Black
Caucus members blast U.S. on Cuba policy
by Saeed Shabazz
WASHINGTON�Three members of the
Congressional Black Caucus who recently returned from Cuba are
urging the United States to ease its trade embargo against the
island nation.
"We felt that the timing was perfect,
during the course of the debate over normal trading relations with
China," CBC Chairman James Clyburn (D-S.C.) told reporters
June 6, adding that his members were "concerned about certain
issues" that were not being addressed in that discussion,
particularly as it related to Cuba.
"We thought there was something of a
contradiction involved in pursuing normal trade relations with
China and not pursuing it with Cuba," he said.
The Cuban-American community in Miami, Mr.
Clyburn continued, exerts influence on U.S. trade policy and
immigration policy in ways that "are not good for the whole
of the United States."
The delegation�consisting of Reps. Clyburn,
Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), and Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.)�was the
third CBC group to travel to Cuba during the last several months,
and was coincidentally there at the same time that American farm
and business groups, including a delegation from Arkansas, were
also visiting.
Agribusiness and corporate leaders have
endorsed a legislative proposal to ease restrictions of the sales
of U.S. food and medicine, contending that trade with communist
Cuba would encourage democratic change, and is the correct
humanitarian thing to do. The House put off debate until late June
on an agricultural bill to license food and medicine sales to Cuba
as long as the sales are not subsidized by the federal government.
Another "novel idea" proposed to the
delegation during its meeting with Cuban President Fidel Castro
was to train medical students in Cuba who would return to work
exclusively in medically under-served areas in this country.
"Right now, 3,000 students are being
trained in the Latin-American Medical School there, to go back to
their respective countries to work," said Rep. Thompson,
whose district includes the impoverished Mississippi Delta region.
"President Castro was very knowledgeable
of the severe shortage of health-care personnel in my district and
said, �Look. I will give scholarships to anybody you identify in
your district to come (and be) trained under the condition that
they go back to your district and work.�
"Well, to a district like mine that is
medically under-served, it is a novel idea. I have not had anybody
else to make that kind of offer. So it�s one that we will
pursue," Rep. Thompson promised, possibly as a cultural
exchange program.
"In the absence of adequate health-care
professionals in this country that can serve my district, I�ll
look for help anywhere I can find it."
During his meeting with the CBC members, Pres.
Castro challenged U.S. officials to match his offer to train 10-12
American students from areas like the Mississippi Delta.
"It would be hard for your government to
oppose such a program," Mr. Castro said, according to a
published report. "It would be a trial for them. Morally, how
could they refuse?"
Despite a faltering economy and a barrage of
unflattering pictures of Cuban life portrayed to the American
people by the exile community in South Florida, the CBC members
pointed out that life style, literacy rates, and infant mortality
rates have continued to improve for Cubans since the 1959
revolution which toppled the American-supported dictator Fulgencio
Batista.
The Cubans are also reforming their system by
increasing private landownership, relaxing restrictions against
religious worship, dismantling many military bases, to the point
where the CBC members maintain that Cuba is not a military or
ideological threat to the U.S. or any of its neighbors in the
Caribbean or in Latin America.
Infant mortality rates throughout Cuba are
lower than those in most U.S. urban areas, according to Rep.
Meeks, who cited a rate of six infant deaths per 1,000 live births
in Cuba, compared to 17 infant deaths per 1,000 births in
Washington, D.C., the U.S. capital city.
Despite the best efforts by the Cuban
government to get around it, the U.S. trade embargo causes
suffering among the population, the CBC members said. They cited a
school for the blind they visited which could not get Braille
equipment, because most Braille accessories are manufactured in
San Francisco. They cited shortages of toilet paper and even light
bulbs, as a result of the embargo.
"We went to some of the hospitals where
doctors do not have access to modern technology they would like to
have, simply because of the embargo," said Rep. Meeks.
"To me, it�s simple," Mr. Meeks
continued. "Our policy must change with regards to Cuba
because it�s inhumane. I am scratching my head, trying to figure
out those individuals who supported (permanent normal trade
relations with China), how can they not now support ending the
trade embargo on Cuba? To me, that is hypocritical."
The CBC, which represents 36 voting members and
two non-voting delegates, has long supported lifting the trade
sanctions. In recent months some Republicans and business groups
have joined them in seeking to open new markets to U.S. exports.
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