Cuba Roundup

The day before yesterday the New York Times ran this article about the Spanish petroleum company, Repsol YPF establishing a joint venture with Cuba to look for oil off of Cuba's Northwest coast. Obviously it's a long way between looking and finding oil, but this could change the monetary equation for Castro's Cuba far more than US tourist dollars. Even Dick Cheney's former firm is hungering for a taste:

Halliburton, the nation's largest oil services company, is among the wary watchers. John Gibson, president of Halliburton's energy services group, recently said in a speech to employees that he favored lifting economic sanctions against Cuba, as well as Libya and Iran.

"Sanctions are a very U.S.-centric thing, and I believe that free enterprise will establish better relationships," Mr. Gibson said, according to The Associated Press. "There are foreign companies making money in those countries, and I think American companies should have a shot at those markets as well."

On the other hand, if oil were to be discovered, it would strip Castro of what little credibility remains for his excuse for all the ills of Cuba: the US embargo.

Meanwhile, Oswaldo Payá is urging exiles in Miami to join Cubans on the island to take part in planning for the nation's transition to democracy:

Payá's 48-page Transition Project outlines proposals on everything from human rights to reconciliation in Cuba. The project is meant to provide the framework for changes if the Cuban government ever honors Payá's petition drive, known as the Varela Project, seeking a referendum on democratic reforms.

[...]

Payá's Transition Project outlines proposals for public health, education, transportation and economic reforms. It suggests a general political amnesty, the abolition of the death penalty and the demilitarization of society.

Remarks collected from exiles will be forwarded to Havana in November and added to opinions gathered across the island. A final draft will be turned over to the National Assembly as early as February.

I'm sure they'll do what they did before and not act on it. Nevertheless, it's another terrific idea.

Meanwhile, the House of Representatives voted to overturn restrictions on gift parcels that Cuban-Americans can send to family members in Cuba:

The 221-194 vote was won by a coalition in which Democrats were joined by nearly four dozen farm-state and free-trade Republicans to rebuff the president. The vote came just four months from an Election Day in which Bush would like to once again win Florida, the pivotal state in his 2000 victory, by gaining the support of that state's Cuban-Americans.

The House vote followed a familiar pattern of recent years in which the Republican-run House - and sometimes the Senate - has voted to block Bush policies restricting trade and travel with Cuba, which communist leader Fidel Castro has now run for more than four decades. Last year, both chambers voted to end curbs on travel to Cuba by Americans, only to see lawmakers back away after Bush issued a veto threat.

Wednesday's debate was an emotional one, as the debates over Cuba policy often are.

"It's hard to think of an economic sanction that does more harm to the welfare of families in Cuba, or does more to make the U.S. seem mean-spirited toward families who already have the misfortune to live under communism," said Rep. Jeff Flake, R-Ariz., one of the sponsors.

Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., a Cuban-American, said the proposal was "dishonest" and "condescending," adding, "It seeks to undermine an entire policy President Bush has just implemented ... to hasten the Democratic transition in Cuba."

Somehow the words travel ban and embargo don't seem to have hastened anything in Cuba and certainly not a democratic transition.

Comments

[akaky]

the embargo is bureaucratic unimaginativeness and political suck up at its worse. without the embargo what excuses could castro have for his police state? i think people just get in a rut and begin regarding new ideas as a threat to the way things have always been done.