Exile groups join in urging an easing of Cuba restrictions

[Mika]

Exile groups join in urging an easing of Cuba restrictions
http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16157915.htm

An umbrella group of influential Cuban exile organizations has joined the growing chorus of Cubans on both sides of the Florida Straits calling for the United States to ease restrictions on travel and remittances to Cuba.

About two dozen exile organizations, speaking in unison under the umbrella group Consenso Cubano, or Cuban Consensus, will release a report today calling for the Bush administration to ease travel restrictions. The groups say U.S. policies that restrict Cubans from visiting family members and that limit remittances and other humanitarian aid ``violate fundamental rights of Cubans, damage the Cuban family, and constitute ethical contradictions.''

The announcement underscores a growing rift between hard-line exile leaders who want to preserve the sanctions, and more moderate Cuban Americans in Miami and dissidents in Cuba who feel that increasing interaction can help promote a peaceful transition to democracy.

-

Just last week, U.S. Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Díaz-Balart appeared on a popular Spanish-language television talk show, A Mano Limpia, in which they defended U.S. policy toward Cuba.

The station conducted a viewer poll during the program, and it showed that most callers favored the easing of travel and remittance restrictions.

More at.. http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/16157915.htm




Uh oh.. the Diaz-Balart brothers, Mario and Lincoln, and Ileana Ros-Lehtinen's greasy grip is slipping.

[Say_What]

1. CANF a *moderate* exile group??

Ros-Lehtinen and the Ditzy-Balistic brothers are losing their one item political agenda. I can hear the hysteria on el exilie radio now. LOL

Now if only the voters would boot their corrupt asses out. Instead they run unopposed in the Bush Brothers Banana Republic of Florida.

[Judi Lynn]

2. This is a great step forward. I hope their numbers increase formally.

This couldn't have happened during the time their little tyrant Jorge Mas Canosa had the Cuban community in his clutches for so many years. Thank God he's gone.

There is one other group, however, they are leaving out, one group which most surely should be allowed to come and go from Cuba in complete freedom: ORDINARY U.S. CITIZENS.

There are non-Cuban Americans who also have beloved friends in Cuba they have maintained a relationship with over the years. It's only wrong to refuse them the opportunity to visit with them in person if the spirit moves them.

There are the rest of us who should NOT be banned from going to Cuba and seeing for ourselves how terrorized and beaten down the Cuban people are, as certain right-wing figures try to paint them. Nothing would convince us like the evidence of our own eyes! Ha ha ha ha ha.

[Say_What]

3. Pillars of Consenso Cubano??

If you look at who's involved in this organization, it sounds like just another MiamiGUSANO driven mandate for the island. Moderate?? I don't think so...

Jose Basulto
Jorge Mas Santos
Ramón Saúl Sánchez
Carlos Alberto Montaner

These cretins gave up their right to have a decision in whatever happens on the island when they ran away. Cuba belongs to the CUBANS on the ISLAND, nobody else--the decisions about what happens or doesn't happen in THEIR homeland is up to them.

From the Consenso Cubano website:

... The organizations which subscribe this document have reached consensus on the following points which we believe will constitute essential pillars to underlie the processes of change--political, economic, and social--that will be necessary for Cuba’s future:

1. We believe in the integrity of the Cuban nation. Cuba’s future must be inclusively crafted by all Cubans, wherever they may live, sharing the same rights commensurate with the responsibilities that they are willing to assume.

2. We uphold the right of all Cubans to determine our future in full independence and sovereignty, without imposition or intrusion by any other nation. Relations between nations must be based on mutual respect, dignity and sovereignty.

3. We demand the immediate elimination of the death penalty, the unconditional release of all political prisoners, and the full respect for the fundamental rights of all Cubans. We advocate the immediate adjustment of the penal, civil, and labor codes to those principles enumerated in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and by the International Labor Organization.

4. We favor all political and economic reforms which lead to new opportunities and freedoms for Cubans and which constitute steps towards the establishment of a sustainable development model, based on democracy, the rule of law, and a productive economy framed in social justice.

5. We pursue, promote and are fully committed to a non-violent, pacted transition towards democracy, which devolves sovereignty and rights to the Cuban people. We deem it imperative to seek the start of the transition as a condition precedent to its realization. In the absence of the political will to achieve such an objective, we support other non-violent actions to which the Cuban people might resort.

13. We recognize that all expropriated properties present a complex ethical and pragmatic dilemma of multiple rights and claims, which involve issues of equity and justice. Notwithstanding, the specific situation of residential property and small farms require special consideration. Accordingly, we advocate the recognition and granting of clear and unhindered title to those persons who currently occupy those properties. Thus, such families and persons shall finally enjoy full, unhindered possession of those properties as capital assets, without current restrictions and without fear of eviction, claims or levies by former owners. We also advocate for the right of the former owners or their descendants to claim compensation from the state.

more...

http://www.consensocubano.org/eng/pillarscc.htm

[Judi Lynn]

4. My God, Jose Basulto has been terrorizing Cubans for YEARS.

He is known to have flown over passenger trains, shooting at them, in the 1960's and was even spotted PERSONALLY by the head of the American Interests Section, Wayne S. Smith, when he was there, flying low over Havana, so close that residents could see the details of his plane, which was a retired U.S. military plane.

He has also flown over Havana, dropping metal religious medals and made harrassing forays over Cuba for ages before Cuban jets finally shot down some of his outfit.s pilots, after direct radio warnings from their air controllers to them to turn back, which are on record.

The others are simply beyond belief. They do NOT represent anyone but the hard right reactionaries in Florida.

[Say_What]

6. Yeah, so much for *moderate* exile groups... Francisco Aruca

will probably have something about this on Thursday. Probably in the BS Detector where it belongs. :evilgrin:

[Judi Lynn]

5. Uh, oh! Get ready for this one! Cuba travel will be coming up again in the DEMOCRATIC Congress!

Democrats expect easy passage of bills
GOP obstacles in Congress are diminished
By Susan Milligan, Globe Staff | December 3, 2006

WASHINGTON -- House Democrats, long hamstrung by the GOP's control of the legislative process, are prepared to offer a slew of bills ranging from housing aid to Cuba travel that have majority support but never passed because Republican leaders would not give them a vote on the House floor.

(page 2)
The Cuba travel initiative would loosen restrictions that effectively ban Americans from traveling to Cuba by prohibiting them from spending money there.

Backers of the legislation say the current law is unfairly restrictive of citizens' right to travel and cruel to Cuban-Americans who want to visit ailing relatives on the island. The Bush administration and some conservatives believe that the travel restrictions are a necessary part of sanctions to damage Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

The new measure has broad, bipartisan support in both chambers and was approved in 2003 by both the House and the Senate as part of a bigger appropriations bill. But GOP leaders -- saying Bush might veto the legislation -- took out the Cuba provision, even though items approved by both chambers are not supposed to be taken out of a conference committee bill designed to meld House and Senate versions of a bill.

In the new Congress, McGovern said, the measure would pass easily and be sent to the president. While Bush opposes easing the travel restrictions, McGovern said he thought Bush would be reluctant to fell an entire appropriations package over the Cuba amendment. A bipartisan delegation of House members is scheduled to travel to Cuba in midDecember, signaling their new hope that the travel restrictions to Cuba will be eased.
(snip/...)

http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/12/03/democrats_expect_easy_passage_of_bills/?page=2

Woo-goddamn-hooooo! :woohoo: :woohoo: :woohoo:

[roody]

7. I do not obey this unjust law. I hope you disobey it too.

[Say_What]

8. Cuba's Future Is Already Here (Fidel get the last laugh)

<clips>

Fiercely implacable exiles in Miami, perennially outfoxed bureaucrats in Washington and salivating real estate developers around the world have spent years trying to predict what will happen in Cuba the day after Fidel Castro dies. Now I think everyone knows the answer: nada.

That chuckling you hear is Fidel, in his hospital room, having the last laugh.

The 80-year-old revolutionary icon, evidently at death's door, appears to have engineered a seamless transition to the post-Fidel era. Brother Ra?l presided over last week's 50th-anniversary shindig with none of Fidel's charisma but all of his authority. If any lingering doubts about the de facto succession needed to be dispelled, Havana's biggest military parade in years on Saturday reminded everyone that Ra?l has been running the Cuban armed forces since Day One.

Fidel's absence from the festivities marking the 50th anniversary of the Cuban revolution pretty much ended any uncertainty about his health. Government officials say he's recovering like a champ and will be back on the job any day, and they sound so sincerely optimistic that you could almost look past the images of a gaunt, frail old man that were released a few weeks ago. But I doubt that anything except the looming hand of death could have kept Fidel Castro away from a cheering, flag-waving crowd of millions -- Fidel's people, filling the vast plaza named for Fidel's revolution, hoping for a last glimpse of the only leader most Cubans have ever known.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/04/AR2006120401052.html

:bounce:

[1932]

9. Is this the one spending all their illegal US Aid on Playstations or on guns?

I have hard time keeping these excile groups straight.