Senate panel chairman says policy toward Cuba `has not worked'

[Osolomia]

Thu, Oct. 02, 2003

Senate panel chairman says policy toward Cuba `has not worked'
BY RICHARD BRAND
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON - (KRT) - The chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee criticized U.S. policy toward Cuba during a hearing Thursday, saying the 43-year-old trade embargo on the communist island nation "has not worked."

Sen. Richard Lugar, R-Ind., who has usually maintained a low profile on Cuban policy, also signaled for the first time that he could support ending the travel ban "at an appropriate time."

But Roger Noriega, the recently confirmed assistant secretary of state for hemispheric affairs, said after he addressed the committee that President Bush "will veto any measure to change the current restrictions."

Lugar's cautious statement calling for a re-examination of U.S. policy appeared to reflect pressure from some farm-state Republican senators who would like to end the embargo altogether.

More...
http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispo/news/politics/6919154.htm

[Evanstondem]

1. Of course Bush would veto this

Otherwise he would break his ongoing string of bonehead foreign policy decisions.

[nadinbrzezinski]

2. oh my

talk about changes and challenges to Bush (no he did not
start this but still)

Many a game is being played behind closed doors and in
smoke filled rooms

[Judi Lynn]

3. Another red letter day in US/Cuba relations!

(snip) Port's trade with Cuba starts today
First ships will load 10,000 tons of wheat here, then go to Havana

By Tara Copp Scripps Howard News Service
October 3, 2003

WASHINGTON - When the cargo ship Antilles V glides into the Port of Corpus Christi today, it will begin a new era of trade between the city and Cuba.

The Antilles V, owned by Japan's Dowa Line Co., will load 10,000 tons of hard red winter wheat from Archer Daniels Midland and depart for a 48-hour sail to Havana on Monday. There, the wheat will be unloaded at Alimport, the main food-distribution agency for Cuba.


The ship is the first to carry out a historic trade agreement signed between Cuba and the Port of Corpus Christi earlier this summer. In that agreement, Cuba's Alimport agreed to begin shipping goods through the Port of Corpus Christi and to look at South Texas' farming for its food needs. This is the first formal agreement the nation had made with any U.S. port since the Cuban trade embargo began in 1962.

"Together, we can not only create commerce, but history as well - and we will," said Pedro Alvarez, president of Alimport. (snp/...)

http://www.caller.com/ccct/business/article/0,1641,CCCT_873_2318725,00.html

Right from the pREsident's own home state!