Yahoo! April 18, 2001.
Panama Rejects Extradition to Cuba
By Kathia Martinez, Associated Press Writer.
PANAMA CITY, Panama 17 (AP) - A man accused of plotting to kill Fidel Castro
(news - web sites) at a summit meeting here will not be extradited to Cuba, the
government announced Tuesday.
The Foreign Secretariat said that on Tuesday it formally notified Cuba of
the refusal to extradite Luis Posada Carriles, a Cuban exile who was once
allegedly linked to the CIA (news - web sites).
President Mireya Moscoso told reporters last month that Posada probably
would not be sent back to Cuba because he could face the death penalty there.
But Foreign Secretary Jose Miguel Aleman said Tuesday that that factor did
not weigh heavily in the decision. Rather it was Cuba's previous refusal to
extradite Panamanian suspects to Panama, in addition to the fact that the
suspects currently face legal processes in this country, he said.
Shortly after arriving at the Ibero-American Summit here in November, Cuban
President Castro held a dramatic news conference to announce that Posada was in
Panama plotting to assassinate him.
The government quickly arrested Posada and others alleged of collaborating
with him, including Gaspar Jimenez, Pedro Crispin Remon and Guillermo Novo of
the Miami area. Panama refused to extradite them as well.
But Castro said in December that the exiles would not face the death penalty
or more than 20 years imprisonment if convicted.
Cuba's government accuses Posada of responsibility for several murderous
terrorist attacks.
Prosecutors have accused the four men of possessing explosives and criminal
association. Jimenez and Posada also are accused of falsifying documents.
Posada also is wanted in Venezuela, where he was convicted in absentia for
involvement in the 1976 bombing of a Cubana de Aviacion jetliner in which 73
people died.
He denies involvement in that incident but has admitted organizing hotel
bombings in Cuba that killed an Italian tourist.
Also Tuesday, Reynaldo Nolasco, an official from the Salvadoran Attorney
General's office, announced that he would press charges against Posada for
allegedly using false identity documents and possibly also for the alleged
illegal importation of arms.
National poll marking Elian Gonzalez one-year anniversary: Americans
want new relations with Cuba
Wednesday April 18, 10:18 am Eastern Time. Press Release.
SOURCE: Cuba Policy Foundation
HOUSTON, NEW ORLEANS and MIAMI, April 18 /PRNewswire/ -- To mark this
Sunday's one-year anniversary of the action that reunited Elian Gonzalez with
his father, the Cuba Policy Foundation has commissioned a poll of 1,000
Americans, margin of error +/- 3 percent, on where Americans stand on U.S.- Cuba
relations.
News organizations may call Steven Goldstein 917-449-8918 of the Cuba Policy
Foundation to obtain the complete results of this national poll.
Poll results include:
American companies should be allowed to do business with Cuba.
22.0 percent strongly agree.
30.4 percent agree.
21.0
percent disagree.
11.2 percent strongly disagree.
Americans should be allowed to travel to Cuba.
32.6 percent strongly agree.
34.2 percent agree.
15.8
percent disagree.
8.5 percent strongly disagree.
What is the best way for the U.S. to help make Cuba a democracy?
15.4 percent say spend taxpayer dollars to fund opposition groups.
17.4 percent say commit American military forces to overthrow the Cuban
regime.
63.3 percent say give Cuba a taste of American
democracy by allowing
American companies to trade with Cubans and invest in Cuba.
The Cuba Policy Foundation has also commissioned polls of where residents of
Texas, Louisiana and Florida stand on U.S.-Cuba relations.
The poll of 500 Texans will be released at a news conference in Houston on
Thursday, April 19, 2001, 11:00 am, Houston City Hall Visitors Center.
The poll of 500 Louisianans will be released at a news conference in New
Orleans on Friday, April 20, 2001, 11:00 am, New Orleans World Trade Center.
The poll of 500 Floridians will be released at a news conference in Miami on
Sunday, April 22, 2001, 12:00 noon, location TBA. Sunday, April 22, 2001 is the
one-year anniversary of the action by U.S. Marshalls that reunited Elian
Gonzalez and his father.
The polls were conducted for the Cuba Policy Foundation by Rasmussen
Research.
The Cuba Policy Foundation is a nonpartisan, centrist organization led by
senior diplomats in Republican Administrations. The Cuba Policy Foundation,
which supports democratic reform in Cuba, favors lifting the U.S. embargo
because the embargo has failed to produce change for 40 years, and because a new
policy would be in America's best economic and national interests. Ambassador
Sally Grooms Cowal, president of the Cuba Policy Foundation, was Deputy
Assistant Secretary of State for Latin America under first President Bush.
Ambassador Cowal gave refuge to Elian Gonzalez and his father in Washington, DC
after Elian left Miami last year.
Cuba Wants To End U.S. Embargo
By Carolyn Skorneck, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, 17 (AP) - The Cuban government is looking past the Bush
administration to Congress, U.S. business and the public in its pursuit of an
end to America's four-decade-long embargo, Cuba's top diplomat in Washington
said Tuesday.
"As Cubans, we're optimistic,'' Fernando Remirez, chief of the Cuban
Interests Section, said on the 40th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion.
When asked what he expects from the Bush administration, he paused, then said: "Not
much.''
"Our expectations are from the other sectors of the American people ...
with a growing number of institutions, private companies who really express
their interest in Cuba,'' he told a Federal City Club luncheon. "There's a
growing number of Americans who are traveling down there. We think that it is a
good signal.''
Cuba's 11.2 million people stand ready to buy everything they can from the
United States, Remirez said. The country would save millions of dollars if it
could buy rice from U.S. growers instead of having it shipped from Asia through
the Panama Canal.
Rep. George Nethercutt, R-Wash., sponsored legislation last year aimed at
easing the U.S. embargo by allowing the sale of American food to Cuba for the
first time in 40 years. The legislation, altered somewhat to achieve a passable
compromise with hard-line opponents of Cuba, was approved by Congress and signed
by President Clinton (news - web sites).
Supporters hailed the measure as a victory for American farmers, but Cuban
authorities said they would buy no American food under the law because its
amendments bar the U.S. government and U.S. banks from financing sales. Since
Cuba belongs to no international financial institutions, Remirez said, "All
payments must be in cash, which is very difficult.''
The law also tightened restrictions on Americans' travel to Cuba.
Reps. Nethercutt, Jo Ann Emerson, R-Mo., and William Delahunt, D-Mass.,
urged Fidel Castro (news - web sites) last week in Cuba to agree to a deal that
would allow the sale of food. They came away empty-handed but upbeat about the
possibility that American farmers someday will sell goods to Cuba.
Nethercutt said Tuesday that as a good Republican, he never imagined himself
touting the value of an eased embargo against Cuba.
"I've had a change of heart since I've spoken to our farmers and
humanitarian groups,'' Nethercutt said in an interview from his home state of
Washington. "To have an embargo, you have to have an enemy, but our farmers
are the losers in this process too. That's who I care most about.''
The Cuba trip also gave him a different perspective as he met a "friendly
and gracious'' Castro who was "willing to listen to our point of view.''
Nethercutt said he also found a market economy in parts of Havana and heard four
dissidents unanimously press for ending the embargo.
Remirez said the law's conditions on sales "make it almost impossible
to have any.'' Besides the bar to financial assistance by the U.S. government or
private banks, he said, "There is a requirement of a special license for
every operation, and really it's very difficult.''
Although Clinton signed the bill, it is the Bush administration that is
writing the regulations implementing the law, which also lets the government
subsidize food and medicine sales to Iran, Libya, North Korea (news - web sites)
and Sudan.
Nethercutt, like Remirez, is concerned about the details of those
regulations.
The Commerce Department (news - web sites)'s version, Nethercutt said, "would
fully implement the intent of the law, which is to make it easier to sell
agricultural goods and medicines,'' while the Treasury Department (news - web
sites) has drawn the line very strictly, one license per transaction. The White
House may make the final decision.
"If I want to sell peas and lentils to Cuba, and it involves five
separate sales, that license should be good for a year,'' Nethercutt said.
Forcing farmers get five individual licenses "takes time and money and it's
a huge impediment to completing these sales, which are going to help our
farmers. It's not going to jeopardize our national security.''
Farm groups see Cuba as a huge potential market for their crops and
livestock. Archer Daniels Midland Co., one of the nation's biggest grain
processors, was host last September to officials from the Cuban agency that
handles food imports. Cargill Inc., another major U.S. exporter, also is
interested in the Cuban market.
The government has licensed a U.S. shipper, Crowley Liner Services of
Jacksonville, Fla., to transport food and agricultural goods to Cuba. Two U.S.
companies have signed agreements to sell agricultural products to Cuba in
exchange for sugar revenue, said the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, which
did not disclose the names or products.
On the Net:
U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council:
http://www.cubatrade.org/index.html
CIA (news - web sites) World Fact Book on Cuba:
http://www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/cu.html
House members: http://www.house.gov
Helms Trumpets Mexico's Cooperation
By TRACI CARL, Associated Press Writer
MEXICO CITY (AP) - Proclaiming a new spirit of cooperation between the
United States and Mexico, visiting U.S. senators said Tuesday that the two
countries are gradually finding common ground on divisive issues such as
immigration, drugs and Cuba.
Sen. Joseph Biden, D-Del., said Mexico pledged to recognize human rights
abuses in Cuba during a U.N. vote Wednesday in Geneva, although it would
continue its policy of abstaining from the vote.
Led by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C. - who has pushed countries to condemn Cuban
practices before the U.N. Human Rights Commission - Biden and three others from
the Senate Foreign Relations Committee are on an unprecedented three-day trip to
Mexico City.
The delegation discussed Cuba earlier Tuesday with Foreign Secretary Jorge
Castaneda, who in recent years has criticized Cuba's human rights abuses but who
said Mexico will not vote against the communist island.
The U.N. resolutions were "unilateral, selective and politicized,''
Castaneda told the senators, said his spokeswoman, Liliana Ferrer.
Mexico's new president, Vicente Fox (news - web sites), has promised to take
a more active role against human rights abuses within and outside Mexico's
borders. That has put him in an awkward position regarding Cuba.
Biden said he understood that the issue was politically difficult for the
Mexican government, historically Cuba's closest friend in Latin America, Biden
noted.
"I don't think you'll see a change in vote,'' he said. "I think
we'll see a change in explanation.''
Helms, one of Cuba's most vocal opponents, did not respond to questions
about Mexico's decision. But he said this week's discussions "set us on the
path toward a new era of cooperation on matters such as immigration, drugs,
trade and the promotion of human rights in Cuba.''
The senator, who has previously attacked Mexico as corrupt and unable to
fight drug smuggling, was upbeat and almost conciliatory during a news
conference Tuesday.
"We have not come with all the answers to every issue between our two
countries,'' Helms said. "We have come, rather, to try and establish a new
spirit of cooperation between our two countries, and to have an honest and open
dialogue.''
He praised Fox, and said the senators were in Mexico to do everything to
help him succeed.
"I've always said the good people of this great country deserve an
honest government of their own choosing,'' he said. "Apparently, the
Mexican people felt the same way. Last July, they chose a dynamic new president,
Vicente Fox, who is trying to build a new Mexico for a new century.''
Helms also spoke fondly of Castaneda, a former communist and one of his past
foes, saying he was impressed with him.
In November, Helms aide Roger Noriega said it "remains to be seen
whether Castaneda can put aside his anti-U.S. prejudices and work with us.'' But
it was Castaneda who suggested that the Senate delegation come to Mexico to meet
with its Mexican counterpart, a meeting that will take place Wednesday.
The tone at the senators' meeting with Fox was more cordial than it was in
November as well.
"If Senator Helms calls someone a communist, or at least one of his
aides does, it means at least that the person is on the right, because he
(Helms) is on the super-extreme right,'' Fox noted.
Fox and the senators discussed education, drug trafficking, economic and
social development, immigration, border issues and relations on Monday.
On Tuesday, Biden supported opening the borders from "Costa Rica to
Canada,'' an idea that Fox has voiced often since his election July 2. "There
is no reason we can't move in that direction,'' Biden said.
On the Net:
Senate Foreign Relations Committee,
http://www.senate.gov/committees/committee-detail.cfm
Mexican government, http://www.presidencia.gob.mx/
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