Cuomo Will Become First U.S. Governor to Visit Cuba
Cuomo Will Become First U.S. Governor to Visit Cuba
'By' Freeman Klopott
11:20 AM CST
February 26, 2015
(Bloomberg) -- New York Governor Andrew Cuomo will become the first U.S. governor to make a trade mission to Cuba, after President Barack Obama’s decision to loosen restrictions on travel to the communist island nation.
Cuomo, a 57-year-old Democrat, will visit April 20, according to a news release from the governor and Jose Ramon Cabanas, chief of the Cuban Interests Section, which represents the nation’s interests in Washington. The goal is to beat out other states in tapping the newly available market, the governor said Jan. 21.
“Let us be the first ones there, let us develop the relationship, let us open up the markets and let us get opportunities for New York companies,” Cuomo said in his annual State of the State speech.
Cuomo has said he intends to travel internationally during his second term, which began Jan. 1, including trade missions to Mexico, Canada, Italy, China and Israel. He also said he wants to create an export-import bank to help bring business to the Empire State from abroad.
More:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-02-26/cuomo-in-april-will-become-first-u-s-governor-to-visit-cuba
[center]~ ~ ~[/center]
Not so fast, there! Minnesota's Gov. Jesse Ventura went to Cuba in 2002, when the US opened the door to specific food trade after Cuba's food storage was destroyed by Hurricane Michelle. You may recall George W. Bush's Latin America specialist, Otto Reich accused Jesse Ventura of going to Cuba as a "sex tourist." From Minnesota's Public Radio:
Ventura meets Castro
By Michael Khoo
Minnesota Public Radio
September 27, 2002
Gov. Jesse Ventura will broadcast his weekly radio show from Havana on Friday. Ventura is traveling in Cuba as part of the U.S. Food and Agribusiness Exhibition, which he officially opened during a ceremony with Cuban President Fidel Castro on Thursday. Ventura also directed Castro to a livestock exhibit set up by Minnesota farmers.
Sharing a stage with Fidel Castro was not, by Gov. Ventura's own admission, something he had ever expected. But after acknowledging the Cuban leader and other dignitaries, Ventura advised exhibitors and guests never to rule anything out.
"I never dreamed in my lifetime that I would stand here in the great country of Cuba. But it proves to me, just as it did when I ran for governor of Minnesota, that anything can happen," he said.
Ventura and Castro had little time to speak with each other, but Castro did say -- through an interpreter -- that he was pleased with Ventura's remarks at the opening ceremony.
Ventura, in turn, did what he had promised to do: Steer Cuban officials to Minnesota farm products. The governor introduced Castro to farmer Ralph Kaehler and his family. The Kaehlers arrived in Cuba with hogs, sheep, bison, and cattle from their farm outside Rochester and from other family-owned farms in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
More:
http://news.minnesota.publicradio.org/features/200209/27_khoom_cuba27/