Congress Re-Examines Cuba Embargo
By JIM ABRAMS
Associated Press
March 4, 2008
Page 2 of 2
Jake Colvin, director of USA Engage, a group that opposes economic sanctions as a political tool, predicted there will be some ''stage-setting'' this year for changes under a new administration next year. ''This is a very political year and Cuba is a very political issue.''
Among the presidential candidates, Republican Sen. John McCain's views are the closest to those of Bush. Easing the embargo should be linked to evidence of a transition to a free and open democracy, McCain says.
Of the Democrats, Sen. Barack Obama supports easing restrictions on family related travel and money that Cuban-Americans can send to their families in Cuba. He says he would meet with Raul Castro without preconditions. Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton says she is willing to respond positively to actions that demonstrate a willingness to change in Cuba.
President Eisenhower imposed a partial embargo on the new Castro government in 1960, and President Kennedy expanded trade and travel restrictions. Barriers to travel were temporarily lifted during the Carter administration but later reimposed.
In 1996, shortly after Cuban fighter jets shot down two private planes operated by a Miami-based anti-Castro group, Congress passed the tough Helms-Burton Act that penalized foreign companies making use of property formerly owned by U.S. citizens but expropriated by the Cuban government.
But in 2000, President Clinton also signed a law allowing the sale of agricultural goods and medicine to Cuba for humanitarian reasons. Since then, agricultural sales to Cuba have risen from almost nothing to more than $440 million last year.
Moran of Kansas said he got into the issue to help his state's farmers, but said it has become ''something much broader to me.'' America, he said, ''can bring about additional personal freedom in Cuba by these kinds of activities. Personal freedom follows economic freedom.''
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