Yahoo! June 30, 2000
Cuba Prepares For Next Battle
By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 30 (AP) - Cuba kept Elian Gonzalez secluded on his first full day home but pushed to turn the momentum of his return into a reinvigorated campaign of protests against American policy toward the communist island.
The Foreign Ministry said Thursday that Cuba would not only demand an end to the 40-year-old U.S. embargo and changes in U.S. immigration policy, but also that the United States return the Guantanamo naval base it occupies at the southeastern tip of the island.
``Our battle to achieve what the Cuban people have been fighting for ... for 40 years will not end with the return of Elian,'' said Aymee Hernandez, the deputy spokeswoman at the Foreign Ministry.
State television, meanwhile, repeated broadcasts of Elian's arrival Wednesday evening at Havana's Jose Marti Airport, and showed new footage of his first few hours on Cuban soil.
A jubilant Elian was seen playing with children his age, running around a large reception room and laughing while chewing on a cracker as adults and family members chatted in the background and looked on.
The government had said the family would be taken to an undisclosed location before being brought to a secluded house in the capital's upscale Playa neighborhood where they would stay for a few weeks.
The government, which mobilized a nationwide campaign to bring Elian home, has already organized another rally for Saturday in the southeastern city of Manzanillo, where an estimated 200,000 people are expected to give support for the next step in Cuba's ``great battle'' against its northern
neighbor.
Cuba has held more than 100 such rallies in the seven months that Elian has been away, busing hundreds of thousands of Cubans from around the country to designated sites to show popular support for bringing the boy home.
Now that Elian is back, the government wants to use that energy to fight against the U.S. embargo and American laws that allow any Cuban who reaches U.S. soil to remain. Cuba says that policy encourages Cubans to take risky crossings across the Florida Straits, such as the one that Elian
embarked on with his mother and 12 others last November.
Elian was one of three survivors from the shipwreck that killed his mother and thrust him into an international custody dispute between his father in Cuba and his relatives in Miami, who wanted him to remain in the United States.
``With Elian, we have saved a marvelous child, but millions of innocent creatures - older or younger than Elian but equally loved - run the risk of drowning, dying or suffering horrible tragedies such as those suffered by Elian,'' the government said in an official announcement.
Cuba and the United States regularly review migration agreements that stipulate that the United States grants at least 20,000 visas a year to Cubans to persuade those who want to come to America to do so legally and safely.
Talks scheduled to have begun last week in New York were suspended at the request of the Cuban government because the Elian dispute still was unresolved.
But even with Elian home, Hernandez said Thursday that the government wouldn't resume talks until the proper ``conditions'' existed. She didn't elaborate, but stressed that Cuba was ``committed to the strict fulfillment of the migration accords.''
Hernandez also rejected as ``cosmetic'' an agreement reached this week in Washington among lawmakers to allow the sales of U.S. food to Cuba. The agreement, which still must be approved by the full Congress, prevents American financing for such purchases, forcing the cash-strapped Cuban
government to either pay cash for the goods or seek financing from a third country.
``What we see is that this is a cosmetic measure which, far from making (the embargo) more flexible is making it endure longer,'' Hernandez said.
If approved, the measure ``would only put in place more obstacles to clean and unconditional commerce between Cuba and the United States,'' she said.
Delay Seen in Vote on Easing Cuban Sanctions
WASHINGTON, 29 (Reuters) - A vote on easing U.S. sanctions on Cuba is unlikely before mid-July, lawmakers said on Thursday, despite initial hopes that the potentially historic shift in U.S. policy could be sent to the president this week.
The Republican plan would allow food and medicine sales to any Cuban buyer, including President Fidel Castro's government. It would be a major change in the four-decade-old U.S. embargo, although a number of regulations would remain.
Sanctions were imposed on Cuba in the early 1960s as it accepted Soviet support. In the past few years, sentiment in Congress has shifted toward using trade as a way to foster democracy abroad.
On Tuesday, Republican leaders announced a compromise between pro-trade farm-state lawmakers and the anti-Castro bloc to exempt food and medicine from all unilateral U.S. embargoes. Cuba would be the major beneficiary, but the legislation would put into law similar steps already taken by
President Clinton for Iran, Libya, Sudan and North Korea.
Leaders said the language would be attached to some bill nearing a final vote in the Senate and House of Representatives. A procedural disagreement with the Senate thwarted an attempt to incorporate it immediately into a funding bill for military construction projects, House leaders said on
Thursday.
Farm Bill Could Be Vehicle
A spokesman for House Speaker Dennis Hastert said there had been no decision on what vehicle to use for the sanction step. But a number of lawmakers said it would probably be a $75 billion annual agriculture funding bill once House and Senate negotiators began work on the final compromise
version.
``The timeline for that is probably back in the sunshine in mid- to late July,'' said a spokesman for Washington Republican Rep. George Nethercutt, a leading advocate of a relaxation in sanctions.
Congress will be in recess for the first week of July as part of the Independence Day federal holiday.
Although the Republican plan would exempt food and medicine from U.S. embargoes, it would deny government or private financing -- loans, guarantees or credit -- for agricultural sales to Cuba.
Initial descriptions put a similar prohibition on medicine, but a version of the proposed legislation circulating among U.S. trade groups on Thursday did not contain that ban. That draft said U.S. assistance -- foreign aid, export assistance, or credits and guarantees -- could be offered to
Libya, Sudan or North Korea if it served U.S. security interests.
No additional imports would be permitted from Iran, and Cuban goods would not be allowed into the U.S. market. Restrictions on travel by Americans to Cuba would be written into law, making it more difficult to change them.
Iran recently was offered the opportunity to ship caviar, carpets and pistachio nuts to U.S. buyers. It would lose that opening under an amendment adopted by the House on Thursday.
After Elian, Cuba Vows 'New' Anti-U.S. Struggle
By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, 30 (Reuters) - With Elian Gonzalez safely home, Havana vowed on Friday to launch a ``new stage'' in the battle against its old foe, the United States, with the focus now on Washington's trade embargo and immigration policy for Cubans.
As the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor remained out of public sight with family and friends at a plush seaside house in Havana, the ruling Communist Party kept up a propaganda offensive proclaiming the battle was not over.
To prove the point, plans were being made for a vast rally on Saturday in the picturesque eastern town of Manzanillo, where, according to government projections, 300,000 Cubans would be mobilized to express their support.
There was speculation President Fidel Castro or Elian's father Juan Miguel Gonzalez -- neither of whom have appeared in public since the motherless boy's return on Wednesday from the United States -- might make an appearance at Manzanillo.
``Tomorrow, Saturday July 1st, a new and prolonged stage of battle will start,'' a government statement carried in the official daily newspaper Granma said on Friday.
While the main rallying cry since November, when Elian was taken in by U.S. relatives after being rescued from sea, has been ``Free Elian!,'' Friday's statement listed Cuba's new priorities in its wider political fight with Washington.
First on that list was ``the murderous Cuban Adjustment Act,'' decades-old U.S. legislation that gives preferential treatment to Cuban immigrants for residency status in the United States. Cuba claims the law encourages dangerous, illegal departures like that of Elian's mother, who died along
with 10 other migrants in a boat capsize that the boy survived.
WHO CAUSED ELIAN TRAGEDY?
Cuban dissidents and U.S. officials, however, blame the continuing illegal exodus from the Caribbean island on Castro, saying a poorly managed economy and a dictatorial one-party political system drive people out through desperation.
Throughout the Elian campaign, attacks on the Cuban Adjustment Act have become something of a mantra in Cuba, and it is not uncommon to hear schoolchildren as young as 5 or 6 repeating ``Down with the murderous law!'' on state television.
Second on the government's list of targets in its ``new phase'' of battle is Washington's four-decade-old economic embargo on the island, and the legislation enshrining it.
Friday's statement named ``the Torricelli and Helms-Burton laws, the dozens of U.S. Congress amendments to suffocate our country, the blockade, the economic war.''
Imposed in full by February 1962, the U.S. embargo's stated intention was to oust Castro by strangling him economically. But 41 years after his 1959 Cuban Revolution, the 73-year-old former guerrilla leader looks safely ensconced in power and in reasonable health, while the island's shaky
economy is still holding together and even improving slightly.
Furthermore, the embargo has served as Castro's chief rallying cry over the years and is now widely condemned internationally, including by close allies of Washington such as Canada and the European Union.
War On ``Subversion''
In a reminder of Cuba's low tolerance for internal political opposition, the government said the ``new'' battle would also take aim at ``plans for subversion, destabilization and destruction of our Revolution.''
Cuba's small and scattered dissident movement claims the Castro government has used the massive public attention on the Elian affair to hide a crackdown on internal opposition.
Dissidents now fear that could worsen due to the government's enhanced political confidence after the Elian saga. ``I am very pessimistic,'' one leading moderate dissident, Elizardo Sanchez, told Reuters recently.
In its carefully orchestrated political response to Elian's return, Cuba has sought to avoid an impression of triumphalism or exploitation of Elian by displaying him in front of cameras or the masses. Rather, the government has focused attention on its traditional fight with U.S. authorities,
perhaps sensing the Elian affair has opened a chink of opportunity.
The return of Elian was a rare moment of agreement between Havana and Washington. Both governments wanted, virtually from the start, to send the boy back to Cuba, and opposed efforts by his U.S. family, backed by anti-communist Cuban American groups in Miami, to block that.
The outcome of the seven-month custody saga is perceived to have weakened the political influence in the United States of the hardline Cuban American lobby, which was the sector most opposed to any rapprochement with Castro or easing of the embargo. The U.S. Congress is currently mulling a move
to free up food and medicine sales to the island.
Cuba Says U.S. Plan Would Toughen Embargo
By Andrew Cawthorne
HAVANA, 29 (Reuters) - Cuba said on Thursday a move by the U.S. Congress to free up food and medicine sales to the island contains so many restrictions that it would in practice strengthen rather than ease the four-decade-old embargo.
Government spokeswoman Aymee Hernandez praised the ``good intentions'' of the legislation's promoters, but said foreign media had mistakenly interpreted the move as a historic ''relaxing'' of the economic sanctions on communist-run Cuba.
``Let's get this straight,'' she told foreign correspondents in Havana. ``What we see here is a cosmetic measure which, far from relaxing it, is in fact strengthening the embargo.''
The move, promoted by the U.S. farm lobby and brokered by Republican leaders in Congress, would allow unfettered food and medicines sales to Cuba for the first time since soon after President Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.
But in final negotiations, anti-Castro lawmakers managed to include in the proposal a prohibition on U.S. official or private funding for the sales, and a specific codification of an existing bar on American tourism on the Caribbean island.
The legislation, which could be voted on within days and has received President Clinton's provisional blessing, would not affect other restrictions like a six-month ban on ships docking in Cuba from then entering the United States.
Move ``Builds Up Blockade''
``In conclusion, this does not break the legal framework that supports the blockade,'' Hernandez said, using the Castro government's preferred word to describe the economic sanctions. ''On the contrary, it builds it up.''
Havana would have to pay cash for U.S. food and medicines, ''and you know perfectly well that Cuba is a Third World country,'' Hernandez noted.
Neither, under the embargo regulations, can Cuba recoup money by exporting to the United States, much as it also would like to sell medicines such as its locally-developed vaccines or food such as oranges and guava fruit, she said.
``If it is approved, it will only raise more obstacles for clean and unconditional trade between Cuba and the United States,'' Hernandez added. ``The problem is not whether we can buy medicines from the United States, but the onerous conditions they impose for purchases.''
The spokeswoman also criticized the ``anti-democratic manipulations'' during the brokering of the agreement at a late- night meeting in the U.S. Congress.
Her comments reinforced the pointedly negative Cuban reaction to what some have hailed as the beginning of the end of the U.S. embargo, which has failed to dislodge Castro from power and has drawn widespread international opposition.
The Cuban response appears to suggest the Castro government, which maintains a state-run economy and holds all but a tiny percentage of the nation's financial clout, would not move immediately to purchase U.S. products.
Cuba Buoyed By Elian
Rather, buoyed by the return of 6-year-old shipwreck survivor Elian Gonzalez, it would step up a political campaign for a greater easing of wider embargo regulations, especially in finance, transportation, two-way trade and travel.
Underlining that, the ruling Communist Party daily Granma published a communique Thursday pouring scorn on ``the news about the 'softening' of the cruel and criminal blockade''.
``The mafia and the extreme right establish so many conditions that they make the trade impossible and they annul the fruits of the tenacious efforts of noble people within and outside the U.S. Congress,'' it said.
Cuba routinely describes Miami-based anti-Castro Cuban American groups as a ``mafia'' in league with U.S. ultra- conservative politicians. ``Notwithstanding, we express our gratitude to those who have fought and still fight for the end of an absurd, irrational, immoral and evil policy against
our people,'' the communique added.
The harsh public comments confirmed predictions by analysts the initial Cuban response to the food and medicine sales initiative would likely be more political than commercial.
Cuba currently buys its food and medicine needs from foreign markets much farther away -- and more expensive -- than the United States, such as Asia and Europe. U.S. agricultural and pharmaceutical sector representatives have been visiting the island in growing numbers of late to check out the
potential market and establish preliminary contacts.
Cuban Diplomat Tells North Carolina Business: 'We Are Moving Toward a Free Market'
Company Press Release. Thursday June 29, 2:08 pm Eastern Time. SOURCE: Webb Patterson Communications, Inc.
DURHAM, N.C., June 29 /PRNewswire/ -- ``Cuba is moving toward a free market economy, and North Carolina businesses could be part of that economy 'sooner rather than later.'''
That was the message delivered by the 1st Secretary to the Cuban Interests Section, Gustavo Machin, to a group of North Carolina business leaders on June 28. At the same time, the U.S. Congress was voting to ease restrictions on sale of medical equipment and supplies and food to the island
nation and Elian Gonzales was just hours away from returning with his father to his homeland.
Machin spoke to a select group of North Carolina and South Carolina business leaders at Webb Patterson Communications, Inc., a Durham-based public relations and advertising firm. The program was designed by James G. Patterson, chairman and CEO of the firm, to meet a need he said has been growing
rapidly over the past few years.
``We realized long ago that the trade restrictions placed by the U.S. on Cuba have left a 40-year vacuum that soon will be opened, and we want to be in a position to help our clients take advantage of the tremendous economic potential that will offer to U.S. companies. But, like everything else,
the early entrepreneurs will get the best and the more conservative will be left to deal with the rest. We want to be in a position to assist clients in getting there first, but with proper education and preparation. That's why we at Webb Patterson have been studying the issues for several years,
have made the proper alliances with training and other services and have established credible relations with the proper diplomatic sources,'' Patterson said.
The United States has had an embargo on trade with Cuba since 1962 in an attempt to force Prime Minister Fidel Castro out of office. The embargo has failed and Castro has outlived 10 U.S. Presidents during that time. The people of Cuba and American farmers and businesses suffered the most,
according to Sr. Machin.
``For much of the time since 1959, Cuba was part of the socialist bloc, but by 1989 everything changed. The old USSR dissolved and Cuba lost almost everything. But instead of failing, the Cuban people pulled together and we began reforms to improve our economy,'' he said. ``We opened the economy
to foreign investment and saw investments rise from 50 companies in 1994 to more than 500 by this year. By that time, our economy had increased 35%.''
Machin said other inducements have included return of arable land to private hands (currently 68% is privately owned), legalization of foreign currency (the U.S dollar is now the unofficial currency of preference), and institution of a tax system (currently only corporate, not individual income
taxes).
``Without subsidies from Russia, everything had to become efficient in order for the nation and the citizens to survive,'' Machin said. ``Since 1995, we have seen a tremendous growth in our economy. Last year, it was up 6.4% from the year before.''
Machin said 1995 was a pivotal year because that was when the Foreign Investment Act was passed allowing corporate and private investment in Cuba. Currently telecommunications, mining, oil production and real estate are the top investment attractions.
``From a philosophical point of view, we have nothing against foreign companies or individuals making money in Cuba,'' Machin said. ``We are very proud of our social achievements, but we want to improve the economic situation of the country and the Cuban people.''
Using the Cuban reliance on efficiency as an example of why the nation is interested in trade with the U.S., Machin said the current cost of importing a ton of rice is $30. It would be less than $14 per ton if shipped from the U.S.
``We are very interested in normalization of relations with the U.S.,'' Machin said. ``With the enactment of our foreign investment law, we now have no restriction on U.S. investment in Cuba. We used to buy more than 80% of our imports from the U.S. and we look forward to the day when we can
return to that status.
``In the past five years, we have learned to be good international businessmen. We are serious students of the free market economy and we welcome everybody to come as a friend to share knowledge. Time has passed and the world has changed. Cuba is no threat to the security of the U.S. and we
really are interested in normalization of trade and private relations with the U.S.''
Machin pointed out that the current agricultural imports from all sources are about $750 million per year, far below the $2 billion potential.
``Right here in North Carolina, you have a tremendous potential to sell pork products, chicken products and soy beans to a market of 11 million people and you can ship it straight from your magnificent deep water port at Wilmington directly to any of several ports in Cuba. We also consider the
tourist trade to be very important and hope to see the tourist business rise from 130,000 Americans to the estimated 3 million in five years after the barriers drop.''
Elian's Family Said Poorly Advised
By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 30 (AP) - The Miami family that cared for Elian Gonzalez got bad advice, but they are still ``very good relatives'' who should try to have a reunion with him some day, the boy's government-appointed psychiatrist says.
``This is a good extended family, one that we would wish for every child to have,'' Dr. Paulina Kernberg said. ``Unfortunately ... the grown-ups couldn't negotiate, come to terms, accept differences and keep the tie.''
In her first interview since finishing consultation with the 6-year-old shipwreck survivor, Kernberg also said that during his stay in the United States, Elian had begun recovering from some of the trauma of losing his mother during the trip from Cuba. But she said he still would need help in
Cuba in coping with the loss.
Kernberg told The Associated Press in a phone interview from New York that Elian lived with fear, uncertainty and stress in his first five months here.
That was his time in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, where his American relatives - great-uncle Lazaro and cousin Marisleysis Gonzalez - cared for him and tried to get him legal asylum against his father's wishes.
``As things unfolded, there was always the fear that somebody was going to come and take him away,'' said Kernberg, a child psychiatrist appointed to the case by the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
Elian was kept from school, there were barricades around the Miami house, and his caretakers eventually cut back on his outings out of their own fears for his safety.
Kernberg said Elian's fear abated after federal agents seized him from Lazaro Gonzalez's home on April 22 and reunited him with his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, along with his stepmother, Nersy, and infant half-brother Hianny. The family resided in the Washington area until it returned to Cuba
on Wednesday.
``Beyond a doubt he felt safe ... and I think the people who provided that were his father and stepmother,'' said Kernberg, who is director of child and adolescent psychiatry at New York-Presbyterian Hospital and professor of psychiatry at the Cornell University Medical College.
Kernberg was among doctors appointed to help the warring sides of the family arrange an emotionally smooth transfer of the boy back to his father. When negotiations failed and the boy was taken from Miami, she visited Elian and the reunited Cuban family every two weeks.
Her task was to check on how they were doing and be available for counseling if needed, she said, adding that her last visit was June 19.
Kernberg said that earlier when she went to Miami to try to arrange for the transfer, the American relatives were unreceptive.
``They had their own psychiatrists and advisers so I have to say that in my opinion they were ... not counseled well,'' she said.
At the same time, she said Elian also had developed ``a very important relationship'' with his Miami relatives.
``I hope that in the future when things settle down they may reconnect and accept that Elian belongs to his father,'' she said. ``They are very good relatives, but after all, they are distant relatives.''
She said Elian doesn't necessarily ``need them'' in his future but she hopes the two sides of the family can reconcile.
``He has his grandparents in Cuba but the great-uncle here was also part of his family,'' she said, adding that he would benefit from knowing that ``he has (other) relatives that are friendly and love him.''
Most important for Elian, Kernberg said, is that he have help in Cuba from his family or professionals in talking through the ``big scare'' and trauma of seeing his mother drown in their failed crossing to America.
``I trust that they will have ... our professional counterparts there to continue the work that the little boy will still need to ... elaborate the grief, the lost of his mother and all the stresses''
Those included ``being without his father and family, of not knowing when he would see them again, of being in the limelight day and night and being in the role that went beyond a regular child's role,'' Kernberg said.
``He was turned into an icon,'' she said, ``and that was stressful.''
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