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Current U.S. policy prohibiting trade with Cuba “bears no relationship to reality,” according to one conservative Republican congressman.
“After 49 years, I think it’s time to re-evaluate,” Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said Wednesday, adding that the policy “has been the biggest enabler” of the Cuban regime by making America a convenient scapegoat for the island’s communist dictatorship. . . .
Last year, Flake introduced legislation co-sponsored by Rep. Charles Rangel (D-N.Y.) that would end the travel ban. Flake visited Cuba in 2006 as part of a congressional delegation and said the experience was the kind of “valuable lesson” that should be more widely available.
“Every American should be able to see the mess that man [Castro] has made of that
island,” Flake said Wednesday night at an event in Washington hosted by Reason Magazine, a libertarian journal. “You can see what happens when government controls everything.”
Some have predicted that if the United States lifted the travel ban, Cuba would respond by imposing its own restrictions on U.S. travelers, by Flake said he could accept that. “If anybody’s going to limit my travel, it should be a communist,” he said. . . .
Read the whole thing. Reason Magazine hosts monthly policy discussions at their offices north of DuPont Circle, and they always attract an interesting crowd -- not least because of the free food and free drinks. Last night's event featured a cocktail called a Cuba libre, which is basically a rum-and-Coke with a twist of lime.
A "Cuba Libre" to Cubans is called "mentirita" , a "little lie."
ReplyDeleteFlake's reasoning for the lifting of the embargo is superficial at best and based strictly and soley on trade. Opening up trade and relations with the present cuban government sevres as a de facto legitimization of same, inclduing their practice of apartheid, the overheliming violation of basic civil and human rights and the incarceration of political prisoners and priosner of conscience. is this realy the massage the US wants to send to the world? that for the almighty greenback, it will not only condone the actions of a dictatorial monarchy but be complicit in same?
i commend the congressman for his work in cutting pork, but on this particualr issue, hee has sold himself out tothe highest bidder.