-Castro legislators said allowing Cuba to receive more U.S. trade and tourists would help prop up his regime.
``Stand on the side of the Cuban people and against the oppressor of the Cuban people,'' said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., who represents a heavily Cuban district in the Miami area.
Sales of medicine to Cuba have been allowed since 1992, with some restrictions.
As a result of an easing of travel restrictions last year by the Clinton administration for students, athletes, artists and others, the government says about 82,000 Americans flew to Cuba last year. That was a 47 percent increase over the 55,900 who did so in 1998.
Under last month's agreement between House GOP leaders and Nethercutt, Americans could sell food and drugs to Cuba, Libya, Iran, Sudan and North Korea. The pact also would write into law regulations that currently restrict U.S. tourist travel to Cuba.
The Clinton administration decided a year ago to allow sales of food and medicine to Iran, Libya and Sudan but was barred by law from easing the embargo on Cuba.
The provisions the House debated Thursday were offered as amendments to a measure financing the Treasury Department and other smaller agencies in the coming fiscal year. The overall bill was approved by 216-202.
The Senate version of that bill has no language affecting trade with Cuba.
The Treasury spending bill is H.R. 4871.
On the Net: Treasury Office of Foreign Assets Control: http://www.treas.gov/ofac
Cuban Defector Courted by Ball Clubs
By Jaime Hernandez, Associated Press Writer.
MIAMI, 21 (AP) - Days after he defected to the United States, Cuban baseball star Andy Morales is already being courted by major league teams, his agent said.
Morales, who landed Tuesday near Key West with eight others, was released to his family members on Thursday evening, after his immigration paperwork was processed.
Morales, 24, was planning to stay in Miami with his father-in-law while he pursues his baseball career.
``I am happy to be here. I am just very nervous from the trip,'' Morales said Thursday after he was examined at a county clinic. Dressed in sneakers, green jogging pants and a T-shirt, Morales kissed his fingers and touched the ground outside the clinic as reporters watched.
``On the way over here, we got three phone calls from major league teams, wanting to confirm that Andy was here, and asking us to call them,'' said his agent, Gus Dominguez. He declined to name the teams.
``We're elated, and happy for him and his family,'' Dominguez said, adding that Morales had no team preference yet. ``Right now we are just taking it day by day.''
Morales, a third-baseman, caught the eye of baseball fans when he hit a home run in Baltimore last year in a 12-6 victory by the Cuban national team over the Baltimore Orioles.
Morales' wife and their 7-month-old son remain in Cuba, awaiting approval from the Cuban government to leave for the United States, said Rene Guim, publicist for Dominguez.
Morales could go to another country to try to get a work visa so he can negotiate with major league clubs as a free agent, or he could enter baseball's amateur draft and risk being selected by a team he might not want to play for. Guim said no decision had been made on which path he would take.
Cuban ballplayers who play on U.S. teams 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 tried to enter the United States last month, along with 30 other Cubans, but they were picked up at sea by a Coast Guard cutter and sent back to Cuba.
Under U.S. policy, Cubans who land in the United States are generally allowed to stay, but if they are intercepted at sea they are sent back.
House Against Easing Cuba Barriers
Alan Fram, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 21 (AP) - The House voted Thursday against easing broad trade restrictions against Cuba. But supporters of increased contacts with the communist nation continued pressing for a lifting of restrictions against food and medicine sales and travel there by Americans.
By 241-174, the House rejected a proposal by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., that would have ended enforcement of the United States' prohibitions against trading with the Caribbean island nation.
But an alliance of conservative, liberal, business- and farm-state lawmakers, arguing that increased contacts would help weaken Fidel Castro's rule, were forcing two additional votes that were more narrowly focused. One would halt enforcement of travel restrictions, the other of restrictions
against U.S. sales there of food and medicine.
The proposals were the latest congressional battle this year over removing some of the four-decade-old trade barriers between the United States and the Caribbean island nation.
Earlier this year, farm-state lawmakers led by Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., tried to lift the food and medicine embargo against Cuba but ran into opposition by Republican leaders.
The two sides agreed to a compromise last month that House GOP leaders have promised to try pushing into law. Supporters said that if the House voted on Thursday to ease the restrictions, it would strengthen Nethercutt's hand in getting his compromise enacted.
Anti-Castro legislators said allowing Cuba to receive more U.S. trade and tourists would help prop up his regime.
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said the revenue Cuba would gain from easing the restrictions would help ``the worst violator of human rights in all of the Western Hemisphere.''
``Where's your compassion'' for the Cubans and Americans Castro has killed? asked House Majority Whip Tom DeLay, R-Texas, who was a chief opponent to Nethercutt's effort earlier this year.
But sponsors of easing the trade and travel embargoes said the result would be to accelerate the drive toward freedom in Cuba.
Ronald Reagan ``allowed Americans with backpacks to travel in Eastern Europe, and it did help bring down the Berlin Wall,'' said conservative Rep. Mark Sanford, R-S.C., chief sponsor of the language easing the travel restrictions.
``Personal freedom follows economic freedom,'' said Rep. Jerry Moran, R-Kan., who conceded that lifting the food embargo would help his farm-state constituents.
Sales of medicine to Cuba have been allowed since 1992 with certain restrictions.
As a result of an easing of travel restrictions last year by the Clinton administration for students, athletes, artists and others, the government says about 82,000 Americans flew to Cuba last year. That was a 47 percent over the 55,900 who did so in 1998.
Under an agreement last month between House GOP leaders and Nethercutt, Americans could sell food and drugs to Cuba - but only if the Cubans paid for them with cash or with credit from a third country.
The prohibition against financing by the U.S. government or U.S. banks was seen by many critics, including some farm-state lawmakers, as meaning that little trade would actually occur as a result of the agreement.
That agreement would also write into law an existing ban on U.S. tourist travel to Cuba.
Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, R-Miss., has said he opposes the compromise, but President Clinton has said he would probably sign it.
Clinton administration decided a year ago to allow sales of food and medicine to Iran, Libya and Sudan but was barred by law from easing the embargo on Cuba.
The provisions the House debated Thursday were offered as amendments to a measure financing the Treasury Department and other smaller agencies in the coming fiscal year.
The Senate version of the bill has no language affecting trade with Cuba.
The Treasury spending bill is H.R. 4871.
On the Net: Treasury Office of Foreign Assests Control: http://www.treas.gov/ofac
Russia To Push for Debt Write-Off
By Anna Dolgov, Associated Press Writer.
MOSCOW, 21 (AP) - Russia will push for a write-off of Soviet-era debts during the weekend summit of industrial nations, despite legislation in the United States to bar debt relief until Russia closes its intelligence listening post in Cuba, Russia's prime minister said Thursday.
The House of Representatives voted 275-146 Wednesday to prohibit the United States from participating in multinational rescheduling agreements until Russia shuts down an electronic eavesdropping facility in Lourdes, Cuba.
``It makes no sense to tie these two things - the station in Cuba and the debts,'' Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov was quoted as saying by the ITAR-Tass news agency. ``Our station in Cuba has been in place for many years, and it is no secret to the United States.''
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.
But Kasyanov echoed the argument of American opponents of the bill, saying that Russia, like the United States, needs listening posts to monitor arms- control agreements.
The Foreign Ministry criticized the legislation.
``Certain forces in the U.S. Congress, captivated by anti-Russian and anti-Cuban attitudes, are trying anew under far-fetched suppositions to interfere in the relations of Russia with third countries and international institutions. Such an approach is completely unacceptable to us,'' the
statement said.
Kasyanov praised the Clinton administration for opposing the Republican-sponsored bill.
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.
The Russian economy has begun to pick up in recent months, after a decade-long decline. But Kasyanov warned that if Russia is forced to pay, it would not be able to carry out economic reforms demanded by Western nations.
Nostalgic for Russia's status as a world power, Russian leaders are eager for the country to be treated as an equal by the Group of Eight industrial democracies at their meeting on Okinawa.
But government officials concede that with Russia's economy in shambles, it is still a junior participant at the Japan summit.
``Nobody is hoping, and it would make no sense to say, that we intend to be a full-fledged member,'' Kasyanov said. ``But we certainly want to push this process forward.''
Cuba Denounces Player's Defection
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 21 (AP) - The chase apparently began as soon as Andy Morales stepped ashore in the United States.
The Cuban baseball player landed near Key West on Tuesday with eight others and was released to family members Thursday evening after his immigration paperwork was processed at the office of U.S. Catholic Conference Migration and Refugee Services.
Morales, dressed in sneakers, dark-green jogging pants and a T-shirt when he stepped out of a white van, kissed his fingers and touched the ground in Florida as he was transported to a county clinic.
His agent, Gus Dominguez, followed the van in a white Cadillac, cell phone in hand.
``On the way over here, we got three phone calls from major league teams, wanting to confirm that Andy was here, and asking us to call them,'' Dominguez said, declining to name the teams.
It was Morales' second attempt to reach the United States. After picking him up at sea last month, the U.S. Coast Guard sent Morales back to the communist island. But he was allowed to stay in the United States this time because he reached American soil, even though U.S. authorities said he was
brought in by illegal alien smugglers.
``I am happy to be here. I am just very nervous from the trip,'' Morales said Thursday after being examined at the clinic.
Morales, 24, said he would hold a news conference Friday. He was planning to stay in Miami with his father-in-law, Carlos Castillo, while he pursues his baseball career.
Morales' wife Daiyana and their 7-month-old son remain in Cuba awaiting approval from that government to leave for the United States, said Rene Guim, a publicist for Dominguez.
A third baseman, Morales caught the eye of baseball fans when he hit a home run in Baltimore last year in the Cuban national team's 12-6 victory over the Orioles.
He seeks to join other Cuban national team members who have defected to play baseball in the United States. 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' U.S. arrival came in the midst of a campaign by Fidel Castro's government against the Cuban Adjustment Act, a U.S. law passed in 1966 at the height of the Cold War. It allows any Cuban who reaches American soil to avoid deportation and apply for permanent residency after a year.
``This shows the immorality and the criminality of the killer Cuban Adjustment Act,'' Lazaro Barredo, a journalist for the weekly communist workers newspaper, Trabajadores, said on Cuban television.
The Castro administration blamed that law for the international custody dispute over 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez, who returned to the island last month after his Miami relatives lost their seven-month legal battle to keep him in the United States.
When Morales was repatriated to Cuba after his first attempt to reach the United States, he asked for and was promised a job with the government's Cuban Sports Institute, the institute's president Humberto Rodriguez said Thursday as Castro sat in the audience.
``We assured him that what he asked for, he would have,'' Rodriguez said. However, Rodriguez said authorities wanted to watch his attitude before deciding whether he would again play on Cuba's national team.
Morales' father, Adelso Morales, has said that his son was depressed by the decision to bar him from playing again in international events as part of the national team.
``This was his reply to the fact that they no longer were giving him opportunities to play international games,'' Andy Morales' mother, Magdalena Leon, told Associated Press Television News in the ballplayer's hometown of San Nicolas de Bari, outside Havana.
``He was frustrated that they considered him a mediocre player, which he is not,'' the mother added.
Government officials had insinuated after his first attempt to leave Cuba that Morales was not a great player. Those insinuations continued this week.
``Luckily, here there are 10 third baseman who are equal to or better than Andy Morales,'' Cuban television journalist Reinaldo Taladrid said on the government broadcast Thursday.
Senate Passes Agriculture Bill
By JANELLE CARTER, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - The Senate agreed Thursday to add $900 million in emergency aid to a farm appropriations measure despite some complaints that it was excessive, even if the money addressed real needs.
The package of 15 amendments, approved on a voice vote, would provide millions of dollars for flood damage and other natural disasters and losses in livestock, apples, potatoes and citrus crops, among others.
The $75.3 billion measure financing food and farm programs for next year already contains more than $1 billion in emergency aid. It passed the Senate on a 79-13 vote and now must be reconciled with a House version.
The emergency amendments drew fierce objections from several Republican fiscal conservatives, who complained that the projected budget surplus was leading lawmakers to wreck budget spending guidelines.
``I believe this has gone too far,'' said Sen. Phil Gramm, R-Texas. ``We are letting this surplus burn a hole in our pockets.''
It came on top of a $15 billion farm bailout bill passed in May that ws aimed at beefing up crop insurance programs and made $5.5 billion in direct cash payments to growers suffering low commodity prices.
Several senators said it was Congress' responsibility to respond to emergencies ``when people are flat on their backs for causes they cannot control,'' in the words of Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D.
Gramm and his allies won a commitment from the bill's sponsors that no more emergency spending would be added, but that could easily be changed.
Earlier Thursday, the Senate narrowly rejected a measure aimed at trying to resolve a dispute with a Texas beef processor over government meat safety standards.
The amendment offered to the agriculture spending bill by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, was aimed at a dispute involving the Department of Agriculture and Supreme Beef Processors Inc., which supplies ground beef to the national school lunch program.
The department tried to close the facility last month after it failed its fourth straight set of microbial tests, but a federal judge in Texas barred the agency from using such test results to force the closing of the facility. The judge agreed with the meatpacking industry that testing for
salmonella bacteria was not a fair measure of whether a plant was sanitary.
Harkin's amendment would have given the department the legal authority to withdraw or suspend inspection from meat and poultry plants that fail to reduce pathogens in their products. It failed by a vote of 48-49.
``If USDA lacks the authority to enforce pathogen reduction standards than surely we stand at the edge of a food safety debacle,'' Harkin said.
Opponents wanted further study.
``This amendment, if we adopt it here, would impose a legal, a new legal authority that's not now present,'' said Sen. Thad Cochran, R-Miss. and the chairman of the Senate agriculture appropriations subcommittee. ``That would give the Department of Agriculture more power than it has. . . and
more power than we ought to on an appropriations bill without further review.''
The House last month approved its $75.4 billion version of agriculture spending. Once the Senate agrees to its bill, both sides will have to work out any differences.
The measure also faces a veto threat. The Clinton administration has voiced concern about the current spending levels of food safety and environmental issues in the congressional bills.
A major difference in the House and Senate versions is a provision in the Senate bill that would allow food and medicine sales to Cuba. The House rejected the provision earlier but has agreed to add a more restricted version in conference.
On the Net: The bills, S. 2536 and H.R. 4461, can be found at http://thomas.loc.gov
Cuban Diva Albita Stays True to Her Roots
By ROBIN DAVIES © Latino.Com. Thursday July 20 12:20 PM EDT
It is often said you can't rush a good thing. This is certainly the case with Cuban diva Albita's long-awaited CD, "Son."
It has been three years of struggling for the artist, who in 1997 was dropped from Epic, her former label, for not producing enough "popular" Latin music and selling enough albums.
Nonetheless, Albita has stayed true to her desire to continue exploring the rich, traditional sounds of Cuba. "Son" reflects this.
Known for composing songs of her experiences in Cuba, new original songs like "Coraz=F3n Adentro," "Azuca' Pa Tu Amargura," "El Duende," and "Ni T=FA Ni Yo" showcase her talent for opulent lyrics and heartfelt stories.
In the past Albita was marketed as a party girl who performed danceable tunes, but "Son" gives the listener a new perspective of a woman who has developed a distinctive sophistication in her music.
Albita's personal search for artistic expression has been one filled with pain and sacrifice, starting in 1993, when her passion for music lead to her decision to defect to the United States, leaving everyone and everything behind -- family, friends and homeland.
Once in the United States, Albita was embraced by the media, appearing in Newsweek, Time and other national magazines. The rich and famous such as Madonna, Quincy Jones and Gianni Versace howled their praises for their newfound Latina Annie Lenox: a cigar-smoking, androgynous-dressing platinum
blonde.
Albita was on top. But behind the scenes, Albita and record executives for Epic disagreed about how to best market her talent and image. The executives thought of Albita as a popular Latin music artist. Albita viewed herself as a traditional Cuban musician. This difference of opinion proved to
be the creative difference that would change the course of Albita's recording career.
Epic terminated her recording contract, citing low record sales. Albita found herself faced with the challenge of starting over again. In an interview with Latino.com, Albita discussed her new role as record producer, her songwriting inspiration, and her thoughts about her family and her native
Cuba.
Latino.com: Albita, your new CD "Son" is very different from your previous recordings. What inspired you?
Albita: What inspires me is life; the daily life we lead, the things that happen around us, the people -- it is all very poetic and inspirational...In Cuba, they say there is a place you go to [within] when you write. The lyrics are very important when creating a song. They give it life and
inspiration.
Latino.com: When did you begin writing and composing songs?
Albita: I started writing songs in Cuba when I was a little girl. I was seven years old. My parents are singers and songwriters in traditional son music.
Latino.com: When you say that it makes me think of the song on your new CD, "Ni T=FA Ni Yo." This song has very powerful lyrics. Did you use the same songwriting process? Did you know this was a good song?
Albita: When I write I don't always think it's going to be a good song. [Laughing]. I write what I feel and want to share it with a lot of people. The song "Ni T=FA Ni Yo" was inspired and based around the love that people feel for each other. Today, there's so much worry about how
people who love each other look than about how the people that love each other feel.
Latino.com: Do you feel you're writing with less restraint here in the United States than you did in Cuba?
Albita: There is no difference at all writing here or in Cuba. Inspiration has nothing to do with where you are. It is what you feel. I started writing at such an early age that wherever I am, there is inspiration. What I have tried to do is imitate and live like my parents have. They've been
the foundation of my inspiration when writing, writing from the heart, from deep within.
Latino.com: What was the first instrument you played?
Albita: I started playing the clave at 15 and I got my first guitar when I was 15 years old.
Latino.com: Isn't the clave the backbone of son music?
Albita: No, the clave is the heart of Cuban music. I asked this same question once to a famous musician in Cuba because I too wanted to know about the clave. He put a pair of them in my hands, then played some music and told me to start playing. I did, and he told me that what counts is that you
have clave in your soul and the rest [of the music] doesn't matter. The Clave to Cuban music is as important as the fact that we eat beans! [Laughing].
Next Page: Albita becomes a hit in Colombia
Copyright © 2000 The Associated Press.
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