U.S. lawmakers finish Cuba visit

U.S. lawmakers finish Cuba visit
Some see hope for slow easing of embargo
By Doreen Hemlock
Havana Bureau
Posted December 18 2006

HAVANA · After three days of talks, the largest U.S. congressional
delegation to visit communist-led Cuba headed back Sunday to Washington,
intent on holding new hearings on legislation to ease restrictions on
family travel and remittances to the island nation.

Members of the 10-member bipartisan group said they hoped their visit
would be a first step toward more open talks and two-way trade with Cuba
during a time of political change in Washington and in Havana. But they
conceded the path to lifting the four-decade economic embargo against
Cuba would be long and would move "little by little."

"Nothing is going to occur precipitously, but I believe there exists the
political wills [for dialogue], hopefully on both sides of the Florida
Straits," said Rep. William Delahunt, D-Mass., who led the team with
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz. "We are, I believe, at a historic moment."

The six Democrats and four Republicans met with Cuba's foreign minister,
national assembly president, the Catholic archbishop of Havana and
others. Their request to meet with Cuba's acting leader and longtime
defense minister, Raul Castro, was denied, however.

Since he temporarily took over for Castro in July, Raul Castro twice has
made overtures for negotiations with the United States. When Raul Castro
didn't meet the U.S. delegation, some members saw it as part of Cuba's
insistence that Fidel Castro will return to power.

The group was told that Fidel Castro, who has not been seen in public
since late July, has neither cancer nor a terminal ailment. But Cuban
officials did not disclose details of his health, which are guarded as a
state secret.

The Democrats are preparing to assume control of Congress next month,
and many foreign analysts say Fidel Castro is too ill to return to
office and soon will be forced to cede power permanently.

Throughout the weekend, Cuban officials reminded the United States that
Fidel Castro, 80, the world's longest serving leader, remains a vital
force. Cuban state media said Castro telephoned provincial legislative
leaders Friday. And Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez told reporters in
Caracas he spoke with Fidel Castro on Thursday and found him well enough
to crack jokes.

Whoever is in charge in Havana, members of the U.S. delegation insisted
America needs to change its isolationist policy toward Cuba. The policy,
in place for nearly half a century, has failed to encourage democratic
reform and instead hurts Cuban families, not the island government still
led by the Castro brothers, they said.

"Our policy is a relic of the Cold War and doesn't make sense," said Jim
McGovern, D-Mass. He noted that Washington keeps open dialogue with
China and other communist nations.

Top priority for the lawmakers is reversing two-year-old Bush
administration restrictions that limit Cuban-American family visits to
the island to once every three years and the amount of money they can
send loved ones in Cuba to $300 a quarter.

"We have to take the moral high ground … dealing with the people of
Cuba," said Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y.

Some Republican lawmakers were disappointed, however, that Cuban leaders
seemed bent on maintaining Cuba's current policies without democratic
reform.

Rep. Mike Conaway, R-Texas, said the Cuban government ministers he met
were "markedly uninterested in human rights, a free press and free
elections."

The congressional visit immediately reopened debate, however, on how far
Congress should go to open U.S. travel and trade with Cuba.

A group favoring unlimited American travel issued a statement Sunday,
claiming current policy isolates Americans and keeps U.S. executives
from exploring future business opportunities. Among those backing full
travel are John McAuliff, a coordinator for the New York-based Travel
Industry Committee on Cuba.

But the Miami-based Cuban American National Foundation supports limited
travel to allow more Cuban-American family visits to the island,
academic exchanges and other "purposeful" travel.

"Tourist travel supports the regime," the Foundation's director of
government relations, Camila Ruiz, said late Sunday from South Florida.

Doreen Hemlock can be reached at dhemlock@sun-sentinel.com.

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-acuba18dec18,0,3468924.story?coll=sfla-news-cuba