Bush reaffirms Cuba embargo
TheVoiceInside
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Bush reaffirms Cuba embargo
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/25/bush.cuba/index.html
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. President George W. Bush ruled out any easing of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba but proposed loosening some restrictions on contacts with the communist-ruled island, if more freedoms were allowed.
Appearing with relatives of jailed Cuban dissidents and prominent Cuban-Americans at the State Department, Bush on Wednesday denounced the Caribbean country as a "tropical gulag."
He said Cuba is on the cusp of "fundamental change," with 81-year-old leader Fidel Castro sidelined for more than a year after abdominal surgery.
Nonetheless, easing the embargo would be "giving oxygen to a criminal regime," he said.
"As long as the regime maintains its monopoly over the political and economic life of the Cuban people, the United States will keep the embargo in place," Bush said. The end of communism in Cuba would reveal "horrors still unknown to the rest of the world," Bush said, calling the current government "a failed regime" and in its "dying gasps."
Bush encouraged U.S. allies to offer public support for dissidents by allowing them to meet and access outside media sources at their embassies.
"The dissidents of today will be the nation's leaders tomorrow," he said. "When freedom finally comes, they will surely remember who stood with them."
The United States has barred all trade with Cuba since 1963. But Bush said his administration would ease limits on aid agencies and church groups to let them provide computers to Cubans "if Cuba's rulers will end their restrictions on Internet access for all the people."
The United States would also let Cuban students take part in Latin American scholarship programs "if the Cuban rulers will allow them to freely participate," Bush added.
The White House announced last week that Bush would lay out a new strategy for promoting free speech and multi-party elections in Cuba, which has been a thorn in the American side since the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to power. The ailing revolutionary ceded power to his brother Raul 15 months ago, and Cuban officials have not said if or when Fidel Castro would resume his duties as president.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque responded to Bush's remarks by accusing him of inciting violence and issuing a call to arms. Bush's comments were "an appeal to use force to defeat the Cuban revolution" and an attempt to "re-conquer Cuba by force," Perez Roque told reporters in Havana.
It wasn't clear if Bush was trying to incite an internal uprising or an invasion, Perez Roque said, but he warned that thousands of Cubans would defend the revolution either way.
"We react with indignation but serenity," he said.
Few Cubans heard Bush's speech. It didn't run on state-run TV or radio, so only those few with access to satellite dishes had a chance to see it. E-mail to a friend
Wow, looks like the republicans are way behind in fundraising in Florida.
another thing If I were Haiti i would turn communist, ,maybe that way the US would get some interest in me.
http://edition.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/10/25/bush.cuba/index.html
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- U.S. President George W. Bush ruled out any easing of the decades-old U.S. trade embargo on Cuba but proposed loosening some restrictions on contacts with the communist-ruled island, if more freedoms were allowed.
Appearing with relatives of jailed Cuban dissidents and prominent Cuban-Americans at the State Department, Bush on Wednesday denounced the Caribbean country as a "tropical gulag."
He said Cuba is on the cusp of "fundamental change," with 81-year-old leader Fidel Castro sidelined for more than a year after abdominal surgery.
Nonetheless, easing the embargo would be "giving oxygen to a criminal regime," he said.
"As long as the regime maintains its monopoly over the political and economic life of the Cuban people, the United States will keep the embargo in place," Bush said. The end of communism in Cuba would reveal "horrors still unknown to the rest of the world," Bush said, calling the current government "a failed regime" and in its "dying gasps."
Bush encouraged U.S. allies to offer public support for dissidents by allowing them to meet and access outside media sources at their embassies.
"The dissidents of today will be the nation's leaders tomorrow," he said. "When freedom finally comes, they will surely remember who stood with them."
The United States has barred all trade with Cuba since 1963. But Bush said his administration would ease limits on aid agencies and church groups to let them provide computers to Cubans "if Cuba's rulers will end their restrictions on Internet access for all the people."
The United States would also let Cuban students take part in Latin American scholarship programs "if the Cuban rulers will allow them to freely participate," Bush added.
The White House announced last week that Bush would lay out a new strategy for promoting free speech and multi-party elections in Cuba, which has been a thorn in the American side since the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to power. The ailing revolutionary ceded power to his brother Raul 15 months ago, and Cuban officials have not said if or when Fidel Castro would resume his duties as president.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque responded to Bush's remarks by accusing him of inciting violence and issuing a call to arms. Bush's comments were "an appeal to use force to defeat the Cuban revolution" and an attempt to "re-conquer Cuba by force," Perez Roque told reporters in Havana.
It wasn't clear if Bush was trying to incite an internal uprising or an invasion, Perez Roque said, but he warned that thousands of Cubans would defend the revolution either way.
"We react with indignation but serenity," he said.
Few Cubans heard Bush's speech. It didn't run on state-run TV or radio, so only those few with access to satellite dishes had a chance to see it. E-mail to a friend
Wow, looks like the republicans are way behind in fundraising in Florida.
another thing If I were Haiti i would turn communist, ,maybe that way the US would get some interest in me.
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Comments
Also let's talk about Castro's muderous regime or better yet why not talk about how the US sponsored, and is now protecting, well known terrorists and the countless innocent people they killed.
i agree to an extent, but the leaders represents the people. i guess we could disagree with castro, send him a kabillion dollar and let him steal it.
I don't support Castro at all. He has caused so much misery and suffering in my parents' homeland, but the embargo is absolutely fucking useless. Also the US shares responsibility for the conditions in Cuba. Castro wanted friendly relations with the US when he came to power and Eisenhower even greated his assent to power with approval. It was the Cuban-American community and US corporations, like United Fruit, that presurred the US government to distance itself from Castro. We then took it a step further by starting a covert war against his government. Cuba could have been a mucg different place had we decided to take a different course of action. I also love how Bush states that we will not do business with a oppressive murderous regime, well what the fuck is Saudi Arabia and China.
gee didn't they have some russian missiles in there at some point?
Sure they did but that occurred after US hostilities where underway. Also didn't we have Missles in a country that bordered the Soviet Union, Turkey ring a bell, well before the Soviets placed missles in Cuba.
"The dissidents of today will be the nation's leaders tomorrow," he said. "When freedom finally comes, they will surely remember who stood with them."
If they think that when Castro dies they can just waltz in an lead Cuba they are in for a fight. The people who had to endure and sacrifice under castro will surely have a say on the islands future.
Agreed. I don't undersatnd why the dissidents who came to this country feel that they can just suplant themselves as the leaders of a new Cuba. The people of Cuba should decide not some asshole living in Miami.
you say we "share responsibility" for cuba. bullshit. where were their buddies, the russians? the cold war was happening, you choose sides. pretty fuckin simple.
we are damned if we do, damned if we don't. if we try something and fail, we're sticking our noses in others biz. if we do nothing, we're guilty as well.
how are you gonna have it both ways?
Castro saddled up to the Russian after we started carrying out covert actions against him. I'm not defending his actions but when one of the most powerful nations, which happens to be 90 miles away from you, is trying to kill you and another of the most powerful nations offers to help you the choice is pretty easy to make. Had we never allowed our relationship with Cuba to sour we could have avoided such entaglements as the Bay of Pigs invasion and the Cuban Missle Crisis. Remember we where the ones to initiate hostilities, not Cuba.
you do know castro actually wanted close relations with the usa? it was the usa that pushed them to the russians
http://www.myspace.com/thelastreel http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19604327965
Exactly. All he wanted was that the US not intervene in Cuban affairs.
cold war, that's the way it was.
holy fuckin hell
http://www.myspace.com/thelastreel http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19604327965
Yes and look at the consequences of our actions. We destablized Central America because of our Cold War efforts, over-threw or helped over throw democratically elected governments because of our Cold War efforts, helped create Al-Qaida because of our Cold War efforts, sponsored terrorism which resulted in the deaths of thousands of people because of our Cold War efforts, helped fuel the Islamic Revolution in Iran because of our Cold War efforts, propped up and funded oppressive and currupt dictators like Augusto Pinochet and the Shah of Iran because of our Cold War efforts. Hard to tell who was the good guy and who was the bad guy during the Cold War.
yes, we are the stupidest, worthless, most piece of shit nation to ever exist on the face of the earth.
we are guilty of all things wrong in this world!!!!
just what in the fuck were they doing?
it's our fault ok? nobody but us ever did a fucking thing..
No that's not the case either. I applaud my nation for the good it has done but at the same time I will point out it's errors as well. I'm not going to ignore the shitty stuff the US has done just because I live here.
that is going rather overboard don't you think? i was simply stating a fact that castro actually wanted close relations with the usa but was rebuffed for reasons that have been touched upon already on this thread and so castro allied himself with russia. my enemy's enemy is my friend...
http://www.myspace.com/thelastreel http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19604327965
overboard?
maybe, sorry, just looks that way here a lot.
dont be so narrow minded man, the US is not responsible for everything that is wrong in the world but in the case of Cuba they were a major player. Thats it.
Basically, the 13 day cuban missle crisis was in response to US missles being in Turkey.
The Cold War was a huge worthless pissing match between politicians that led to a lot of ridiculously bad things, there were no good guys and bad guys... mostly just bad guys.
The Cuban Embargo is freaking useless, it's completely furthered by US Sugar and Tobacco lobbies and anti castro immigrants.
No one likes Castro, hell Castro doesn't like Castro but this embargo is fucking pointless no two ways about it. It dosen't help anyone and should not be furthered. It serves no purpose but to further Cuban poverty. There is absolutely no good reason not to do business with Cuba...especially when CHINA is a favored nation.
what has the US said has to happen to lift the embargo?
The problem here is not the people but rather all the fucking bad things that are going on and many of them are a direct result of the US goverment. If anything the people that do all the critizicing are just worried about the country that they have grown to love and respect.
Cuba has to embrace democracy, but if you read between the lines it says Cuba has to let US corporate interest back onto the island to rape and pillage it as it did from the time of the Spanish-American War until the Cuban Revolution.
oh jezee, rape and pillage?
anyway, cuba has a choice, they made it...
precisely, essentially see Cancun. I don't think it should be a big deal. My problem with the US is that they refuse to embrace the free market in situations such as this, why does everything have to be a US company?
We don't need a Holiday Inn sunpree or Hilton in Havana to be able to go there do we?
Why can't thier government own the sugar and tobacco companies and keep the money in Cuba if they so choose? It works that way in China.
Democracy in this sense is political jargon, basically Cuba is embarassing to the US government that is supposed to be a democratic republic that embraces the free market system (ahem price supports "see farm bill" and tarriffs would seem to go against that)
Cuba is a failure, they weren't able to keep it from being a communist nation and that embarasses the old guard. Castro is a brutal dictator...yes, but there are many all over the world we care nothing about that do not have embargos. The Cuban people would be much better off with US trade and they are far from being strong enough to oust castro in a revolution. The US simply needs to recognise that trading with Cuba will be to the economic advantage of both countries.
Think the Airlines will have a problem with a new HOT tourist destination less than an hour flight from Homestead? Nope. Tourism companies, Cruise Ships....geez. There is a virtual fortune to be made once the embargo is lifted. US sugar and tobacco simply don't want the competition.
The embargo is a waste of money.. frankly, we could use a new market.
it was hardly a choice... cuba either had to continue to be a havan for american gangsters, allow companies like united fruit to continue to exploit the country, or cuba could go its own way with a relative amount of freedom, but be villified by the usa for years.
http://www.myspace.com/thelastreel http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=19604327965
it was still a choice, they made it
Do you know anything about the history of US-Cuban relations? Have you studied it in depth?