Cuba dissidents ask Bush to suspend embargo for storm relief

Cuba dissidents ask Bush to suspend embargo for storm relief

American don’t have a good history in their aids to non-western nation. In fact, most aids administered to other people are laced with treachery, since their first contact with the american indian.

Miss Condi says No...
:confused:
Rice: Not wise to end Cuban economic embargo now
Sun Sep 7, `08 - The Bush administration said Sunday it sees no wisdom now in ending an economic embargo against Cuba, a longtime demand the Havana government renewed as a way to speed aid after Hurricane Gustav swamped the island.

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A U.S. offer to send a disaster assessment team was declined Saturday by the Cuban Foreign Ministry, which did not mention the $100,000 in humanitarian assistance that Washington also offered through nonprofit groups. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, wrapping up a trip to North Africa, told reporters that President Bush consistently has said the U.S. would be responsive “to a Cuban regime that is prepared to release political prisoners (and) has a process to get to free and fair elections." But, she added, “we can see nothing that suggests that has come about." Cuba said Saturday it would rather Washington suspend restrictions on travel and the sale of food and other materials it needs to recover.

With another powerful storm, Hurricane Ike, bearing down, the Cuban ministry contended that “the only correct, ethical (action) ... would be the total and definitive elimination of the harsh and cruel economic, commercial and financial blockade applied over nearly a half century against our nation." Rice said that did not seem possible under current conditions, with Raul Castro in charge after replacing his brother, Fidel, who stepped down in February. “What we can’t do is to have the transfer of power from one dictatorial regime to another," Rice said. “That is not acceptable in a Western Hemisphere that is democratic and it is not acceptable for the Cuban people. So I don’t think in the context that we see now that the lifting of the embargo would be wise."

As Ike struck eastern Cuba on Sunday night, the State Department issued a travel warning, authorizing the departure of non-emergency personnel and eligible family members of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana. “U.S. citizens in Cuba who do not have access to adequate and safe shelter should consider departing while commercial flights are still available," the department said. Last week, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama issued a statement expressing sympathy for Cubans who had been hit hard by Gustav. He asked Bush “to immediately suspend restrictions on family remittances, visits and humanitarian care packages from Cuban Americans for a minimum of 90 days."

Also last week, five Cuban-American members of Congress urged the Bush administration to provide direct assistance to Gustav’s victims in Cuba. They said, however, that aid could be provided without changing U.S. law to lift the restrictions. Currently, people of Cuban origin living in the U.S. can visit the island only once every three years and can send money only to members of their immediate families, excluding cousins, aunts and uncles. Fidel Castro wrote this past week that recovery from Gustav could cost billions of dollars on an island where the average state salary is only about $20 per month. Gustav damaged 100,000 homes on Cuba.

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Ike’s floods kill 58, add insult to Haiti’s misery
Sun Sep 7, `08 - Haitians took to their roofs to escape rising floodwaters for the second time in a week on Sunday as squalls from Hurricane Ike killed 58 people and collapsed a bridge that cut the last land route into the starving city of Gonaives.

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All but one of Sunday’s victims came in the Cabaret area north of Port-au-Prince, according to civil defense director Maria-Alta Jean Baptiste. She said another three bodies were found in Gonaives, victims of an earlier storm. They pushed Haiti’s death toll to at least 319 from four storms that have hit the country in less than a month. Witnesses in Cabaret said floodwaters rushed into homes in the middle of the night, crushing walls and reaching chest-high levels before receding Sunday morning and leaving everything caked in mud.

In the Always Funeral Home, 21 mud-crusted bodies were piled in a small room, unclaimed. Two of them were pregnant, one still clutching a small girl to her chest. “We took refuge in one room and waited there all night and prayed," said Sister Marie Denise, who was trapped by waist-high waters in the house she shares with four nuns. They evacuated to the nearby school they run after the waters receded. “We don’t know if one of our girls is among the dead," she said of her students.

The rain had stopped by late afternoon, but authorities feared flooding could continue as water collecting in the mountains continued to run downhill. Much of Gonaives remained inaccessible even to United Nations peacekeepers in trucks because of rising waters and strong currents. As the peacekeepers delivered aid to the parts of Gonaives they could still reach, scores of young men splashed alongside, begging for help. One called out with a bullhorn: “Hey, hey, my friend. Give me some water." Food and fuel prices both skyrocketed, with gasoline reaching 500 Haitian gourdes (US$13) a gallon.

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UN votes for end to embargo...

Massive UN vote in favour of lifting US embargo on Cuba
30 October 2008 : The UN General Assembly on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly for the 17th year in a row in favour of lifting the 46-year-old US trade embargo on communist-ruled Cuba, as Havana hoped for improved ties with a new US administration.

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Some 185 of the assembly’s 192 members approved a resolution, which reiterated a “call upon all states to refrain from promulgating and applying laws and measures (such as those in the US embargo) in conformity with their obligations under the Charter of the United Nations and international law." The United States, Israel and Palau voted against the resolution, while Micronesia and the Marshall Islands abstained. As in previous years, the assembly urged “states that have and continue to apply such laws and measures to take the necessary steps to repeal or invalidate them as soon as possible in accordance with their legal regime."

The margin of support for ending the embargo has grown steadily since 1992, when 59 countries voted in favour of the resolution. The figure was 179 in 2004, 182 in 2005 and 184 in 2007. Ronald Godard, the US State Department’s senior advisor for Latin American affairs, defended the embargo and blamed the communist regime in Havana for Cuba’s woes. “The real reason the Cuban economy is in terrible condition and that so many Cubans remain mired in poverty is that Cuba’s regime continues to deny its people their basic human and economic rights," he told the General Assembly.

Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque welcomed the assembly vote but also looked ahead to future US-Cuban relations after next week’s White House election between Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain. The US economic, trade and financial sanctions were imposed 46 years ago following the failed Bay of Pigs invasion of the Caribbean island nation by US-backed Cuban exiles.

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