Cuba: U.S. provoking exodus of Cubans to create migration crisis

[Judi Lynn]

Published Tuesday, May 18, 2004

Cuba: U.S. provoking exodus of Cubans to create migration crisis

By VANESSA ARRINGTON
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA
Cuba's foreign minister accused the U.S. government Tuesday of trying to provoke a mass exodus of Cubans to the United States by tightening its economic embargo against the island.

Felipe Perez Roque said U.S. President George W. Bush's administration was encouraging Cubans to leave the communist-run island by adopting new measures designed to "increase pressure, provoke more suffering and destabilize the country."

Under existing law, the United States can interpret a massive influx of Cubans to its shores as an act of war, Perez Roque told a news conference.

But he stopped short of saying the U.S. government would use a potential crisis as a pretext to invade the island.
(snip/...)

http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20040518/APN/405181130

[rebellious woman]

1. The poor, hungry, tired, oppressed and they vote republican. Why not?

The more the merrier. W/Jeb would be right in hog
heaven, call it "Castro Outsourcing"! Good for the
economy and labor.Whoda thunk?

[Vogon_Glory]

3. FOB Cuban Exiles Vote Republican? False Assumption

The assumption by both Jeb Bush Republicans and die-hard Fidelistas that newly-arrived Cuban exiles are going to automatically vote Republican once they receive their US citizenship papers is false. After over forty years of the Castro regime, most Cubans have come to take the comforts of a welfare state for granted. I believe that post 1980 Cuban exiles will find that the Democratic Party is far more congenial to their political beliefs than the latent racism, class snobbery, and social darwinism found in the Republican Party.

[rebellious woman]

4. Not

[Vogon_Glory]

5. Reality Checks Often Work Wonders

A dose of the realities of the intensification of Dubya's embargo against Cuba ought to convince a lot of post-1980 Cuban immigrants about the true nature of the GOP--especially as some exiles' relatives start hurting and other exiles get prosecuted for visiting more often than once every three years or for sending more money to their relatives in Cuba than Dubya, DeLay, and Reich think that they ought to get.

[rebellious woman]

6. If only VogonGlory, if only.....I'm just beyond trusting,anyone, anymore

[Mika]

2. US law says mass migration is an act of aggression agin the USA

The US has codified into law that a mass migration from Cuba would be an act of aggression.

The Cuban government has to crack down on illegal migration to the USA in order to comply with US law.


The Helms-Burton law - 1996
http://www.soc.qc.edu/procuba/helm_law.html

mass migration to the United States,
will be considered an act of aggression which will be met with
an appropriate response in order to maintain the security of
the national borders of the United States and the health and
safety of the American people.

The Bush admin is trying to trigger a migration for which Cuba/Castro can be accused of violating US migration law that would be an "act of aggression" - a pretense for invasion.

Please remember that the Helms-Burton bill was signed into law by Bill Clinton.








Don't ask questions!

[mulethree]

7. hmm it seems mainly about restricting money to relatives still in Cuba

How can the Cubans claim success if they rely on exiles sending money home? Before that they relied on Soviet aid.

They seem to have plenty of markets other than the U.S.

Hopefully they'll sue us for corrupting the Cuban image by associating Guantanamo, Cuba with a dungeon.

I don't like that we will bombard them with propaganda radio stations. Hopefully they are really radio stations and not some mkultra type 'discontent' waves :)

[Mika]

8. Latin American & Caribbean countries depend on remittances

Cuba's system directs its resources to its infrastructure - not to the pockets of millionares.

None of the below mentioned countries come close to Cuba's health care and education stats.



REMITTANCES TO LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN REACH A RECORD $38 BILLION
http://www.iadb.org/NEWS/Display/PRView.cfm?PR_Num=56_04&Language=English

Latin American and Caribbean migrants working in developed nations sent some $38 billion back to their home countries last year, up from $32 billion in 2002, the Inter-American Development Bank’s Multilateral Investment Fund announced today.

MIF Manager Donald F. Terry disclosed the data for 22 countries in the region at a conference on remittances organized ahead of the annual meeting of the IDB’s Board of Governors, which will take place here March 29-31.

Remittances, which last year surpassed foreign direct investment (FDI) and official development assistance (ODA) combined as a source of financing for the region, are likely to continue to flow due to a combination of demand for labor in industrialized countries with waning population growth rates and the paucity of job opportunities in most Latin America and Caribbean countries.

“People will continue to move north and billions of dollars will continue to flow south,” Terry told the audience at Lima’s National Museum, adding that about one in 10 Latin Americans are supported by remittances from relatives working abroad.

Some $30 billion of the total amount sent last year by migrants came from the United States, said pollster Sergio Bendixen, who has carried out several surveys for the MIF.

Also, Cuba cannot trade with whom it pleases to. Read up up the Helms-Burton law ( www.soc.qc.edu/procuba/helm_law.html ). It is a US created extraterritorial embargo on Cuba, in that any company that sells its product in the USA can not sell its product to Cuba. That's why one doesn't see new Fords, Chevys, Nissans, etc, plus millions of other products that are sold in the USA, in Cuba.

You will see new Peugeots and Fiats though ('cause they aren't sold in the USA).