The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.62/No.13           April 6, 1998 
 
 
Albright: Clinton's Adjustments To Cuba Embargo `Don't Reflect A Shift In Policy'  

BY ERNIE MAILHOT AND MAGGIE McCRAW
MIAMI - U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced March 20 that the Clinton administration will again allow direct charter flights between the United States and Cuba for a few categories of people already allowed to travel to the Caribbean island under Washington's tight restrictions. These include emergency visits by Cuban- Americans to relatives in Cuba and trips by church and other groups to deliver food and medicine to nongovernment organizations.

When the Cuban government defended its sovereignty and shot down two planes flown into its airspace by rightists from the Miami-based group Brothers to the Rescue in 1996, the White House used it as a pretext to cut off direct flights. The U.S. Congress also used the action to pass the misnamed Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, also known as Helms-Burton. This U.S. law tightened and codified the U.S. embargo of Cuba.

Another measure to be contained in President William Clinton's executive order will allow Cuban-Americans to send up to $1,200 a year directly to relatives in Cuba through licensed agencies. Such money transfers were declared illegal by the U.S. government in 1994. Nevertheless, it is estimated that annually some $700 million in remittances from Cuban- Americans reach Cuba.

The administration also plans to streamline issuing licenses to U.S. pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies to sell their goods directly in Cuba, with the continued proviso that the medicine not be distributed by any state agency.

"Let me be very clear," Albright told the press. These measures "do not reflect a change in policy towards the Cuban government. That policy has been, and remains, to seek a peaceful transition to democracy." That is Washington's standard code phrase for the overturn of the Cuban revolution and capitulation of the Cuban people to the dictates of U.S. capital.

Albright said Clinton will also work with those in Congress pushing legislation to ease restrictions on food aid to Cuba. The aim of this, as with the other changes in the regulations, is to "lessen the Cuban people's dependence on the Cuban state," Albright said, by "strengthening the role of the church and other nongovernmental organizations."

The changes, which leave intact the U.S. ban on most travel to Cuba and Washington's economic blockade of the island, was referred to by Albright, one of the Clinton administration's point people in its attacks and threats against Cuba, as part of a so-called "new era of fresh thinking" and a positive response to the Pope's visit to Cuba in January.

The March 23 issue of the Cuban Communist Party newspaper Granma, noted in the subtitle to its article on the issue, "The Secretary of State declares that this does not signify a change in the blockade nor in the operation of the Helms- Burton Law."

Most Cuban-Americans in Miami responded positively to the changes. Oscar Ochotorena, an activist in the Alliance of Workers of the Cuban Community (ATC), referred to coverage on the Spanish-language TV Channel 23. The station "supports the blockade of Cuba," he said, "but they announced that their poll, with over 21,000 people calling in, had 68 percent in favor of Clinton's changes and 32 percent opposed. This is the first time they've ever had a poll that is positive towards anything related to Cuba. Even the Nuevo Herald's poll came out in favor."

Ultrarightists in the Cuban-American community here strongly opposed even these limited moves by Clinton. Ninoska Pérez-Castellón, a director of the Cuban American National Foundation and a radio talk show host, is typical of these reactionaries. She said that the administration's moves came from "a collusion of characters - fakes and opportunists who want to do business with Cuba." Even some of the callers to Pérez's show, however, defended the changes in travel and money transfer policies.

Ernie Mailhot is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 1126. Maggie McCraw is a member of International Association of Machinists Local 368.  
 
 
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