Gustav damage in Cuba prompts calls for lifting restrictions

    In Miami, two prominent members of the Cuban exile community called on President Bush Wednesday to temporarily lift travel and other restrictions that limit exiles to visiting the island once every three years and sending up to $300 to close relatives every three months. Ramon Saul Sanchez, head of the Democracy Movement, and Raul Martinez, the former Hialeah mayor now running for Congress against incumbent Republican Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart, said in separate statements that damage in Cuba from Hurricane Gustav is heavy and Cubans need help. Later Wednesday, Barack Obama, the Democratic Party presidential candidate, joined Martinez, a Democratic Party candidate, and Sanchez in calling for suspension of Cuba restrictions -- though he made a point to say the embargo must not be eased. "Today I join with leaders in the Cuban American community in calling on President Bush to immediately suspend restrictions on family remittances, visits and humanitarian care packages from Cuban Americans for a minimum of 90 days. This is a time when the Cuban people -- not Castro -- need and deserve American compassion and assistance. Make no mistake, the embargo must remain, and I strongly oppose any aid to the Castro regime.''

   Both Sanchez and Martinez have previously opposed the restrictions that President Bush imposed in 2004. Sanchez issued a similar plea when Hurricanes Charley and Dennis hit Cuba in 2004 and 2005, respectively, and the Bush administration did not lift restrictions.

   "This time, however, the damage is worse,'' Sanchez told The Miami Herald in a telephone interview Wednesday. "It is in the interests of the U.S. government to contribute with aid or we may see a sharp increase in rafters later.'' (The AP photo shows damage to structures in the Isle of Youth on Tuesday).

   In a letter dated Tuesday, Sanchez's Democracy Movement asked Bush to allow an "emergency moratorium'' or waiver'' on the current travel and money restrictions that apply to Cuba-bound "monetary remittances, parcels, family travel and baggage'' so that "exiles can help their loved ones in the island suffering from the devastation that Hurricane Gustav has caused  in Pinar del Rio and Havana.''

   Martinez, meanwhile, said in a statement that "while thousands of Cubans call out for help following the destruction of Hurricane Gustav, U.S. restrictions on travel and remittances are preventing Cuban-Americans from coming to the aid of their family in Cuba.''

   Added Martinez: "We have a moral obligation to allow families to help each other in a time of dire need.'' Martinez was the first politician to issue a call for the temporary lifting of Cuba restrictions.

  Some members of Congress who support restrictions such as Lincoln Diaz-Balart issued a statement Wednesday evening saying the U.S. government should "provide direct assistance to the victims of Hurricane Gustav in Cuba.''

   Without alluding to the calls for suspending restrictions, Diaz-Balart and the others including his brother Mario and Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen said "U.S. law does not need to be changed in order to help the victims of the hurricane.''

   Others listed in the statement distributed by Lincoln Diaz-Balart included Democratic Sens. Bob Menendez of New Jersey and Bill Nelson of Florida as well as Florida Republican Sen. Mel Martinez and Rep. Albio Sires (D-N.J.).

    -- Alfonso Chardy

Comments

[Walter Lippmann]

This EFE report was sent out today by the US Interests Section in Havana.
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Cuba dissidents ask Bush to suspend embargo for storm relief

Havana, Sep 4 (EFE).- The dissident group Agenda para la Transicion asked U.S. President George W. Bush to suspend Washington's economic embargo against Cuba "at least for the period of two months" to help those people affected by Hurricane Gustav, which slammed the communist-ruled island last weekend.

In a letter released Thursday in Havana, Agenda leaders Martha Beatriz Roque and Vladimiro Roca confirmed that the basic objective of the request was to "give a little respite to those who are suffering."

"Excellency, you will agree with us that any family member abroad would like to be able to have physical contact with those who are going through this difficult situation," they said in the letter to Bush.

The group also sent another letter to Cuban President Raul Castro in which they informed him of the message they sent to Bush and asked him to accept the help of the United States and the countries of the European Union or allow "non-governmental organizations ... to contribute to alleviate the difficult situation" after the passage of Gustav.

They said that "the intransigence of the Cuban government with respect to humanitarian assistance with the passage of any atmospheric phenomenon across the island has deprived the people of the benefit of the said aid" and they hailed the acceptance of humanitarian assistance provided by Russia and which on Thursday began arriving in Havana.

Gustav made landfall last Saturday in the western Cuban province of Pinar del Rio as a Category 4 hurricane packing sustained winds of almost 230 kph (145 mph).

Cuban authorities reported no fatalities from Gustav and only 20 people injured, none of them seriously. But the storm damaged more than 120,000 homes in Pinar del Rio, knocked out the region's power grid and telecommunications network and ravaged farms.

"At this time the residents of that affected zone of the country need for hates and resentments to be set aside as well as for the existing situation to be depoliticized to convert it into what it really is: a humanitarian problem for all Cubans," Roque and Roca said in their letter to Bush.

Meanwhile, a U.S. State Department spokesperson told Efe the Bush administration advised Havana on Wednesday that the United States was prepared to aid storm victims on condition that the assistance was channeled through non-governmental organizations rather than the Cuban government.

"Also, we're offering to send an evaluation team to Cuba to help determine the level of the humanitarian needs," Sara Mangiaracina said Thursday in Washington.

Another official, who asked to remain anonymous, said that the government was going "to work through appopriate non-governmental organizations to deliver aid provisions in the most rapid and most direct way possible."

Dan Restrepo, who advises Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Latin America, told Efe Thursday that the Illinois senator supports a proposal pushed by a sector of the Cuban-American community to lift for a minimum of 90 days the 2004 restrictions governing the sending of remittances and relatives' trips to the island.

"At no time has Obama said that the embargo should be lifted at this point, but he feels that the restrictions in effect limit the capacity of Cuban-Americans to help their relatives on the island," Restrepo said.

"The restrictions should be lifted to allow the sending of humanitarian packages, because very little aid can be sent now," he said, after noting that the Cuban people were confronting the challenge of "recovering from the hurricane under a failed regime."

Currently, the restrictions only allow Cuban family members abroad to send $300 to their relatives on the island every three months and to pay one family visit to Cuba every three years, he said. EFE jlp-mp/bp

[Jerome Melgar]

It's good that Bush didn't life any restrictions. The Cuban government will be as bad as the Myanmar regime when the cyclone hit their land earlier this year.