Cuba: After a Bad Week, Bush Blinks Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit [Looks like Bush blinked. With the hounds on his tail, he isn't up for any more brawls at the moment. So instead of tightening travel restrictions, or ratcheting up the blockade, or cutting off trade, he's settling for more of the same, with the added bone to the gusanos of "humanitarian aid" (read: covert action via funds to counterrevolutionary groups) and is even going to resume mail service. It seems he knows the Congress knows it's payback time, and he's already in enough trouble right now.--NY Transfer] Reuters via Yahoo - May 20, 2:46 PM ET Bush Sets Conditions for Easing Cuba Embargo By Adam Entous WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Seeking to balance demands of influential Cuban Americans with those of big business and free-trade Republicans, President Bush set tough terms on Monday for easing the embargo against Communist-led Cuba, including "free and fair" elections and market reforms. While denouncing Cuban President Fidel Castro as a "tyrant," Bush announced new initiatives aimed at helping the Cuban people by clearing the way for more humanitarian assistance as well as the resumption of mail service to and from the island. The president's speech included no new measures against Cuba, despite widespread speculation he would use the occasion to turn up the pressure on Castro. "With real reform in Cuba, our countries can begin chipping away at four decades of distrust and division," Bush said. "The choice rests with Mr. Castro." But critics on Capitol Hill said the president had maintained the status quo, including a long-standing trade embargo that has failed to bring democracy to Cuba. "After 40 years of failure, we need to recognize that this approach is clearly not working and try something new," said Arizona Republican Rep. Jeff Flake, who has proposed lifting the U.S. ban on travel to Cuba. Marking Cuban Independence Day with major speeches in Washington and Miami, Bush announced steps to ease restrictions on humanitarian assistance to the Cuban people and to resume mail service to and from the island. Bush urged Castro to allow a referendum on internal reforms, saying it could be a "prelude, a beginning for real change in Cuba." SANCTIONS TO STAY But before the United States would ease trade and travel restrictions, Bush said Castro must release political prisoners, commit to market-opening reforms and ensure free National Assembly elections next year. Until Castro meets these and other conditions, Bush said he would enforce existing sanctions, including those that limit the sale of agricultural products to Cuba. Bush said those sales would "benefit the current regime." Bush also made no mention of recent U.S. allegations that Cuba was developing biological weapons and had shared technology with enemies of the United States. Bush later flew to Florida to explain his policies to a key constituency -- Miami's fervently anti-Castro Cuban American community. Cuban American support was crucial to his disputed 2000 presidential election victory in Florida -- the state that ultimately gave him the White House. The visit on the 100th anniversary of Cuba's independence from the United States could help the re-election campaign of his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, against Janet Reno, a Democrat and former U.S. attorney general. Bush hoped his Cuba policy would also help appease free-trade Republicans, business leaders and other groups who want to abandon the embargo as counter-productive. During his visit to Havana earlier this month, former U.S. President Jimmy Carter encouraged Cuba's one-party state to allow a popular vote on internal reform and urged the U.S. Congress to lift the trade embargo. "The only people hurt by the embargo are poor and hungry Cubans, and American citizens who are -- either in law by practical effect -- barred from traveling to, or selling to, Cuba," said Sen. Byron Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat. Bush demanded Cuba release political prisoners and liberalize its economy. To ensure free National Assembly elections next year, he said opposition parties must have the right to organize. Castro must also allow international observers to monitor the proceedings, Bush said. "If Cuba's government takes all the necessary steps to ensure that the 2003 elections are certifiably free and fair, and if Cuba also begins to adopt meaningful market-based reforms, then and only then I will work with the United States Congress to ease the ban on trade and travel between our two countries," Bush said. He called on Castro to give trade unions more freedom, and he said Cuba must also respect property rights and give private employers the freedom to negotiate with their workers without government interference. "Well-intentioned ideas about trade will merely prop up this dictator, enrich his cronies, and enhance the totalitarian regime. It will not help the Cuban people," Bush said. "With real political and economic reform, trade can benefit the Cuban people and allow them to share in the progress of our times," he said. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytact-05.20.02-15:03:10-8985