Yahoo! May 29, 2000
US Reps, Farmers Visit Cuba
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer.
HAVANA, 28 (AP) - Lawmakers and rice farmers from Arkansas began a trip to Cuba Sunday aimed at making agricultural contacts on this communist island and showing support for a partial lifting of a U.S. trade embargo.
``We're anxious to see how we can provide products and open up trade with Cuba,'' U.S. Sen. Blanche Lambert Lincoln, a Democrat, said upon arriving Sunday night in Havana. ``We want to know how we can help our economy, but also how that might benefit the Cuban people.''
The visit of the 16-member delegation comes as the House of Representatives debates legislation that would allow food and medicine to be sold to Cuba. It would also prohibit the president from including food and medicine in future embargoes of other countries without congressional approval.
The Senate overwhelmingly approved a similar trade measure last year, and supporters say they're confident it could pass the House as well. The House Appropriations Committee approved the measure 35-24 earlier this month. Some 220 House members signed a letter supporting an easing of the
embargo, though there is fierce opposition from some Republicans.
U.S. Rep. Marion Berry, also a Democrat, said the trip had been in the works for some time and that it was not timed to coincide with the expected House vote.
Both Berry and Lincoln said it made sense to pass the measure, as Congress voted to normalize trade relations with China.
``If we can trade with China, largest communist nation in the world, then why not with Cuba?' asked Lincoln.
``We have had such good experiences when we open up trade with other countries,'' said Berry. ``We think we have the votes.''
David Hillman, president of the Arkansas Farm Bureau, said that the group's 216,000 members are anxious to sell their products to Cuba. The state is not only the United States' No. 1 rice producer, but it is also an important maker of poultry, pork, and soybean.
During their visit to Cuba, members of the Arkansas delegation will meet a number of high-ranking Cuban officials, including Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, or parliament. They will also tour an agricultural cooperative, a poultry farm and a farmers' market.
Will U.S. Lift Cuba Sanctions?
By A.B. Stoddard. ABCNEWS.com
WASHINGTON, May 26 — After setting aside China’s dismal human rights record this week in a historic vote to expand trade, Congress now finds itself divided by another bitter trade battle over a communist nation. But organized labor and big business, which fought to kill the China deal,
can sit this one out. This showdown will be over Fidel Castro.
The same Republican leaders who this week rallied support behind a bill to grant permanent normal trade relations to China are now trying to block moves to lift a ban on shipping food and medicine to Cuba. But as Castro’s foes struggle to block any thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations, they are
finding that the Elian Gonzalez custody battle has become more of a hindrance than a help to their fight.
"The great value of the Elian Gonzalez episode was that it focused the attention of the American people on the way in which this aspect of our foreign policy is dominated by a small group of people," said Rep. Maurice Hinchey, D-N.Y., who helped write the legislation that would
lift sanctions on Cuba as well as Iran, Iraq, Libya, Sudan and North Korea.
Unlike in past years, when the Cuban-American community was able to defeat such maneuvers, Hinchey said the Gonzalez case "backfired on them," and hurt their cause.
"There has been a sea change and I think the majority of the people in this Congress have come to the very logical conclusion that maintaining these sanctions against Cuba no longer serves the interest of the United States, it’s clearly contrary to the interests of innocent
civilians in Cuba and that our policy in Cuba has been dictated by a minority group of ex-patriots from Cuba."
Stalling for Support
Hinchey and others have attached their legislation to the annual agriculture-spending bill. For more than a week, the same House leaders who whipped up support for the China trade bill have delayed debate on the Cuban sanctions measure while trying to gather votes against it.
But a House GOP leadership aide admitted it will be tough to hold a majority on the Cuba vote.
"It’s a major issue. We think we can beat it back but it’s a major issue." The aide agreed that the Gonzalez case "hasn’t helped," the anti-Castro cause and has provided the forces for warming relations with an opening.
"Over time they have gained more influence," he said.
Missing the Boat
Rep. George Nethercutt, the Republican sponsor for lifting the sanctions, is fighting his leadership to keep the measure on the final bill. Although his farmers in Washington state would like to sell their peas, lentils and wheat to Cuba, Nethercutt said money is not the bottom line.
"It’s not just the agriculture side but the humanitarian side we Republicans and the national legislature is missing the boat on," he said. "Why are we opening all trade barriers to China, but we’re not willing to provide food and medicine to Cuba? There’s an
inconsistency here."
Unlike Nethercutt, who supports PNTR for China, Hinchey voted against the landmark trade bill. He said the situations are different, but that Cuba shouldn’t have sanctions when China doesn’t.
"There’s a great deal of political hypocrisy here," he said.
Old Battles
The fight over Cuba sanctions, which have been in place for decades, is an old one. In fact, the same tussle took place last year on the same bill. While the House side didn’t approve lifting sanctions, the Senate did by an overwhelming vote of 70-28. When a House-Senate conference met
to reconcile the two bills, members of that panel had the votes for lifting the sanctions. Proponents say leaders intervened and "hijacked" the bill.
This time, Nethercutt thinks he has the votes.
"Why do I think so? Because they won’t let us take it up," he said, adding, "we’ve got a lot of people supporting our position."
Closer to ground zero in the struggle over Cuban relations, Rep. Allen Boyd, D-Fla., is one of those members who once supported sanctions but has changed his mind. Boyd said he now believes the ability of Florida farmers to export its citrus and winter vegetables is more important than
trying to starve out Castro.
Having served with Cuban-Americans in the Florida Legislature — including the two Cuban-Americans representing the state in the U.S. House — Boyd once sided with Cuban-Americans on all their issues. Boyd now acknowledges that he did so, "not understanding all the
ramifications of Cuban politics." Therefore, he "deferred" to their beliefs.
Boyd said he was shocked that the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzalez defied the law, the courts and the attorney general, insisting the young boy be removed by force. Boyd was further disappointed by the support such actions received from elected officials.
As a result, he said, "I began to rethink my deference."
Clinton’s Objective
Sen. Bob Smith, R-N.H., a fierce Castro critic and possibly the most outspoken federal lawmaker on the Gonzalez case, admitted that the custody battle might have hurt his cause.
"Probably the way the case went, it could have emboldened the pro-Castro faction," he said.
Smith complains that President Clinton’s goal all along has been to normalize relations with Cuba.
"It’s because of the opening that Clinton saw here in the Gonzalez case to create a more amicable relationship. Castro will owe Clinton after this," said Smith, adding that Clinton’s influence could have an impact on the outcome of the sanctions vote in Congress.
"For some who are on the fence, he will be pressuring those people as he did on China," he said.
With Congress on recess for Memorial Day, Sen. Blanche Lambert Lincoln and Rep. Marion Berry, both Democrats from Arkansas, are leading a delegation of Arkansas farmers to Cuba to assess the trading possibilities for themselves.
"Arkansas is the No. 1 rice-producing state in the nation. And being 90 miles from our border it certainly stands to be an excellent opportunity for us in trade," she said, adding, "hopefully we can enhance the quality of life in Cuba."
Lincoln predicted another overwhelming vote on the Senate side this summer.
Powerful Tandem
But a GOP source said another powerful lobbying group has joined the opposition: The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, which also opposes lifting sanctions on Iran and Iraq.
"AIPAC and the Cuban community are working hand in hand on this," he said.
One ardent anti-Castro Democrat, Sen. Robert Torricelli of New Jersey, said he believes there is enough support among Republican leaders that even if the Senate votes overwhelmingly to lift the sanctions, the move could again be voided in a conference committee.
"It would be a tragedy if, in the face of Cuban intransigence, with no democratic reforms, a deteriorating human rights situation, the United States were to unilaterally change our policy," he said. "It would be a confirmation to Castro that he never need modernize, never
release people from jail and never respect any human rights. That’s exactly how it would be interpreted."
Nevertheless, proponents are confident they will soon see victory on the sanction fight.
"We’re prevailing. It’s just a matter of time," said Hinchey. "We’re banging on the door and its beginning to creak. You can see the splinters beginning to show.
Strangers' Kindness Sustains Elian
By Pauline Jelinek, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal agents taught Elian Gonzalez to ride a two-wheel bike. A U.S. clergywoman became his ``rented grandmother.'' Another woman gave him a big black dog.
Yet despite the kindness of strangers, the 6-year-old castaway who fled communist Cuba remains essentially America's captive a full six months after arriving on its shores.
``It's very ironic, actually,'' said the Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, a supporter and friend of Elian's family. ``They want to go home so they can be free to do what they want to do.''
They want to be free of U.S. marshals and police who guard them, she said. Free of the press that follows them everywhere. And free of the lawsuit with which Miami relatives are trying to keep Elian in the United States.
The boy is not allowed to leave the country until a court decides the case, which could be soon. In the meantime, he, his Cuban family, a favorite cousin, a Cuban kindergarten teacher, four playmates from Cuba and adult family members moved to an estate in Washington - Elian's fourth temporary
home since he was rescued from the Thanksgiving boat wreck that killed his mother.
They moved from a secluded estate on Maryland's Eastern Shore, where Elian is said to have flourished in the last month - most importantly in re-establishing bonds strained by months away from his father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, his stepmother Nersy and infant half brother Hianny.
``They got to know each other again as a family. ... I think the private time was good for them,'' said Campbell, former head of the National Council of Churches, who says Elian has come to think of her as ``sort of a rented grandmother.''
She said the family hopes the move to the nation's capital will help them ``be a little more engaged with more people and see a few more things.'' They hope to visit with members of Congress and others who have supported them during Elian's ordeal, she said.
In Maryland, Elian read, watched television, visited the Baltimore Zoo once, swam a few times a week and ran and played ball on the sprawling grounds of the Wye River home of Nina Houghton. The widow of a wealthy industrialist and chairwoman of the Wye Institute, it was Houghton who gave him the
dog named Sinde, Campbell said.
In the month he was there he went from riding a bicycle with training wheels to becoming ``swift on the two-wheeler,'' Campbell said. ``The marshals taught him.''
After a routine of study every morning, play with his classmates every afternoon and family time at night, Campbell said he's nearly caught up on the schoolwork he missed during his time away from Cuba. He also enjoys doting on baby Hianny, she said.
``He's very interested in this baby,'' she said. Elian has remarked several times on the growth and changes he sees in the tot, who was only two when Elian left Cuba and now at 8 months now can toddle around a table by holding on.
``I think he's fascinated with it, the dramatic change,'' she said. ``I think it's the way he grasps how long he was gone'' from his family.
Elian Has More Options in New Home
By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 26 (AP) - A toy store is two blocks away and the National Zoo is nearby as well.
Elian Gonzalez will have more options now that the 6-year-old from Cuba and his entourage from Cuba have traded their rural retreat in Maryland for a Revolutionary War-era home on a leafy, 61/2-acre plot in an upscale neighborhood here.
The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell of the National Council of Churches and a supporter of the Gonzalez family, said the month they spent in Maryland helped them bond after Elian had been separated from them for five months. But, she said, they felt that location was too remote.
Campbell said the family hopes ``to be a little more engaged with more people, and see a few more things.'' They hope to visit with members of Congress and others who have supported them during Elian's ordeal, she said.
On Elian's first full day in the city that Fidel Castro likes to call ``the capital of the empire'' he was keeping a low profile.
Elian was seen briefly Thursday night when the four-van caravan in which he was riding arrived at his new home, known as Rosedale Farm, after the long drive from Maryland's Eastern Shore.
There was no word on his activities Friday. His father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, made a brief appearance on the porch of the seven-bedroom house during the afternoon.
Joining the father and son are Elian's step-mother, his half-brother and cousin, a Cuban kindergarten teacher, four playmates from Cuba and adult family members who are accompanying them.
The Gonzalez family is awaiting a federal appeals court ruling on whether the Immigration and Naturalization Service acted properly in refusing to consider political asylum applications filed on Elian's behalf by his Miami relatives. A ruling could come soon.
The boy was the victim of a shipwreck off the Florida coast during a crossing from Cuba that claimed the life of his mother last November.
The decision to move to Washington also was driven by convenience. Gregory Craig, the lawyer for Elian's father, has his office in downtown Washington and can consult with his client more easily. In addition, Craig's home is just a short distance from Rosedale.
Also, Cuban diplomats can show up at Rosedale without notifying the State Department. Each time they visited the residence in Maryland, they had to give 72 hours notice, consistent with a State Department requirement, because that location is more than 25 miles from Washington.
Most neighbors seem to welcome Elian's presence in the neighborhood but not necessarily the trappings of his celebrity status.
Edmund Frost, who lives down the street, said neighbors normally are free to roam the grounds of Rosedale, and he was resentful that much of the property is now off limits.
He called this ``a stupid, militaristic overreaction.''
Not far from where he spoke, yellow police tapes with ``Do Not Cross'' admonitions ringed the house, preventing all but authorized visitors from getting close. Orange cones at the foot of the driveway blocked the entry of unauthorized vehicles.
Allison Beuker, while walking her 8-month old daughter in a stroller, took note of a gaggle of photographers and television cameramen lined up along the fence that surrounds the property.
The one irritant about Elian's presence is the press, said Beuker, 35. ``You guys are a pain in the butt,'' she said. Others worried about increased competition for scarce street parking and the possibility of protest demonstrations.
The house has a long history. The rear section is believed to have been constructed in 1740; the remainder in 1793 - when George Washington was president.
Also on the grounds is the headquarters of Youth for Understanding International Exchange, which promotes exchanges involving high school students from the United States and foreign countries.
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