US restrictions on trade with Cuba and family travel to the island would be eased under legislation passed by the House of Representatives on Wednesday, but the changes could encounter trouble in the Senate.
Supporters hope congressional action will be the first step toward reviewing and possibly reversing the decades-old US policy of shunning Cuba. Tucked into a larger spending bill, most of the changes would expire on Sept. 30 unless there is a move to extend them by Congress or US President Barack Obama.
Obama has made clear he favors relaxing limits on family travel and cash remittances by Cuban Americans to Cuba, although he has said the US trade embargo against that country should stay in place to press for democratic reforms.
The legislation approved by the House does not lift the overall embargo. But it would prohibit the US Treasury Department from enforcing Bush administration rules requiring payment of cash in advance for agricultural sales to Cuba.
Analysts believe that US rice sales to Cuba will soar if the provision becomes law. Rice sales declined every year after the cash-in-advance rules were imposed in 2005, because Cuba could turn to Vietnam — a country with which it has close ties — for rice on easier terms.
The House-passed legislation also would provide general licenses for travel to and from Cuba for marketing and selling agricultural products. And it would allow Americans with relatives in Cuba to travel there more frequently and for longer periods of time.
But the measure must pass the Senate before becoming law, and Florida Republican Senator Mel Martinez, a Cuban-American, opposes the changes, an aide said. Martinez could try to use Senate procedural hurdles to stop the bill.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last month the Obama administration wanted to ease travel restrictions on families wishing to visit relatives in Cuba and she pledged a review of Cuba policy.
Democratic Representative Jose Serrano denied lawmakers were trying to put pressure on or get ahead of the Obama administration on Cuba policy.
A veto threat from former US president George W. Bush kept the bill from being voted on until now.
“I think if this passes and gets signed into law, it will send the message, or at least alleviate any concerns the White House may have that Congress is not on board” with easing US policy toward Cuba, Serrano said.
Francisco “Pepe” Hernandez, president of the Cuban American National Foundation, one of the leading Miami-based exile groups, said he was pleased with the House passage but worried there could be problems in the Senate, which is expected to take up the measure as soon as today.
“We have been asking for that since the [travel] restrictions were put in place,” he said. “We believe there should be more opportunities for Cuban families to connect.”
Last year, nearly a quarter of Congress wrote to the Bush administration urging a review of Cuba policy after former Cuban president Fidel Castro, who seized power in a 1959 revolution, retired due to poor health. His brother Raul Castro took over as president.
Washington broke off diplomatic ties with Havana in 1961, after Castro moved the island rapidly on a socialist path aligned with Moscow during the Cold War. The US imposed the trade embargo in 1962.
Meanwhile, France wants to serve as the “engine” of a dialogue between Cuba and the US, French President Nicolas Sarkozy’s special envoy to Cuba said after a two-hour meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro.
“France and its president want to be one of the engines of the dialogue between Europe and Latin America,” special envoy Jack Lang said.
“France wants to facilitate a dialogue between Cuba and the United States ... it wants to be an engine for that dialogue,” he said.
At the start of a six-day visit aimed at boosting French-Cuban ties, Lang said the election of Obama “is an important political change” that could lead to a “climate of cooperation and no more confrontation” between the two neighbors.
The envoy said he hoped the Obama administration would lift the 47-year US embargo on Cuba, long called for by the UN General Assembly.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS