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The Miami
Herald. Aug. 08, 2002.
Armey predicts end of Cuba embargo
Bush may face veto decision
By Paul Richter. Los Angeles Times Service
WASHINGTON - In a vivid sign of waning support for the economic embargo on
Cuba, House Majority Leader Dick Armey, R-Texas, said he believes the United
States should open trade with the communist regime, and that he has backed the
restrictions on travel and trade only out of loyalty to two Cuban-American
members of the House.
Speaking at a trade promotion event in Wichita, Kan., on Wednesday, Armey
acknowledged that congressional support for the 4-decade-old restrictions is
fading. ''If they last a year, it will be the last year they last,'' said Armey,
who plans to retire from Congress at the end of the year.
With an eye on upcoming elections in the pivotal electoral state of Florida,
the White House and GOP congressional leaders have been lobbying fiercely to
maintain the embargo that they argue will weaken the regime of Cuban President
Fidel Castro.
But an anti-embargo coalition that includes farm-state lawmakers, northern
Democrats and others has been gaining strength steadily in recent years. They
argue that a free flow of goods and people to Cuba will accelerate the move to a
more democratic system while opening up that market to American companies.
Two weeks ago, the House adopted by a lopsided 262-167 vote a measure that
would end restrictions on American travel to the island nation. If the Senate
adopts similar language, as expected, and congressional conferees agree,
President Bush will face a tough choice between executing the first veto of his
term or accepting the first major easing of the embargo in four decades.
Asked Thursday about Armey's comments, White House spokesman Sean McCormack
said the president "is committed to enforcing the embargo. . . . He's
committed himself to enforcing it more strongly.''
Though Armey is retiring, he remains one of the most influential
conservative voices in Congress. As such, his shift of positions likely will
carry considerable weight with other Republicans.
Armey has voted consistently over the years to maintain the embargo, most
recently two weeks ago.
Armey said Wednesday that if his own Dallas-area congressional district had
more of an economic stake in trade with Cuba, he might have voted differently.
But since it didn't, he followed the lead of his friends Rep. Lincoln
Diaz-Balart and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, both Miami Republicans, who are
Cuban-born and staunchly anti-Castro.
Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, a
strong pro-embargo organization, said it is "fortunate that Mr. Armey won't
have a role in the issue next year.''
He predicted that if the embargo is lifted and Cuba is entitled to purchase
U.S. farm goods on credit, the impoverished nation will be unable to come up
with the money and the U.S. government will have to foot the bill.
''The question is whether U.S. taxpayers are going to be asked to subsidize
a deadbeat dictator,'' Garcia said.
Concert honors Cuban music icon
By Elaine De Valle. Edevalle@herald.com. Posted on Thu,
Aug. 08, 2002.
There's nothing unusual about a tribute concert to a Cuban music icon
selling out in Miami, unless that legend is someone who never broke with
Castro's regime -- and there are no protesters in sight.
Exactly two months to the day that renowned Cuban songstress Elena Burke
died in Havana, her songs and spirit will fill a Flagler Street auditorium
tonight in a tribute starring Albita Rodríguez, Oscar de León and
comedian Guillermo Alvarez-Guedes, among others.
Also scheduled to perform: the honorees' daughter, Malena Burke, who moved
to Miami in 1995 and is a singer in her own right, and two of her four
grandchildren.
But the music inside will sound just as lovely to Burke's family and fans as
the silence outside. No permits have been pulled for a protest at the Miami-Dade
County Auditorium, and Spanish-language radio has helped sell all 2,429 seats.
The irony is not lost on Malena Burke, who calls it a testament to her
mother's appeal.
''A very beautiful thing,'' she says. "It is very gratifying to know
that so many people loved her. Not just in Cuba, but in Latin America, Spain,
France, Japan.
''And that here, in Miami, they are the first to give her a posthumous
homage,'' she says, "it is a beautiful notion.''
Others say that Burke falls into a Cuban ''gray area'' when it comes to
tolerance perhaps because Burke predated the Castro regime.
''It's also the passage of time,'' said ACLU Executive Director Howard
Simon, who says a lack of protests is not new -- or news.
''There have been numerous Cuban artists from the island that have come to
Miami over the last several months, all without efforts by local government
offices to prevent it or to silence the protests,'' Simon said.
"[It's] evidence that this community is emerging from the days of
government interference with free expression.''
Alejandro Rios, spokesman for Miami-Dade Community College -- which
organized the concert and will benefit with an Elena Burke Memorial scholarship
for needy music students -- notes the potential for controversy:
"She was always a person who did not opt for exile, who did not opt to
leave Cuba and died there -- and there are a lot of people who do not agree with
that.''
But he likens her to Beny Moré and other artists, who also managed to
stay simultaneously in Castro's Cuba and in the heart of Miami Cubans.
Perhaps Burke's longevity also keeps her on a protest-free pedestal. Elena
Burke began her career when she was 14, in 1942, and continued for more than 60
years. Her voice is one of the most widely recognized on the island and in Latin
America and Europe and Asia as the personification of filin -- or piano bar
ballad pop, American-style.
''There are reasons to spare for which to pay tribute to Elena Burke,'' Rios
said. "Like there would be for Beny Moré, Olga Guillot and Celia
Cruz.''
There is also the way she refused to disown colleagues who did defect, Rios
says.
''She never cut communications with any friend that chose to live outside
the country. She never feared the repercussions,'' he said, sharing a story told
at rehearsal this week by the Cuban duo Las Diego, who said that when they
wanted to leave Cuba they were blackballed. The only person who did not stop
talking to them was Burke.
She toured 30 cities in Japan in the 1990s and never performed in Miami. But
her daughter says she has never felt any ire from exiles. "Since I got here
seven years ago, I have really gotten from the people of Miami that love toward
her.''
Proof of Burke's popularity, Rios says, is that the concert sold out with
little publicity less than three weeks after it was announced -- with ticket
prices of $25, $37 and $60.
''All those seats weren't bought by relatives and friends of Elena Burke's.
There are a lot of people in the community who admire her,'' Rios said.
"We have discovered that there are thousands of fans.'' | 
