As
printed in
The Miami Herald
May 20, 2007
Prospect
of easing sanctions on Cuba fades
The new Democratic majority in Congress seems unlikely
to ease
U.S.
travel and trade policies that limit dealings with Cuba
By
Pablo Bachelet
After
Democrats seized control of Congress last November, the Bush administration's
tough policies on Cuba appeared in trouble. Not anymore.
Since
the elections, more than a dozen bills have been introduced to
ease the U.S. sanctions, from relaxing or lifting travel restrictions
to making it easier to export agricultural goods.
But the new Democratic leadership -- whose Republican predecessors
had helped ensure that no anti-sanctions initiatives reached President
Bush's desk -- has not pushed those bills and is unlikely to do
so soon, Democratic congressional staffers and activists on both
sides of the issue say.
The
reasons include more pressing priorities like Iraq and immigration
reform and an unusually early start of the presidential campaign
-- with Florida figuring prominently, given its early primary
date. Also, many Democrats prefer to wait for the political picture
in Havana to clear up before moving to change policy, the staffers
and activists say.
''We started this year with high hopes that there would be some
concrete and significant changes to a policy that we long felt
has been wrong, immoral, failed,'' said Mavis Anderson, an advocate
with the liberal Latin America Working Group. ``The bills that
have been introduced are good, but so far, they're just sitting
there.''
One
Democratic staffer said restrictions on U.S. citizens' travel
to the island are especially unpopular among Democrats. One bill
that would lift all of the restrictions -- proposed by Reps. Jeff
Flake, R-Ariz., and Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., -- has garnered 108
co-sponsors.
But
the staffer, who asked for anonymity to talk freely on a delicate
issue, said any quick changes were unlikely because many lawmakers
are waiting for the post-Fidel Castro transition to unfold.
''There
is some sort of transition under way [and] nobody wants to predict
how that's going to play out,'' the staffer said. ``Moving on
any real initiative is probably not wise at this moment because
we don't know what Cuba is going to look like four, five months
from now.''
Florida
presidential politics also weighs in, the staffer added. Although
polls suggest that Cuban-American attitudes toward sanctions are
changing, a majority of those who arrived in the United States
before 1984 -- and are more likely to vote -- still oppose concessions
to Cuba.
This
summer, the House is expected to engage in what has become an
annual ritual: voting on amendments to spending bills that attack
all angles of Cuba policy, from cutting funds for TV Martí
and Radio Martí to stopping the funding of U.S. efforts
to enforce the travel sanctions.
But
even if those amendments pass the House, they would face big hurdles.
Approval in the Senate is less likely, in part because of procedural
matters and in part because Senate leader Harry Reid, D-Nev.,
supports a tough line on Cuba.
''Here,
there is no talk about Cuba,'' said one Senate aide on the Democratic
side, who asked for anonymity because he wasn't authorized to
comment on Cuba.
Copyright © 2007, The Miami Herald
