Yahoo! News
February 14, 2002.
Cuba wants more U.S. business
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Wed Feb 13, 4:21 PM
ET
HAVANA - Saying it just wants to give as many U.S. companies as possible a
chance to sell to this communist nation, Cuba said Wednesday it will buy more
American food if the U.S. government continues to expedite licenses for the
sales.
"We would like all American producers to have the chance to compete,"
Pedro Alvarez, president of Cuba's import company Alimport said as he sat
alongside top American poultry executives.
Since Cuba announced in November that it would purchase American food to
replenish its reserves after Hurricane Michelle devastated the central part of
the nation, government officials have met with representatives of more than 100
U.S. companies interested in selling or transporting food to Cuba, Alvarez said.
"They have been very efficient," he said. "We have been very
pleased with the operation."
Jim Sumner, president of the Atlanta-based USA Poultry and Egg Export
Council, said that President Fidel Castro gave him and industry representatives
the same message during a six-hour meeting Tuesday night.
"We were told by President Castro that we could expect to see
additional purchases of food and agricultural products from the United States in
approximately the same amounts as the first round of purchases — which was
in the vicinity of about $35 million — if the conditions applied in the
first round are maintained," Sumner said.
The primary condition was a continued flexibility on the licenses, Sumner
said.
The U.S. government agreed late last year to speed up license approvals for
the first direct commercial sales of American food to communist Cuba in nearly
four decades, in an attempt to ensure that the food reached the
hurricane-affected country as quickly as possible.
Now that food deliveries are being made, Cuban officials and American
producers fear that the U.S. government will stop expediting license requests
and that future sales will be slowed by red tape.
Sumner said Castro told the American poultry executives that if existing
restrictions on American financing for the sales were lifted, "Cuba would
be able to increase its purchases (of food) from the United States by more than
three times the current amount," which would work out to more than $100
million annually.
A U.S. law that went into effect in 2000 made it possible for American
producers to sell food directly to the island, but banned U.S. public or private
financing for the sales. Cuba deeply resents the financing restrictions and
refused for nearly a year to buy American food — until the hurricane
struck.
Havana announced it would take advantage of the law after politely turning
down Washington's offer of humanitarian aid. Cuban officials interpreted the
offer as a kind gesture that required an equally kind response.
Sumner said Castro told the poultry delegation that if U.S.-Cuba trade were
bilateral and unrestricted, American food someday could account for more than
half the food that the island imports.
Poll finds most Salvadorans reject relations with
Cuba
AP. Wed Feb 13,12:59 PM ET
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador - El Salvador is one of the last countries in the
hemisphere to shun diplomatic relations with Cuba, and a poll published
Wednesday says most Salvadorans like it that way.
The poll by the Cid Gallup organization found 28 percent in favor of
diplomatic ties with Cuba and 56 percent against. It was published by the
newspaper El Diario de Hoy, which reported a margin of error of 2.9 percent in
the sample of 1,220 adults.
Sixteen percent of those polled declined to express an opinion.
"The rejection of Cuba is because it is considered a protagonist in the
civil war of the 1980s," the newspaper said.
Salvadoran President Francisco Flores and Cuba's Fidel Castro squabbled
during a summit in Panama in 2000. Flores accused Castro of helping worsen El
Salvador's civil war and Castro accused El Salvador of hosting anti-Castro
terrorists.
Flores also recently criticized the decision of neighboring Honduras to
restore ties with the communist island after a 40-year hiatus.
Meanwhile, El Salvador's government human rights chief, Beatrice de
Carrillo, office said she would appeal to Cuban officials to halt the execution
of two Salvadorans sentenced to death for dynamite attacks that killed an
Italian tourist in Havana.
The two Salvadorans, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon and Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena,
were allegedly recruited by anti-Castro Cuban exiles to commit acts of terror in
Cuba in 1997. | 
