Dollar-seeking Cubans flood Ecuador

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Wednesday, 07.14.10
Dollar-seeking Cubans flood Ecuador
By GONZALO SOLANO
Associated Press Writer

QUITO, Ecuador -- A wave of Cuban fortune-seekers is turning to Ecuador as an alternative to United States - creating an anti-immigrant backlash in a small South American country that is itself a major source of migrants abroad. Some 50,000 Cubans have entered the country since its leftist government dropped all visa requirements in 2008 and the sudden proliferation has officials warning that some Cubans are obtaining Ecuadorean citizenship fraudulently.

Some see Ecuador as a stop on their journey to join Cuban-American communities in the United States, and officials say smugglers have carried Cubans up the Pacific coast to Mexico and the United States.

"We are talking about a transnational crime here, the trafficking of human beings," said Col. Edwin Baez, Ecuador's immigration director.

Most of the Cubans come to Ecuador to shop for goods they can sell for higher prices back home. Havana is now awash with black market computer parts, plasma TVs, clothing and MP3 players purchased in Ecuador, where the greenback is the local currency. And many come to stay and earn, creating a small but growing Cuban colony that is making the country an alternative to the U.S., Spain and Caribbean nations for Cubans seeking a better life abroad.



Read more: http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/07/14/1730321/dollar-seeking-cubans-flood-ecuador.html

[msongs]

1. time for the USA to normalize relations with cuba nt

[aquart]

2. Well past time.

I assume it will happen ten days after Fidel dies. Otherwise we'd be admitting we were wrong the whole time and we never do that.

[Judi Lynn]

3. There's a small detail in the article I was hoping someone might notice.

Do you remember HOW MANY wingers have argued themselves hoarse here howling that Cuba doesn't allow Cuban citizens to leave the island, that they are all "prisoners" there? They did this even though a Miami resident had told them Cubans used to come to Florida to shop, visit relatives, vacation, etc., and return to Cuba? (That ended when _{George W. Bush} brought the hammer down on all travel between the U.S. and Cuba.) They did this even though a Canadian DU'er said she met a woman in Cuba who lives in Miami who comes and goes back and forth continually, buying stuff in Miami and selling it in Cuba, and I mentioned I had been on message boards at two different sites where Cuban "exiles" posted, and where they discussed their OWN relatives visiting them from Cuba? Etc., etc., etc.

You can be sure it killed them at the Miami Herald, which whores itself to Cuban "exile" interests, to have to publish this part of the article, but they may be thinking people are going to probably be learning these details for themselves once the Cuban travel ban is lifted, anyway, and that looks very possible!

In the original Miami Herald article it also says, later in the story:

Most of the Cubans come to Ecuador to shop for goods they can sell for higher prices back home. Havana is now awash with black market computer parts, plasma TVs, clothing and MP3 players purchased in Ecuador, where the greenback is the local currency.

And many come to stay and earn, creating a small but growing Cuban colony that is making the country an alternative to the U.S., Spain and Caribbean nations for Cubans seeking a better life abroad.

More than 7,400 Cubans have stayed, the bulk of them overstaying the 90 days that tourists are permitted to be in the country.

That's straight from a high-spinning right-wing pandering source in Miami.

In time these wild whoppers are going to be illuminated for everyone to see. We have ALL been reading pure spin from our corporate media from the first on Cuba.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Cuba redux: Pressure builds to change a failed U.S. policy

Cuba redux: Pressure builds to change a failed U.S. policy
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An interesting confluence of developments has put the spotlight again on President Barack Obama's Cuba policy, an area where his performance has not yet lived up to expectations.

There was thought during the 2008 presidential campaign, based on some of Mr. Obama's statements, that if he won, the stale 50-year-old U.S. policy of waiting until now former Cuban President Fidel Castro died would open up. In the event, he has made a few changes, relaxing rules on Cuban-Americans' travel to the island and the sending of funds there, but little else.

In June, a bill was approved by the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture removing restrictions on U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba and eliminating the travel ban currently in effect on most U.S. citizens' travel to Cuba. The bill, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act is supported strongly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Farmers' Union and even the Texas Farm Bureau.

Their support reflects what they see as strong potential for increasing U.S. agricultural and other exports to Cuba. The United States in May showed an overall foreign trade deficit of $12.3 billion, up 5 percent from April. Improved exports to Cuba could help erase the gap.

Another new development could enhance prospects for full congressional approval of the Cuba bill. One of the most prominent points of opposition to improved relations with Cuba is the approach of the Raul Castro government to political prisoners. The government of Spain, the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba led by Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana, and the Cuban government last week announced agreement on the release of 52 of them. The first seven were freed and sent to Spain on Monday. It is expected that more will follow.

In a curious footnote, Fidel Castro, 83, appeared on Cuban television Monday night, his first such interview since 2007, and made no comment on the important prisoner release. His silence has been interpreted as tacit approval.

The usual opposition in the United States to improving relations with Cuba remains in place among some Cuban exiles and their descendants, concentrated in South Florida. They still use their votes and campaign contributions to seek to block any movement by Mr. Obama in that policy area. At the same time, overwhelming logic continues to support action -- such as the travel and export bill -- to improve U.S. relations with its tiny offshore neighbor. Mr. Obama should be in a position to make this an area of positive change, to America's advantage, if he has the intestinal fortitude to pursue the matter.

More:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10196/1072850-192.stm

Editorials:
Cuba redux: Pressure builds to change a failed U.S. policy
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

An interesting confluence of developments has put the spotlight again on President Barack Obama's Cuba policy, an area where his performance has not yet lived up to expectations.

There was thought during the 2008 presidential campaign, based on some of Mr. Obama's statements, that if he won, the stale 50-year-old U.S. policy of waiting until now former Cuban President Fidel Castro died would open up. In the event, he has made a few changes, relaxing rules on Cuban-Americans' travel to the island and the sending of funds there, but little else.

In June, a bill was approved by the House of Representatives Committee on Agriculture removing restrictions on U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba and eliminating the travel ban currently in effect on most U.S. citizens' travel to Cuba. The bill, the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act is supported strongly by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the National Farmers' Union and even the Texas Farm Bureau.

Their support reflects what they see as strong potential for increasing U.S. agricultural and other exports to Cuba. The United States in May showed an overall foreign trade deficit of $12.3 billion, up 5 percent from April. Improved exports to Cuba could help erase the gap.

Another new development could enhance prospects for full congressional approval of the Cuba bill. One of the most prominent points of opposition to improved relations with Cuba is the approach of the Raul Castro government to political prisoners. The government of Spain, the Roman Catholic Church in Cuba led by Cardinal Jaime Ortega of Havana, and the Cuban government last week announced agreement on the release of 52 of them. The first seven were freed and sent to Spain on Monday. It is expected that more will follow.

In a curious footnote, Fidel Castro, 83, appeared on Cuban television Monday night, his first such interview since 2007, and made no comment on the important prisoner release. His silence has been interpreted as tacit approval.

The usual opposition in the United States to improving relations with Cuba remains in place among some Cuban exiles and their descendants, concentrated in South Florida. They still use their votes and campaign contributions to seek to block any movement by Mr. Obama in that policy area. At the same time, overwhelming logic continues to support action -- such as the travel and export bill -- to improve U.S. relations with its tiny offshore neighbor. Mr. Obama should be in a position to make this an area of positive change, to America's advantage, if he has the intestinal fortitude to pursue the matter.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/10196/1072850-192.stm