Sound Politics Public Blog: Cuban gov't. publication cites McDermott

February 13, 2007

Cuban gov't. publication cites McDermott

The following is excerpted from the 2/13/07 issue of the online English language version of the Cuban Communist Party newspaper; the full text of the article is available online at http://www.granma.cu/ingles/2007/febrero/mar13/07viajes-i.html

Excerpts:

"Last January 18, Representative Jim McDermott said in the House that 'It is only 90 miles away from our shores, but we are using the same sort of wrong-headed thinking regarding Cuba that we are using in international affairs around the world with equally dismal results.

'Today the Bush administration has draconian travel restrictions in place for any American trying to visit family members in Cuba. It is their idea of promoting democracy by punishing the people we are trying to befriend. It makes no difference if a relative is well, sick or dying in Cuba.

'If an American visits a relative in Cuba and that relative is stricken by a heart attack the day after you leave, you cannot go back for 3 years. The administration thinks that by cutting off families in Cuba from loved ones in the United States, they will encourage the overthrow of Castro. When will we ever learn? This policy plays right into the hands of those who want to portray the United States as an arrogant bully willing to use innocent people as a wedge against a regime we don't like.

'Our policy regarding Cuba is hurting innocent people here and there, not the government we have been trying to overthrow for a generation....'

Posted by BerenForCongress at February 13, 2007 08:00 PM | Email This

Comments

1. Typical McDermott thought process. Of course if memory serves me the travel restrictions have been in place for quite some time, a lot longer than Bush has been in office and even pre-date Reagan.

Posted by: TrueSoldier on February 13, 2007 08:13 PM

2. The following is from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_embargo_against_Cuba

"Following the Cuban Missile Crisis, Kennedy imposed travel restrictions on February 8, 1963, and the Cuban Assets Control Regulations were issued on July 8, 1963, under the Trading with the Enemy Act.... Under these restrictions, Cuban assets in the U.S. were frozen and the existing restrictions were consolidated....

"The restrictions on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba lapsed on March 19, 1977; the regulation was renewable every six months, but President Jimmy Carter did not renew it and the regulation on spending U.S. dollars in Cuba was lifted shortly afterwards. President Ronald Reagan reinstated the trade embargo on April 19, 1982."

Posted by: Steve Beren on February 14, 2007 05:50 AM

3. Just as I suspected, McDermott doesn't have his facts straight and it does not surprise me that during the miserable failure, known as the Carter Administration, would do something like let the restrictions lapse. That was when all the "boat people" (quite a few criminals) came from Cuba, was it not?

Posted by: TrueSoldier on February 14, 2007 07:51 AM

4. Hey, here's a thought. Lift all restrictions for travel TO Cuba only, get an old Liberty ship or something out of mothballs, rename it the "Mariel 2", load it up with the worst of our sex offenders, and send it to Havana.

Posted by: sro on February 14, 2007 09:18 AM

5. Yes. In 1980, the communist regime allowed between 100,000 and 125,000 people to leave Cuba for the United States. They left from the port of Mariel, and became known as "Marielitos." Included among these refugees were criminals, mental patients, and others considered "undesirable" by the Castro government.

Posted by: Steve Beren on February 14, 2007 09:23 AM