Ex-US officials urge easing Cuba embargo

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Deutsche Welle

Ex-US officials urge easing Cuba embargo

A group of former high-ranking US officials has called on President Obama to loosen the decades-old embargo on Cuba, saying more travel to the Communist-led island could promote economic activity there.

19.05.2014

The US should loosen its embargo on Cuba to facilitate independent economic activity on the Communist-led island, an unprecedented number of former US officials and business executives wrote on Monday in an open letter to President Barack Obama.

The 44 signatories, which included former Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte and retired Admiral James Stavridis, a former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, urged Obama to seize a "window of opportunity" opened by reforms underway in Cuba that restrict state control over some economic sectors and permit entrepreneurs to found small businesses.

The letter was the latest sign that a growing number of Americans support a change in policy with regards to Cuba, but it stopped short of calling for actual legislation.

The punitive sanctions and embargo imposed on Cuba were passed by Congress five decades ago, but the letter specified a number of steps Obama could take that are within the executive authority and do not require Congressional approval.

Read more: http://www.dw.de/ex-us-officials-urge-easing-cuba-embargo/a-17646787?maca=en-rss-en-bus-2091-rdf

[Judi Lynn]

1. Open letter to Obama calls for greater engagement with Cuba

Open letter to Obama calls for greater engagement with Cuba
By Reuters
Monday, May 19, 2014 9:19 EDT

By David Adams

MIAMI (Reuters) – The White House should expand licensed travel for all Americans to Cuba and increase support for civil society on the communist-ruled island, according to an open letter to President Barack Obama that was signed by an unprecedented group of 44 former top U.S. government officials and advocates of policy reform and released on Monday.

The letter, which lists a series of policy recommendations, was signed by John Negroponte, the former Director of National Intelligence under president George W Bush, retired Admiral James Stavridis, who stepped down last year as Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, as well as several former senior State Department officials and a dozen prominent Cuban American advocates of greater engagement with Cuba.

The letter, which also called on the White House to engage in “serious discussions” with the Cuban government on security and humanitarian issues, is the latest sign of increased pressure on the Obama administration to soften the U.S. Cold War-era policy on Cuba. It comes in the wake of a February poll that found a strong majority of Americans favor further loosening the five-decades old punitive policy of Cuba sanctions.

While the letter stops short of calling for legislation to end the 52-year-old economic embargo, it lists measures that the signers say are within the executive authority of the president and do not require congressional approval.

More:
http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2014/05/19/open-letter-to-obama-calls-for-greater-engagement-with-cuba/

[geek tragedy]

2. That policy was stupid when it was enacted.

It has no justification other than inertia and localized identity politics.

If the goal is to undermine the Cuban dictatorship, it would seem that Presidents

Kennedy
Johnson
Nixon
Ford
Carter
Reagan
Bush
Clinton
Bush
Obama

could probably all have said it's not working.

So could have:

Kruschev
Brezhnev
Andropov
Chernenko
Gorbachev
Yeltsin
Putin

[McCamy Taylor]

3. We need their doctors. New Mexico alone needs 400 FPs.

[Ash_F]

4. Good to hear! /nt

[Xolodno]

5. Fastest way to bring down the Castro Regime....

....end the embargo. Economics will do the work.....hell, Cuba would have to "limit" travel from the USA and heavily tax or out right ban imports. The embargo has enabled Fidel and his brother to hold on to power.

But it won't happen any time soon....


Still way too many interest groups wanting Castro and his regime taken down by force and want punishment on the people for their "unforgivable sin" of either being complacent or inactive in not revolting and returning the old oligarchs back to power.