Yahoo! January 11, 2001
Cuba Seeks Aid in Ending Embargo
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 11 (AP) - Cuba's top diplomat flew to Africa and the Middle East
this week to recruit international help in the country's fight to topple the
four-decade-old U.S. trade embargo.
"Our primary priority for 2001 is to continue battling against the
North American blockade,'' Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said in an
interview Tuesday before taking off on his first international trip of the year.
The United States now is nearly alone in trying to force a political change
on the communist island by isolating it from the rest of the world. Perez Roque
wants other countries to help pressure the U.S. government into dropping the
sanctions imposed at the height of the Cold War.
Cuba has the backing of the United Nations (news - web sites), where 167
General Assembly members voted last year to condemn the 1962 embargo on all
trade between the United States and Cuba. Opposed were the United States, Israel
and the Marshall Islands. There were four abstentions.
Overwhelming condemnations of the embargo by U.N. member states have been
the norm for several years. Now, Cuba says, anti-embargo sentiment is growing
inside the United States as well.
"The Cold War is over,'' Perez Roque told The Associated Press. "There
is a broad (American) consensus in favor of the normalization of relations.''
Last year, there were increased moves in the U.S. Congress to at least ease
sanctions to allow U.S. farmers to sell their products to the Caribbean nation.
After several failed attempts by embargo foes, Congress passed a law that
would allow American food to be sold to Cuba for the first time in 40 years. But
Cuba complained that accompanying financing restrictions made sales all but
impossible.
During visits last year to Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, Perez
Roque emphasized support for Cuba's efforts to end the embargo.
Now, Cuba wants to ensure that international opposition to the embargo
doesn't weaken, especially among European Union (news - web sites) members that
joined last year's U.N. vote to criticize the island for "continued
violation of human rights and fundamental freedoms.''
All countries in the Western Hemisphere save Mexico and Canada cut ties with
Cuba in the early 1960s under U.S. pressure. But relations have been gradually
restored as pragmatic interests replace ideological ones, especially after the
former Soviet Union's collapse in late 1991. Now, El Salvador and the United
States are the only nations in the Western Hemisphere without some kind of
diplomatic links with Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s government.
Helms Makes Foreign Aid Proposal
By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, 11 (AP) - Sen. Jesse Helms wants to replace the "cold,
heartless'' U.S. foreign aid agency with taxpayer-supported religious and other
nongovernmental organizations that do humanitarian work overseas.
Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Thursday
that if his proposal is implemented, he will support for the first time an
increase in foreign aid allocations. Helms always has been skeptical of the
efficiency of the U.S. Agency for International Development's foreign assistance
programs.
"I intend to work with the Bush administration to replace AID with a
new International Development Foundation, whose mandate will be to deliver block
grants to support the work of private relief agencies and faith-based
institutions,'' Helms said.
As groups worthy of support, he mentioned Catholic Relief Services, World
Vision and Samaritan's Purse, based in Helms' home state of North Carolina.
Helms, a Republican like President-elect Bush, spoke of his ideas in a
speech prepared for delivery at the American Enterprise Institute, a
conservative research group.
He said he wants to build on a campaign pledge by Bush to look first to
religious institutions, charities and community groups when his administration
sees a responsibility to help people.
Bush plans to establish an "office of faith-based programs'' in the
White House to tap resources of the nation's religious organizations to deal
with domestic social problems such as poverty, alcohol and drug abuse and
affordable housing.
"I submit to you, my friends, that the wisdom of this 'compassionate
conservative' vision must not stop at the water's edge,'' Helms said.
Religious leaders and analysts meeting Wednesday in Washington discussed the
idea and questions it is raising, such as the threat to churches' independence
and the separation of church and state.
A poll released at the meeting by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life
underlined a delicate balance between government financing of religious groups
and fears of government money being used by them.
Just under half, 44 percent, said giving government money to religious
groups is a good idea, even when their programs promote religious messages.
Another fourth, 23 percent, said such programs are a good idea, but only if they
stay away from religious messages. And 31 percent said that arrangement always
is a bad idea. The poll, produced by the nonpartisan group Public Agenda, was
taken in November of 1,507 adults and has an error margin of 3 percentage
points.
AID officials were unavailable Wednesday night for comment on Helms'
suggestions. The agency has cooperated for years with private voluntary
organizations, including those affiliated with religious groups, presently
involving some 300 such groups.
The senator said he was giving the speech in the context of the new
opportunities for foreign policy innovations that he said will be available when
Bush is inaugurated on Jan. 20.
As an example, Helms confidently predicted a more assertive U.S. foreign
policy toward Cuba under Bush to bring about the demise of President Fidel
Castro.
"Like a cat with nine lives, Fidel Castro is about to survive his ninth
U.S. president,'' he said. "Well, I have a message for Mr. Castro: the last
of the cat's nine lives has begun.''
As for his criticism of AID, the agency maintains it has a long record of
achievement in helping people overseas fight poverty and disease, recover from
natural disasters and promote democratic reform.
AID's Web site says more than 3 million lives are saved every year through
USAID immunization programs. It also says AID-sponsored oral rehydration is
credited with saving tens of millions around the globe.
Highlighting its role in economic development, AID also says 43 of the top
50 consumer nations of American agricultural products were once U.S. foreign aid
recipients.
AID says the programs have been carried out at relatively low cost - 0.5
percent of the federal budget.
The agency has long complained about what it sees as the parsimonious
attitude of the Republican-controlled Congress. When former AID administrator J.
Brian Atwood resigned in 1999, he called the government's international affairs
budget "a joke.''
Helms said in his prepared remarks that AID has shown a hostile attitude
toward overseas humanitarian groups affiliated with religious organizations.
He said the agency rejected a request for support for an orphanage run by a
Jesuit priest in Kenya for children suffering from HIV/AIDS (news - web sites).
AID officials explained to the priest, said Helms, that "since most of the
babies he was helping would eventually die of AIDS, his project by definition
did not meet AID's criteria for 'sustainable' development.''
"I've got news for the AID bureaucrats: What is not sustainable is
their cold, heartless bureaucratic thinking. We must - I repeat, we must -
reform the way America helps those in need (not only at home but abroad as
well).''
On the Net: U.S. Agency for International Development:
http://www.usaid.gov
Associated Press writer Will Lester contributed to this
report.
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