By Jim Burns. CNSNews.com Senior Staff Writer. October 26,
2001. CNS News
(CNSNews.com) - Cuban leader Fidel Castro is not a communist, according to
Florida Republican Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart. Instead, Castro has more in
common with the legendary American gangster Al Capone, running Cuba with "dirty
money," which precludes him from cooperating in the U.S. war against
terrorism, Diaz-Balart said.
"He is, in his essence, not Marxist, not Leninist but Al Caponist. He
is not a communist. He has never been one and has no interest in being one. He
is Al Caponist," Diaz-Balart said. "If you are an Al Caponist, you
cannot cooperate in the war against drug trafficking and terrorism in the 21st
century that is being led by the United States of America."
Diaz-Balart, one of Castro's biggest critics in Congress, spoke Thursday at
a forum focusing on the prospects for democracy in Cuba.
He attacked Cuba and Iraq for failing to accept President Bush's offer to
help in the war against terrorism
"Why does Castro not come to the table? If you are, as he is, the
banker of narco-trafficking and terrorism and of all sorts of dirty political
money, you cannot cooperate with the major thrust of the war against terrorism,
which is the end to banking schemes, said Diaz-Balart.
"Castro doesn't open a bank account under his own name in Cuba or in
London or in Switzerland and other places that are earning interest. But if you
are a corrupt politician or a drug trafficker or a terrorist who makes out with
secret funds for drug trafficking, there is no better place in the world to have
your money and that is the major source of income for Fidel Castro, the
laundering of dirty money," Diaz-Balart said.
Diaz-Balart was reacting to an article on the Washington Post Internet site
headlined, "In a Changing World, Cuba and the U.S. Stay the Same."
The article said, "The events since Sept. 11 have rearranged diplomatic
ties around the world. But the relationship between Washington and Havana,
tumultuous over four decades, remains at best, stubbornly unchanged. At worst,
it has deteriorated".
"I disagree with that," Diaz-Balart said. "Yes, before Sept.
11 we had already had George Bush and the election of George Bush changed much
for us who were fighting against normalizing relations (with Cuba) and helping
the (Castro) regime survive."
The Bush election in 2000, Diaz-Balart believes, also prompted the Castro
government to increase its lobbying activity to try to persuade Congress to lift
or ease U.S. economic sanctions on Cuba.
"The Castro dictatorship basically for years went nowhere in its
lobbying efforts because they fundamentally had the (Connecticut Democratic
Senator) Chris Dodd group, (New York Democratic Congressman) Charlie Rangel and
others and they were very ineffective," said Diaz-Balart.
However, the Castro government has since lined up agricultural groups and
the U.S. Chamber of Commerce "to carry their water," Diaz-Balart said.
Several agricultural groups and members of Congress representing farm states
have called for an easing of Cuban sanctions. So have officials from the United
States Chamber of Commerce, who have lobbied both the Clinton and Bush
administration to ease food and medicine embargoes.
"The idea that American workers and American business are excluded from
markets around the world in any number of different places and on different
subjects, when the rest of the world is trading with those places, strikes us as
being ludicrous. We are opposed to unilateral sanctions, where the U.S. just
decides that it is going to impose a sanction upon a country, where it's not
going to have any meaningful impact on the country," said Craig Johnstone,
senior Vice President of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Johnstone also thinks the American embargo on Cuba hasn't had much effect on
that nation.
"We don't think, quite frankly, that sanctions on Cuba have much of a
meaningful impact on Cuba other than providing the Castro regime with an excuse
for non-performance. I don't think that the Cuban embargo is damaging the Cuban
economy nearly as much as state socialism is damaging the Cuban economy,"
Johnstone said.
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