House Relaxes Rules, Allowing Sale of Food and Medicine to Cuba
By Christopher S. Wren. The New York Times. June 27, 2000
After five hours of negotiations, Republican leaders in the House of Representatives agreed early today to allow sales of American-grown food and medicine to Cuba, thereby relaxing the sanctions that Washington invoked against the Communist regime in Havana 38 years ago.
The compromise brokered early this morning in the office of House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert would still prevent United States government credits, as well as American bank loans, from subsidizing the agricultural sales, as is routinely done for many other countries.
It also leaves intact long-standing restrictions on American tourism to Cuba.
While the agreement was reached with Cuba primarily in mind, it could also open the way for sales of food and medicine to other countries with whom the United States has frosty or non-existent relations, including Iran, Libya, North Korea and Sudan.
The international sanctions against Iraq, which the United States helped put in place, do not appear to be affected, but the United Nations supervises its own program allowing Baghdad to sell set amounts of oil to buy food and medicine.
The new provision would also prohibit the president from including food and medicine in future embargoes without the consent of Congress.
It was unclear how soon the sales of American food to Cuba would begin. The provision agreed upon today could be added to an agricultural appropriations bill that has been delayed in the House of Representatives, or to other pending legislation.
"We are looking for any vehicle to get it signed into law, and I think we have a great chance to do that," Representative George Nethercutt, Republican of Washington, said, according to The Associated Press. Mr. Nethercutt called the agreement "a great breakthrough for American
farmers."
But Representative Ileana Ross-Lehtinen, Republican of Florida, said the pending legislation would "make it as difficult as possible" for such sales because it would not give Fidel Castro access to American financial markets. Ms. Ross-Lehtinen represents many Cuban-Americans in her
constituency and is an outspoken critic of Mr. Castro's government.
The Senate had voted last year to ease the embargo against Cuba but the House had refused until now. But American farm groups had complained about having a logical market for American produce closed to farmers, leaving Cuba to import about $700 million worth of food annually from other
countries.
Relatives of Boy Ask Justices to Block His Return to Cuba
By Christopher Marquis.
WASHINGTON, June 26 -- With time running out on a court order keeping Elían González in the United States, the Miami relatives of 6-year-old Elián asked the Supreme Court today to block his return to Cuba pending a formal appeal.
If the court denies the request or declines to take up the issue, Elían will be free to return to Cuba after 4 p.m. on Wednesday, when a stay ordered by the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit in Atlanta expires.
Lawyers for Lázaro González of Miami, the boy's great-uncle, asked the Supreme Court for an emergency stay to give the justices at least two weeks to consider the appeal "on a very, very fast timetable."
Kendall Coffey, a lawyer working for Lázaro González, challenged the Atlanta court's ruling last week, in which it refused to reconsider a plea to hold a political asylum hearing for the boy. The Justice Department and Elían's father, Juan Miguel González, oppose such
a hearing.
"The overwhelming weight of federal appellate decisions in this country would have given Elían González the absolute constitutional right to an asylum hearing five months ago," Mr. Coffey said in Miami.
In court filings, the lawyers for the Miami relatives argued that a few additional weeks' delay in deciding Elían's fate would be "a minimal cost in a case with stakes of such magnitude." Any burden to Elían's father "does not outweigh the truly irreparable harms"
that would be visited upon the boy if a stay were not issued, they said.
Justice Anthony M. Kennedy received the appeal, which contends that Elían was denied due process by the Immigration and Naturalization Service. The boy was plucked from the waters off South Florida on Thanksgiving Day after his mother and 10 other Cubans drowned crossing the Florida
Straits.
Lázaro González took the boy to his home in Miami and, later, refused to return him to his father. On April 22, federal agents seized Elían and reunited him with his father, who had arrived from Cuba several days earlier. They have been living in the Washington area ever
since with Mr. González's wife, the couple's infant son and several of Elían's Cuban classmates and their parents.
Given the impending deadline, Justice Kennedy is expected to act quickly on the request, possibly as early as Tuesday. He may handle the case himself or refer it to the full court.
An emergency stay like the kind sought by the Miami relatives is rarely granted unless there is an outstanding legal problem, legal experts said. A senior Clinton administration official who is following the case closely predicted that Elían would return to Cuba by the end of the week.
But Juan Miguel González is not taking anything for granted, his lawyer said today, and officials said he has not yet requested the help of federal marshals or other authorities to prepare for a move.
"My sense is they're all eager to see their friends and family," said Gregory B. Craig, the lawyer for Juan Miguel González.
If the court order expires on Wednesday, Mr. Craig added, "I don't think there's going to be a sprint to the airport, but I think, in a very orderly fashion, they will arrange for their departure."
Cuban officials declined to say what sort of a reception might await Elían in Cuba, where the government of President Fidel Castro has raised him to the status of a folk hero. One official, requesting anonymity, merely said that any homecoming would be handled discreetly, without adding
to "the circuslike atmosphere" around the boy.
Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company |