Hard-liner backs easing Cuba travel ban

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald

Posted on Thu, Mar. 22, 2007
Hard-liner backs easing Cuba travel ban
BY PABLO BACHELET
[e-mail]

WASHINGTON - Rep. Dan Burton, the Indiana Republican who co-authored the 1996 Helms-Burton Act that tightened the squeeze on Cuba, has decided to support a bill that lifts restrictions on Cuban-American travel to the island, an advocacy group said Thursday.

Burton's office did not immediately return calls seeking comments, but Sgt. Carlos Lazo, a decorated Cuban-American U.S. Army medic who is visiting Congress this week to lobby in favor of lifting travel restrictions to Cuba, said Burton assured him he supported the bill, which is sponsored by Reps. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., and Ray LaHood, R-Ill.

Lazo became a potent symbol of the impact of the restrictions on Cuban-American travel, implemented in summer 2004. He was denied permission to go see his two teenage sons when he finished his tour of duty in Iraq, where he earned a bronze medal for his services in Fallujah. The Bush administration tightened family travel to Cuba from once every year to once every three years.
(snip)

Burton's decision is significant because the lawmaker is considered a hard-liner on Cuba and represents a victory for groups that oppose the trade and travel restrictions. They hope his defection will convince more members of Congress to back the Cuban-American bill, one of the few that is expected to pass and even survive a veto threat by President Bush.


Read more: http://www.bradenton.com/mld/bradenton/news/nation/16954243.htm

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This is deeply interesting, considering this right-wing Rep. Burton has scooped up so much of his campaign funding from the right-wing Cuban "exiles" in Miami, and has co-written extreme legislation (Helms-Burton) designed to add crippling new powers to the already brutal embargo against Cubans.



Burton, surrounded by "exile" Congressfolk
Lincoln and Mario Diaz-Balart, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen

[robinlynne]

1. NOTICE that the bill only permits cuban-americans to go to Cuba!

[Judi Lynn]

2. That has always been so mysterious. If more Americans thought about it, they would realize

the very fact Cuban Americans can come and go to Cuba, as far as Cuba is concerned tells everyone there is far more to this situation than is given them through right-wing propaganda.

The challenge is getting people to THINK about it.

As long as non-Cuban Americans are blocked from going to Cuba, they will have to believe everything they are told about the place, unless they start trying to find out the truth for themselves. Without the chance to investigate and verify, they will always see a cartoon image of an island controlled by a tall bearded guy, and their imaginations will color in around the deliberate lies they've been fed which support the illusion already projected.

In the meantime, millions and millions and millions of dollars are in the wind every year flowing from Congress to various "anti-Castro" projects, including odd supplies to the official Cuban "dissidents" who seek cashmere sweaters (in Cuba?), Godiva chocolates, leather jackets, etc., etc., etc., (as per articles written in the last year following a disclosure they didn't want to see the light of day) and tons of money available to the Congressmen who make their pilgrimages to Miami to promise new harsh measures on Cuba in exchange for potent campaign contributions.

Not to mention the unbelievable assortment of benefits offered to Cuban immigrants who make it to American shores, benefits all at the expense of American taxpayers, including instant legal status (no one chasing them around to deport them, unlike all other immigrants), instant access to work visa, Section 8 housing, food stamps, social security, medical treatment, financial assistance for education, etc.: this is earmarked ONLY FOR CUBANS. If these benefits were extended to immigrants of other countries, we would have sunk under the weight of overpopulation long, long ago.

As soon as the first wave of ordinary American tourists start spreading out around the island, the way Canadians, Europeans, Asians, Africans, Latin Americans, some Australians have been doing all the way along, the stories will start making their way back here which will sound just like the ones we have heard from the very small number of Americans who have already made the trip, and the cat WILL be out of the bag that we've ALL been had. I am sure that there are a lot of people invested in this charade who are damned determined to prevent this from happening.

[Judi Lynn]

3. Author of Helms Burton Law to Support Family Travel to Cuba

Breakthrough Reported by Center for Democracy in the Americas and Sgt. Carlos Lazo
Author of Helms Burton Law to Support Family Travel to Cuba;


WASHINGTON - March 22 - Congressman Dan Burton (R-IN) has decided to support legislation that will permit Cuban-Americans to travel Cuba to visit family members, The Center for Democracy in the Americas reported today.
Burton made the commitment to Sgt. Carlos Lazo, a Cuban-American and veteran of Operation Iraqi Freedom who won a Bronze Star for his valor at the Battle of Fallujah, and to Sarah Stephens, executive director of The Center for Democracy in the Americas, at a meeting at the U.S. Capitol on Wednesday.

He reaffirmed his decision to support the legislation in a meeting with Sgt. Lazo and Ms. Stephens at his office today. Burton has also communicated his position to Congressman Bill Delahunt (D-MA), author of "The Cuban-American Family Rights Restoration Act” and Congressman Jeff Flake (R-AZ) an advocate of unrestricted travel.

“The Congressman has been a consistent advocate for the cause of bringing democracy to Cuba and to the Cuban government,” Sgt. Lazo said. “With Congressman Burton’s strong support of the Delahunt legislation, we can take the huge step of promoting people-to-people contact between Cuban-Americans visitors to Cuba and people on the island, which will help promote the cause of democracy in Cuba.”

“When the author of the Helms-Burton law lends his support to opening up Cuba to travel,” Sarah Stephens said, “it opens up political space for members on both sides of the aisle to support changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba. We strongly believe that free and unrestricted travel for all American should be the norm, but we are also pleased to see progress on the issue of family unification to help bring together Cuban-American families with their kin on the island.”
(snip/...)

http://www.commondreams.org/news2007/0322-03.htm

[Javaman]

4. it's all about oil. :) need we say anything more? nt