New 'centrist' lobby opposes U.S. embargo
By Frank Davies . fdavies@herald.com. Published Thursday,
March 29, 2001 in the Miami Herald
WASHINGTON -- A new group striving to influence Cuba policy announced its
creation Wednesday as a "centrist organization'' that hopes to challenge
the Cuban American National Foundation and lobby effectively against the U.S.
embargo on Cuba.
The Cuba Policy Foundation, founded by several former State Department
officials and academic and business leaders, will open a Washington office soon,
according to its president, Sally Grooms Cowal.
"There's a real need for a new centrist group, not left-leaning
activists, and not just business interests,'' said Cowal, a former deputy
assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs under President George
Bush in the late 1980s. She also served as ambassador to Trinidad and Tobago.
'NON-IDEOLOGICAL'
Cowal described the new group as "non-ideological,'' devoted to
examining all aspects of Cuba policy, and challenging the embargo as a failure
that "has hurt America's own economic and national interests.''
Cowal's group received its initial funding from the Arca Foundation, a
wealthy organization devoted to more contact and fewer trade restrictions with
Cuba. Its chairman is Smith Bagley, a grandson of tobacco magnate R.J. Reynolds
and a major Democratic donor.
A leader of another group challenging Cuba policy, former Sen. Dennis
DeConcini, said the new organization, with its financial backing, could become a
Washington player on Cuba issues.
"A group like this tells me there really is support for changing our
policy,'' DeConcini said.
"There never has been a group, except for a few church groups, that
could challenge the Cuban American National Foundation [CANF].''
DeConcini, now a lobbyist, is a board member of the Alliance for Responsible
Cuba Policy, which has taken on the embargo.
But DeConcini acknowledged that the alliance has lacked major funding.
FORUMS PROPOSED
Cowal said the new group will hold press conferences in several cities,
including Miami. And she wrote Jorge Mas Santos, CANF chairman, proposing a
series of joint forums to debate Cuba policy.
José Cárdenas, director of the CANF office in Washington,
rejected the idea and questioned whether the new group had anything new to
offer.
"This group looks like old wine in new bottles, and they're selling a
defective product that no one is buying in Washington,'' Cárdenas said.
Last year's debate in Congress demonstrated a willingness to challenge the
40-year-old embargo, with both houses on record in favor of the sale of food and
medical products. But
'A group like this tells me there really is support for changing our
policy,'
DENNIS DECONCINI, ex-Senator
the final legislation placed new restrictions on such sales and banned U.S.
financing.
Bush administration officials, including Secretary of State Colin Powell,
have expressed support for the embargo.
BOARD MEMBERS
The Cuba Policy Foundation includes several board members who are already
involved in Cuba policy:
William Rogers, chairman, is a former assistant secretary of state for
inter-American affairs under President Ford. He also co-chaired a Council on
Foreign Relations task force last year that called for new policies, including
sale of agricultural and medical products to Cuba with U.S. financing.
Diego Asencio, a former ambassador to Colombia and Brazil, is currently
executive director of the United States-Spain Council.
Ray Ruga, assistant vice president of American International Group, an
insurance company in New York, described himself as a "centrist Democrat.''
His parents came from Cuba in 1967 and Ruga grew up in Little Havana. He was
Cuba desk officer in the Defense Department in the Clinton administration.
"Most of my family is pro-embargo, but I sense an exhaustion setting in
among many Cubans who are looking for other approaches,'' Ruga said.
Paul Smike, a senior advisor to the World Economic Forum, said the new
group "is sorely needed to get the debate going.''
Maria de Lourdes "Luly'' Duke heads Fundación Amistad, which
conducts educational and cultural exchanges with Cuba.
Cowal said she became interested in Cuba issues last summer, when she played
a role in the Elián González saga. At the time, Cowal headed a
student-exchange organization that housed Elián, his father and other
Cubans at a Washington estate.
Copyright 2001 Miami Herald | 