Raúl Castro: Cuba ready 'to discuss everything' with U.S.

[Judi Lynn]

updated 35 minutes ago
Raúl Castro: Cuba ready 'to discuss everything' with U.S.

(CNN) -- The Cuban government, long the object of a U.S. economic blockade, is prepared to meet with the Obama administration, Cuba's leader said.

"We've told the North American government, in private and in public, that we are prepared, wherever they want, to discuss everything -- human rights, freedom of the press, political prisoners -- everything, everything, everything that they want to discuss," Cuban President Raúl Castro said Thursday at a summit of leftist Latin American leaders in Venezuela.

The response came days after President Obama lifted all restrictions on the ability of American citizens to visit relatives in Cuba as well as to send them remittances. Travel restrictions for Americans of non-Cuban descent will remain in place.

This week's move represents a significant shift in a U.S. policy that had remained largely unchanged for nearly half a century. The U.S. government instituted the embargo three years after Fidel Castro came to power in 1959.

More:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/17/us.cuba/index.html

[subsuelo]

1. Obama Says Cuba Should Make Next Move

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BYMtCKpqqqs

I have to admit - I'm with Obama on this. Not saying I'm *against* what Castro says either. Just pointing out the correctness of Obama's statements.

There is good reason for hope.

[The abyss]

2. Hi guys!

I am posting this question in the LA forum and specifically to one of Judi’s stories because I would like to hear some feed back from people I respect.

I just listened to a radio news synopsis of Obama’s latest desire to “repair the US relationship” with Cuba. The emphasis was of course on the newly stated changes regarding transfer of money and travel for native Cubans.

Do you believe that Obama has suddenly shifted the gears of an entire foreign policy that is well over 100 years of age?

I come from the school that the setting president works for and reports only to one entity – the US government. That government has not represented the people for a long – long time.

Can this be for real?

[Judi Lynn]

3. Who knows, at this point! He's still too close to the Miami reactionary violent radical racist fools

I need to see him do something I KNOW they can't stand before I can trust him to be following a higher plan for cleaning up US policy on Cuba.

I'm curious about what the progressives here think, too.

As you've seen, the right-wing seems to have the loudest opinions on this subject.

[Mika]

4. Obama hasn't changed any policy significantly. Yet. All talk, little action, more demands of Cuba.

He hasn't made any changes except to eliminate Bush's draconian additions to Cuban-American travel & remittances. Americans are still travel banned. The US extra territorial sanctions are still in place.

Admittedly, Obama has made some verbal overtures, but he makes demands that Cuba must make changes along the lines of the demands made by Bush and most all previous US administrations in order for the US to budge.

Despite the flailing by the ever reliable US corporomedia its the same ol' same ol'.

[EFerrari]

5. Mika, do you think the OAS will survive?

After the happy talk dies down (and I admit that I like the happy talk), do you think it will?

[Mika]

6. Yes, I do.

It will remain propped up in some fashion, imo.

-

Good things tend to last. semi->:sarcasm:

---

I can't believe all of the happy and giddy talk, as if MAJOR changes have been undertaken. Nothing much has changed, except for Miamicuban travel and cash flow.

[EFerrari]

7. Easier cash flow to orgs like the fake Ladies in White. I know.

I'm thinking that the forces arrayed against the status quo might pull it off this time. We'll see. :)

[Judi Lynn]

8. Retired Military Officers: End the Cuba Travel Ban

Retired Military Officers: End the Cuba Travel Ban
Posted by Adam Blickstein

Yesterday, a group of 12 former senior military officials sent a letter to President Barack Obama urging him to support and sign pending Congressional legislation that would repeal the travel ban for all Americans who wish to visit Cuba. The retired officers--including former SOUTHCOM Commanders Gens. James Hill and Barry McCaffrey as well as Major General Paul D. Eaton and Lt. General Claudia J. Kennedy--argue that, based on national security grounds, lifting the ban would allow us to send our best ambassadors-the American people-to engage our Cuban neighbors, thus giving America a much better chance of influencing the eventual course of Cuban affairs. The letter, coordinated by the National Security Network and the New America Foundation, also examines the negative national security impact the travel ban and overall embargo has on America's interests in the region, creating a situation where our confrontational policy of isolation towards Cuba hinders, not heightens America's overall security objectives. A full text of the letter can be found after the jump.

April 13, 2009

President Barack Obama
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW
Washington, DC 20500

Dear Mr. President:

As former senior officers of the United States armed forces, we are writing today to encourage you to support the Congressional initiatives to end the ban on travel to Cuba for all Americans.

The current policy of isolating Cuba has failed, patently, to achieve our ends. Cuba ceased to be a military threat decades ago. At the same time, Cuba has intensified its global diplomatic and economic relations with nations as diverse as China, Russia, Venezuela, Brazil, and members of the European Union. It is hard to characterize such global engagement as isolation.

Though economically weak, the Castro government has kept the broad support of its people by responding to economic shocks and providing universal access to health care and education. There will be no counter-revolution any time soon.

Instead, the current embargo serves more to prop up the Castro regime and shows no sign of triggering a popular uprising against the communist government it runs. When hard times fall on the Cuban people, inevitably, the Cuban government blames the U.S. "bloqueo" for the suffering. And the people, with a strong sense of national sovereignty, rally to their flag.

Even worse, the embargo has inspired a significant diplomatic movement against U.S. policy. As military professionals, we understand that America's interests are best served when the United States is able to attract the support of other nations to our cause. When world leaders overwhelmingly cast their vote in the United Nations against the embargo and visit Havana to denounce American policy, it is time to change the policy, especially after 50 years of failure in attaining our goals.

The congressional initiative to lift the travel ban for all Americans is an important first step toward lifting the embargo, a policy more likely to bring change to Cuba. It begins to move the United States in an unambiguous direction toward the kind of policy-based on principled engagement and proportional and discriminate action that was the hallmark of your presidential campaign. Combined with renewed engagement with Havana on key security issues such as narcotics trafficking, immigration, airspace and Caribbean security, we believe the U.S. will be on a path to rid ourselves of the dysfunctional policy your administration has inherited.

It is a clear cut case. During the Cold War, the U.S. encouraged Americans to travel to the Soviet bloc resulting in more information, more contact, and more freedom for captive peoples, and ultimately the end of the Berlin Wall and the Cold War itself. This idea of engagement underlies our current policies toward Iran, Syria and North Korea all much graver concerns to the United States - where Americans are currently free to travel. By sending our best ambassadors-the American people-to engage their Cuban neighbors, we have a much better chance of influencing the eventual course of Cuban affairs. Broader economic engagement with the island through additional commercial and people-to-people contacts will in time promote a more pluralist and open society. And, by actually striking down an element of the embargo, that signal will be sent to the government in Havana.

Mr. President, around the world, leaders are calling for a real policy shift that delivers on the hope you inspired in your campaign. Cuba offers the lowest-hanging fruit for such a shift and would be a move that would register deeply in the minds of our partners and competitors around the world.

Sincerely,


Sincerely,

Brigadier General John Adams (Ret.)
Lieutenant General John G. Castellaw (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Daniel W. Christman (Ret.)
Major General Paul D. Eaton (Ret.
Lieutenant General Robert G. Gard (Ret.)
Rear Admiral Donald J. Guter (Ret.)
General James T. Hill (Ret.)
Rear Admiral John D. Hutson (Ret.)
Lieutenant General Claudia J. Kennedy (Ret.)
General Barry R. McCaffrey (Ret.)
Col. Lawrence B. Wilkerson (Ret.)
General Johnnie E. Wilson (Ret.)

April 14, 2009 at 11:11 AM |

http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2009/04/retired-military-officers-end-the-cuba-travel-ban.html