Yahoo! June 27, 2000
Republican leaders agree to ease Cuba sanctions
Tuesday, 27 June 2000 9:36 (ET)
WASHINGTON, June 27 (UPI) -- House Republicans agreed early Tuesday morning to lift some economic sanctions against Cuba, allowing U.S. companies to sell food and medicine to Cuba for the first time in 40 years.
The deal does not allow Cuba to use any form of credit from U.S. banks to purchase the goods, meaning its impact may be limited because the island nation has precious little cash.
But supporters say the final deal allows Cuba to buy U.S. goods with credit from other nations.
The Cuba deal is part of a broader bill that lifts the ban on food and medicine sales to Cuba, Libya, Iran, North Korea and Sudan. The legislation prohibits the president from establishing unilateral food and medicine sanctions against any nation unless he can make a showing to Congress of an
emergency security risk.
The deal may create tremendous new markets for American farmers, and may relieve humanitarian crises in food and medicine shortages in the targeted countries, supporters said.
The agreement was hammered in a negotiating session that extended late Monday night into the wee hours Tuesday morning. According to participants in the talks, Rep. George Nethercutt, R- Wash., the lead sponsor of the measure has agreed to strip the language from the agriculture spending bill
that is scheduled for House floor action this week. In exchange, House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., has reportedly agreed to issue a written promise that the language will be attached to the military construction appropriations bill that has already passed both the House and Senate.
Under this agreement, the legislation must be reapproved by both chambers, and it could arrive on the president's desk as early as this week.
Elian, Family Await Word on Return
By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 27 (AP) - Elian Gonzalez and his family attended a prayer service Tuesday as they awaited a Supreme Court ruling on whether the boy will be allowed to return to his native Cuba.
The Gonzalez family returned to the United Methodist Building, where they had previously attended a prayer service, a day after Elian's Miami relatives filed a last-ditch appeal with the Supreme Court trying to keep him in the United States.
Maria Paz, a church staffer, said Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, thanked the participants for their support. The Board of Churches and Society of the United Methodist Church has established a humanitarian fund to pay for the services of Gonzalez's attorney, Gregory Craig.
The father declined to talk to reporters as he left the building.
Pamela Falk, a professor at the City University of New York School of Law, said Monday that the Miami relatives' latest appeal was a long shot, and she predicted that Elian's U.S. stay was nearing an end.
Elian, 6, has been living with his family at a historic home in a residential area of Washington. He remained out of sight Monday while his fate was being weighed by lawyers and by judges from the nation's highest court.
The relatives are asking that the court review an Atlanta federal appeals court ruling handed down Friday.
The appeal filed Monday said the case's legal issues ``boil down to a single straightforward question: Can the Immigration and Naturalization Service deprive an alien child of his statutory and constitutional right to apply for asylum without conducting any hearing of any kind - or even without
interviewing the child himself?''
The appeals court unanimously rejected the Miami relatives' request for a rehearing and said its earlier order requiring Elian's father to keep the boy in this country would dissolve at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Lawyers for the relatives asked Justice Anthony M. Kennedy to keep Elian in the United States until that formal appeal is acted upon.
Kennedy handles emergency matters from Florida for the high court.
A few weeks' delay in the long legal fight over the boy ``is a minimal cost in a case with stakes of such magnitude,'' Kennedy was told.
Asked what recourse the relatives would have if the high court does not act, Kendall Coffey, an attorney for the relatives, said in Miami: ``If the injunction is not granted by Wednesday at 4 p.m., our assumption is that there is nothing that will prevent the child from being immediately moved
to Cuba.''
Elian, who was rescued off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving Day, has become a rallying point for anti-Castro sentiments in the United States, particularly in Miami's Cuban exile neighborhoods. The boy's mother and 10 other people drowned after their boat sank en route from communist Cuba to the
United States.
Elian stayed with his Miami relatives until federal agents seized him on April 22 and turned him over to his father pending the court appeals.
Cuba Embargo for Food Sales To Ease
By Philip Brasher, Ap Farm Writer.
WASHINGTON, 27 (AP) - Congressional critics of Fidel Castro reached agreement with farm-state House members early Tuesday to allow direct sales of U.S. food to Cuba for the first time in nearly four decades.
The milestone deal, which was reached after a 51/2-hour negotiating session, would bar both the federal government and U.S. banks from financing such sales. The agreement had the blessing of the House Republican leadership but still must get Senate approval.
The White House was wary of the deal, because it also would require a president to get congressional approval before imposing future embargoes on food and medicine to other countries.
``We are not opposed to allowing things like food and medicine to go to Cuba, as long as it is for the benefit of the people, and not the benefit of the Castro government,'' said White House spokesman Joe Lockhart. ``We do have concerns on what I call an institutional basis, based on the limits
that it puts on presidential prerogatives.''
Rep. George Nethercutt, a Washington Republican who has been pushing to ease the 38-year-old trade embargo on Cuba, said the agreement was a ``huge breakthrough for our farmers,'' noting that Cuba could get financing from another country to buy U.S. food.
But anti-Castro negotiators sought to downplay the impact of the deal. Rep. Ileana Ross-Lehtinen, R-Fla., said the legislation would ``make it as difficult as possible'' for such sales to take place. The agreement would also write into law the existing ban on Americans going to Cuba as tourists.
``We believe that what Castro has wanted is access'' to U.S. financial markets, she said. ``He's not going to get any of that.''
The dispute over whether to weaken the 38-year-old embargo has stalled passage of an agricultural appropriations bill for a month.
A provision attached to the bill in May by the House Appropriations Committee would allow private U.S. financing of food sales to Cuba, something that would be forbidden under the agreement reached Tuesday.
The appropriations bill has yet to be approved so the existing Cuba language in it can still easily be changed.
House Speaker Dennis Hastert, R-Ill., left the negotiations Monday night before they were over but told reporters outside the meeting room that the Republican leadership would support whatever deal the two sides reached ``within parameters.''
In addition to easing the Cuban embargo, the legislation also would prohibit the president from including food and medicine in future embargoes of other countries without congressional approval.
It was not immediately clear whether the trade provisions would be left in the agricultural bill or put in another appropriations measure, Nethercutt said.
The Senate voted overwhelmingly last year to ease the Cuban embargo but the House refused to go along. Senators were not involved in negotiating Tuesday's agreement.
The issue has been complicated by election-year politics this year and the saga of Elian Gonzalez, the boy who has been the subject of a legal tug-of-war between his Florida relatives and his father in Cuba.
Some of the legislation's most ardent supporters, such as Nethercutt and Sen. John Ashcroft, R-Mo. face tough re-election races. Virginia Rep. Tom Davis, who leads the GOP congressional campaign effort, paid a visit to the negotiations Monday night.
House Republican Whip Tom DeLay of Texas had strongly opposed any weakening of the embargo but he had left it up to Castro critics Ross-Lehtinen and Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., to negotiate a deal, aides said.
The Clinton administration has not taken a stand on easing the embargo but has objected to the provision in the legislation that would give Congress a say in future embargoes.
The agreement would not affect sales of U.S. medicine and health products, which have been permitted since 1992.
``Short-term this is symbolic. Medium- to long-term it can provide some substantive opportunity,'' said John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which monitors Cuban affairs for U.S. businesses.
Cuba is most likely to buy rice, soy and powdered milk, he said.
The bill is H.R. 4461.
On the Net: http://www.house.gov
Lawmakers Reach Pact to Ease Cuba Sanctions
By Christopher Doering
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, in a historic shift of policy, will allow unfettered sales of food and medicine to Cuba for the first time in 40 years under a compromise brokered by Republican leaders in Congress on Tuesday.
Reached overnight, the agreement could clear the way for congressional approval of calls by U.S. farm and business groups to exempt food and medicine from unilateral embargoes.
``(It's) a good, hard-fought agreement,'' said a spokesman for House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert.
Cuba would be the major beneficiary, but the legislation would put into law similar steps already taken by the Clinton administration for Iran, Libya and Sudan.
In a concession to Cuban-American groups and conservative lawmakers who opposed easing sanctions on the communist-run island, the legislation would prohibit U.S. government financing to help the Cuban government buy American grains, livestock, animal feed or medicine.
The legislation marks a sea change, politically and economically, in U.S. sanctions imposed in the early 1960s in hopes of isolating President Fidel Castro.
Proponents say the Cuban embargo is a futile Cold War relic and that economic engagement would be more effective to encourage democracy, along with benefiting U.S. farmers. Opponents say Castro does not deserve any concessions.
The proposed ban on U.S. financing of food and medicine sales to Cuba reflected the sensitivity of dealing with the Communist island 90 miles (144 km) from Florida.
Cuban-Americans are a powerful political force in Florida, but their clout waned this year with the high-profile case of shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez. The boy's distant relatives in Miami refused for months to turn Elian over to his Cuban father, until the government forcibly removed the
child.
A series of court rulings have upheld his father's parental rights, and the child is expected to return with his father to Cuba soon.
As part of the Republican compromise, current U.S. rules on travel by Americans to Cuba would be written into law, making it harder to change them. The legislation also would deny access to the U.S. market for exports from Cuba.
White House Won'T Oppose U.S. Sales
President Clinton did not oppose ``allowing things like food and medicine to go to Cuba as long as it is for the benefit of the people, not the benefit of the Castro government,'' White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said.
However, he said the White House believed the proposal interfered with the president's power to conduct foreign policy. The proposal would require congressional approval of any unilateral embargo of food and medicine except in wartime or for national security.
Lawmakers worked out the compromise during a five-hour meeting in Hastert's office. Washington state Republican Rep. George Nethercutt advocated the food and medicine exemption while Florida Republicans opposed any concessions to Cuba.
Rather than remain part of a $75 billion agriculture funding bill in the House, it was likely the sanctions language would leapfrog on another spending bill nearing a final vote.
``We are looking for any vehicle to get it signed into law, and I think we have a great chance to do that,'' said Nethercutt.
``The most important thing we decided to change was foreign policy as it relates to using food and medicine as weapons ... and it changes a policy that has been in existence for 40 years as it relates to Cuba.''
Florida Republican Lincoln Diaz-Balart said Cuban-American lawmakers won two important points -- preventing any easing of travel restrictions and the ban on all types of public and private financing for sales to Cuba, whether loans, extensions of credit, guarantees or insurance.
``This agreement is much better for us than current law. No credits for Castro and no tourism either,'' said Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Florida Republican.
Farmers Eager For Sales To Cuba
Farm and business groups have focused on Cuba partly because the Clinton administration eased sanctions on Iran, Libya and Sudan a year ago to allow food and medicine sales on a case by case basis. It lifted sanctions on North Korea earlier this month.
Cuba and its 11 million citizens are viewed as a natural, nearby market for U.S. exports. Havana buys about $700 million a year in food, much of it through credit or barter programs.
While the ban on U.S. financing will be an impediment for sales by smaller processors and exporters, ``it will not shut down the possibility of trade to Cuba. Trade will still flow,'' said Audrae Erickson of the American Farm Bureau Federation, the largest U.S. farm group.
The World Policy Institute recently said U.S. food and medicine sales to Cuba would start at a low level of about $100 million a year, but could climb to $440 million annually after five years.
Some analysts are skeptical the cash-short Cuba could pay for a large amount of U.S. imports. Others say the Castro government is unprepared to respond to an offer of attractively priced U.S. food and medicine.
Under the proposal, food and medicine would be exempt from unilateral U.S. embargoes unless Congress agreed. There would be 120 days to review existing embargoes and decide whether to retain them. No federal financing would be offered for formerly sanctioned nations. One-year export licenses
would be required for sales to nations suspected of sponsoring terrorism.
Cuba Protests US Rules on Diplomats
UNITED NATIONS, 26 (AP) - The Cuban government has complained to U.S. officials, saying a U.S. refusal to let Cuba's U.N. ambassador travel to Los Angeles to attend a meeting was politically motivated.
In a letter circulated Monday, Cuba said the United States imposed travel restrictions on Ambassador Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla ``arbitrarily and for political motives.''
Rodriguez had wanted to go to Los Angeles to attend a meeting of the Town Hall Los Angeles Forum, a respected public policy group. Since Cuba and the United States do not have diplomatic relations, diplomats of Cuba's U.N. mission have to ask for authorization to travel outside a 25-mile radius
from the center of New York City.
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said officials from countries with travel restrictions are only allowed to travel outside New York on official U.N.-related business. In this case, the U.S. government decided the travel request for Rodriguez was not U.N.-related, the official
said.
The United States planned to respond to the Cuban complaint soon, the official said.
The Cuban letter, which was addressed to the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, was circulated by the U.N. General Assembly Committee on Relations with the Host Country.
Miami Relatives Appeal to High Court Over Elian
By James Vicini
WASHINGTON, 27 (Reuters) - Lawyers for Elian Gonzalez's Miami relatives made a last-ditch appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday trying to prevent the boy from returning to Cuba and to get him a political asylum hearing.
They filed an emergency request asking Justice Anthony Kennedy to order that Elian remain in the United States while the Supreme Court considers their appeal, or to stay a lower court order that would allow the boy's return to Cuba on Wednesday.
The lawyers filed the papers three days after a U.S. appeals court in Atlanta refused to reconsider its ruling that U.S. immigration officials acted properly by denying the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor a political asylum hearing.
The appeals court upheld the decision of U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officials that only Elian's Cuban father may speak for the boy.
The appeals court said an injunction preventing Elian's father from taking his son home to Cuba would expire at 4 p.m. on Wednesday.
``This is a matter of momentous importance, not only for this child, for this community, but also for thousands of refugee children,'' Kendall Coffey, a lawyer for the relatives, told reporters in Miami.
``Delaying Tactic''
In Havana, government commentators and journalists condemned Monday's appeal as another desperate attempt to obstruct the boy's return to Cuba.
``This is a very clear delaying tactic,'' journalist Lazaro Barredo said. He was appearing with other state commentators on a live television ``round table'' dedicated to Elian's case which has been held almost daily in communist-ruled Cuba over the last few months.
Elian survived a November 1999 migrant voyage from Cuba in which his mother and 10 others died. Rescued at sea, he initially stayed in Miami with the family of his great-uncle, Lazaro Gonzalez, who filed the Supreme Court appeal.
Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, asked that the boy be sent home to Cuba.
The Miami relatives sued to win him political asylum in the United States, arguing that he should not grow up in a communist-ruled country. A federal judge in Miami and the appeals court ruled against the relatives.
The international custody battle has turned into a passionate struggle between Cuban exiles in Miami and their nemesis, Cuban President Fidel Castro.
After the Miami relatives defied repeated requests from U.S. authorities to give Elian back to his father, federal agents mounted a dramatic predawn raid on their house on April 22 and seized the boy.
Elian was reunited with his father, stepmother and stepbrother, who have been staying as guests of supporters in the Washington area until the appeals are exhausted.
RIGHT TO ASYLUM HEARING?
The lawyers for the Miami relatives said a stay, preventing Elian's return to Cuba on Wednesday, along with an expedited briefing schedule, would allow the Supreme Court to consider their appeal during the week of July 10.
They argued that Elian had a constitutional right to an asylum hearing, and an opportunity to be heard.
``Elian Gonzalez never received a hearing,'' they said in the appeal. ``Indeed, the INS never even interviewed him in connection with his asylum application.''
The U.S. Justice Department next will respond, and is expected to urge the high court to deny the request for the emergency order and to reject the appeal as well.
Elian Case Reaches Supreme Court
By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - Bye-bye, Elian? Well, not so fast.
Elian Gonzalez could be allowed to return to his native Cuba by Wednesday, but his Miami relatives are mounting a last-gasp effort to keep him on U.S. soil unless the Supreme Court rules otherwise.
On Monday, the relatives filed a formal appeal with the court, asking that Elian be required to remain in the United States until the high court has a chance to hear the case.
Pamela Falk, a professor at the City University of New York School of Law, said Monday the latest appeal was a long shot, and she predicted that Elian's U.S. stay was nearing an end.
Elian, 6, has been living with his family at a historic home in a residential area of Washington. He remained out of sight Monday while his fate was being weighed by lawyers and by judges from the nation's highest court.
The relatives are asking that the court review an Atlanta federal appeals court ruling handed down Friday.
The appeal filed Monday said the case's legal issues ``boil down to a single straightforward question: Can the Immigration and Naturalization Service deprive an alien child of his statutory and constitutional right to apply for asylum without conducting any hearing of any kind - or even without
interviewing the child himself?''
The appeals court unanimously rejected the Miami relatives' request for a rehearing and said its earlier order requiring Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, to keep the boy in this country would dissolve at 4 p.m. Wednesday.
Lawyers for the relatives asked Justice Anthony M. Kennedy to keep Elian in the United States until that formal appeal is acted upon.
Kennedy handles emergency matters from Florida for the high court.
A few weeks' delay in the long legal fight over the boy ``is a minimal cost in a case with stakes of such magnitude,'' Kennedy was told.
Asked what recourse the relatives would have if the high court does not act, Kendall Coffey, an attorney for the relatives, said in Miami: ``If the injunction is not granted by Wednesday at 4 p.m., our assumption is that there is nothing that will prevent the child from being immediately moved
to Cuba.''
Elian, who was rescued off the Florida coast on Thanksgiving Day, has become a rallying point for anti-Castro sentiments in the United States, particularly in Miami's Cuban exile neighborhoods. The boy's mother and 10 other people drowned after their boat sank en route from communist Cuba to the
United States.
Elian stayed with his Miami relatives until federal agents seized him on April 22 and turned him over to his father pending the court appeals.
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