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Cuba wants to buy U.S. peas, apples
Yahoo!
By Katherine Pfleger, Associated Press Writer. Fri Mar 8, 4:44 PM ET
WASHINGTON - The Cuban government wants to buy $4.5 million worth of
Washington state peas and apples.
Sen. Maria Cantwell received a letter from the Cuban government Thursday
notifying her of the intended purchase, which she said would probably happen in
May or June. Cuba is expected to buy roughly $4 million worth of dry peas and
about $500,000 worth of Red Delicious apples.
Congress in 2000 changed the four-decade U.S. embargo of Cuba to allow food
sales to the communist island, but prohibiting U.S. public or private financing
of the sales. Because of the financing restrictions, Cuba at first refused to
buy U.S. food products.
But after Hurricane Michelle struck Cuba in November, its government agreed
to buy $35 million in American food to replenish its reserves. A trade group
reported this week that Cuba signed a new round of contracts to buy $32 million
of food from American agricultural firms.
Cantwell said she expects Cuba would pay cash for the peas and apples.
The Bush administration and Cuban exile groups support the embargo Cuba. But
both Democratic and Republican lawmakers in the United States are increasingly
fighting to ease and even eliminate the sanctions, seeing Cuba as a new market
for American products. A farm bill in the Senate would allow third parties to
finance purchases of agricultural products.
"We have normalized relations with people around the globe,"
Cantwell said. "I look at Cuba as one of our closest neighbors. I think we
could benefit by changing our relationship there."
Cantwell visited Cuban leader Fidel Castro in January along with a
delegation that brought Red Delicious apples, assorted vegetables and wines from
the state. When the senator thought she would miss her flight, Castro escorted
her to the airport in his black Mercedes.
Cubans seeking political change
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Fri Mar 8,12:26 PM
ET
HAVANA - Cuban dissidents said Friday they have collected 10,000 signatures
needed to force a referendum on overhauling the government, a move unprecedented
in communist Cuba.
Miguel Saludes of Cuba's Christian Liberation Movement said activists were
checking the signatures to verify their authenticity. The petition will then be
delivered to Cuba's National Assembly, he said.
He would not say when activists expected to have the document ready.
The proposed referendum, known as the Varela Project, appears to be the
first signature-gathering effort to get this far under the government of Fidel
Castro , in power for 43 years.
The referendum would ask voters whether they think guarantees are needed to
assure the rights of free speech and association and whether they support an
amnesty for political prisoners. It would also call for new electoral laws and
more opportunities for Cubans to run their own private businesses.
Castro's government has not commented publicly on the effort.
Previous petition efforts have stalled in part because people were afraid to
sign, but in the decade since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the government
has shown slightly more tolerance for opposition groups.
The project is named for Father Felix Varela, a Roman Catholic priest who
fought for the emancipation of slaves on the Caribbean island. The referendum
was first mentioned by the Christian Liberation Movement shortly after Pope John
Paul II's visit here in January 1998.
The Cuban Commission for Human Rights and Reconciliation and the Democratic
Solidarity Party later joined the Christian Liberation Movement in helping
coordinate the signature-gathering drive. The groups have been gathering
signatures across the island since early last year.
All three groups operate here without the approval of the government, which
regularly characterizes its opponents as "counterrevolutionaries" and "mercenaries"
for the U.S. government and Cuban exiles. | 
