Yahoo! News
November 28, 2001.
Cuba Wants U.S. to End Travel Ban
By Gerald Nadler, Associated Press Writer
NEW YORK, 27 (AP) - Cuba's foreign minister said the United States should
remove restrictions on travel to Cuba, predicting Tuesday that 2 million
Americans visitors would "flood the country.''
Felipe Perez Roque commended this month's U.S. offer of assistance after
Hurricane Michelle and the decision to allow Cuba to buy food and medicines and
pay in dollars - an exception to four-decades-old sanctions.
"As a positive signal in the right direction,'' the Bush istration
should lift travel restrictions, Perez Roque said at a press conference at
Cuba's U.N. mission.
Cuba, he said, would then "get ready to receive ... no less than 2
million Americans, who I am sure will flood the country to get to know it
because they have been prevented from doing so.''
Cuba has been under a U.S. trade embargo since Fidel Castro (news - web
sites) defeated the CIA (news - web sites)-backed assault at the Bay of Pigs in
1961. Americans are barred from traveling to the Caribbean island nation except
with a government waiver.
Earlier Tuesday, the U.N. General Assembly for the 10th straight year called
for an end to the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Tuesday's vote was 167 to 3 with 3
abstentions.
The United States, Israel and the Marshall Islands voted in favor of keeping
the embargo. Latvia, Micronesia and Nicaragua abstained. Last year four nations
abstained.
"The blockade only achieves the objective of putting the United States
into isolation from the rest of the world,'' Perez Roque said.
U.S. Deputy Ambassador James Cunningham said the U.S. trade embargo against
Cuba is a matter of bilateral trade policy and not an issue for U.N.
consideration.
The focus of the United Nations (news - web sites), Cunningham said, "should
be on the continuing human rights crisis in Cuba rather than on the bilateral
aspects of the United States efforts to facilitate a peaceful transition to
democracy on that island.''
Perez Roque urged Washington to lift all restrictions and restore normal
relations.
"Cuba is ready for that and now the ball is in the U.S. court,'' he
said.
He called the embargo the biggest obstacle to Cuba's development.
Perez Roque said the United States must decide whether it will have a
coherent policy toward Cuba or remain hostage "to a minority'' of Cuban
exiles in Miami.
Cuba Mourns Loss of 30 Migrants
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 27 (AP) - Wearing a black armband of mourning, Fidel Castro (news -
web sites) told tens of thousands of Cubans on Tuesday that U.S. immigration
policies were to blame for the deaths of 30 Cubans who perished at sea this
month trying to reach the United States.
While Castro said he lamented the deaths of the adults during the illegal
attempt to reach Florida, "for the innocent children, driven to an unfair,
undeserved death, we feel true mourning.
"They were little ones snatched away from the homeland that gives so
much attention and love to all,'' the Cuban leader said.
Thirteen children were believed to be among 30 people on a 30-foot speedboat
that capsized in the Florida Straits.
The U.S. Coast Guard (news - web sites) quit searching for the Cubans.
Authorities last week found a capsized boat that they believe was carrying the
Cubans.
Castro blamed the "murderous Cuban Adjustment Act'' for those and
hundreds of other similar deaths over the decades, saying that Washington has
long ignored Havana's demands that the law be abolished.
Havana says the 1966 law encourages Cuban migrants to undertake dangerous
sea journeys with the hope of living in the United States. The act allows Cubans
- unlike foreign migrants from other countries - to avoid repatriation and later
apply for American residency based simply on country of birth.
Family of the migrants reported the group left Cuba in a speedboat
on Nov. 16 and was expected in Florida the next day.
American authorities last week found what they believe was their capsized
boat. The U.S. Coast Guard later stopped its search.
Most participants at the government-organized rally wore black T-shirts and
waved small Cuban flags for the state television cameras during Castro's
half-hour address at dusk outside the U.S. Interests Section - the American
mission here.
The crowd also listened to a string of young children and teen-agers read
speeches condemning U.S. immigration policies.
"American dream? What a lie!'' one teen-age girl scoffed during her
speech about Cubans who emigrate to the United States.
The government estimated the crowd at 300,000, a number impossible to
independently confirm.
Cuban Relatives Short on Cash
By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON, 27 (AP) - Declining economic fortunes in Florida and New Jersey
have affected cash transfers by Cuban-Americans to friends and relatives in
Cuba, contributing to a sharp deterioration in the island's economy, a
conference on Cuba was told Tuesday.
The two states are the major sources of these transfers because of their
large Cuban-American populations.
Jorge Perez Lopez, an international economist, said unemployment, partly
related to a tourism slump, is approximately at double digit levels in South
Florida, almost twice the national average.
He said Cuban statistics show that the island received $842 million in these
transfers, or remittances, from the United States during a recent year but he
acknowledged that he had little faith in accuracy of such estimates.
The daylong conference was sponsored by the Rand Corporation, a research
group, and the University of Miami's Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American
Studies.
The acting assistant secretary of state for inter-American affairs, Lino
Gutierrez, said declining remittances have had a far smaller impact on the Cuban
economy than Hurricane Michelle, which struck the island earlier this month.
Gutierrez cited Cuban estimates to show that half the country's 11 million
people were affected by the storm and that much of the sugar and citrus crops
were lost.
He noted that although Cuba has rejected a U.S. offer to provide emergency
assistance, the offer remains on the table. His dismissed speculation that the
istration may agree to a softening of the U.S. embargo against Cuba.
As exceptions to the embargo, Cuba has the right to buy food and medical
supplies. Days after Hurricane Michelle struck, Cuba opened talks with the
istration on the cash purchase of goods in these categories.
Gillian Gunn, a Cuba specialist at Georgetown University, expressed doubt
that Castro would liberalize the Cuban economy as a means of confronting the
current crisis. Castro authorized limited reforms in the early 1990's when the
economy was in steep decline but halted them in 1994. Gunn says that Castro
apparently believes that economic reforms may provide some benefits but would
carry an unacceptable political cost.
Jaime Suchlicki, of the University of Miami, said he believes Castro may
respond to the changed situation by engaging in a Cuban-style "cultural
revolution,'' with a new emphasis on nationalism and anti-Americanism. | 
