TW: There is a bill pending and likely to pass that will open slightly travel restrictions on folks going to Cuba and make it easier to export American products to the island. All rational steps if too cautious, we should open things up fully. The measures have bi-partisan support but the a couple of prominent Senators are fighting to hold up the process because they cling to the old trope of having the Cuban government cave to all of our demands for reform before allowing any openings.
Robert Menendez Democrat New Jersey in the most prominent critic of the Obama approach. Shame on him.
From USA Today:
"The ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Richard Lugar of Indiana, issued a report pronouncing the 47-year-old U.S. embargo of Cuba a failure.
A group of diplomats, activists and academics working with the Brookings Institution, a Washington think tank, released a "road map" calling for the removal of all restrictions on humanitarian travel to Cuba, more diplomatic dialogue and an easing of sanctions for art, movies and music. The group included Francisco Hernández, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, which has for years backed a tough stance.
Obama has more political leeway than any president in recent memory because he won Florida in the election despite advocating more engagement with Cuba, said Sarah Stephens of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, which favors lifting the embargo. In contrast, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush campaigned on a tough Cuba stance.
The U.S. stance towards the island nation, now governed by Fidel Castro's brother Raúl, was forged at the height of the Cold War and has been sustained in part because of domestic politics. Many in the Cuban-American community have long rejected efforts to moderate Cuba policy. Given Florida's importance in presidential politics, Democrats and Republicans in Congress and the White House have tended to stand with them.
Yet opinion among Cuban Americans is shifting. A poll last month by Florida International University found that 55% of Cuban Americans favor lifting the embargo...
Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., who is co-sponsoring the bill to allow American tourism to Cuba, said he believes such visits would lead to the lifting of the embargo, which he says merely bolsters Cuba's repressive government..."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/world/2009-03-01-cuba_N.htm
From Miami Herald:
"New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez...reportedly is blocking two presidential nominees to protest the change to U.S.-Cuba policy... Obama promised on the campaign trail to relax travel restrictions to allow Cuban Americans to visit family on the island. But Menendez, who was born in New York after his parents left Cuba, implored Obama Monday not to sign the bill.
...Menendez warned, ``he will be extending a hand while the Castro regime maintains its iron-handed clenched fist.''
Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez echoed the remarks, saying the legislation fails to require Cuba to change its behavior."
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