Biden: No Plans To Lift Cuba Embargo

At Meeting With Other Leaders In Chile, Veep Also Discusses G20 Protests

(AP)  U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said Saturday that the United States is not planning to lift its embargo on Cuba.

When asked by reporters at a summit in Chile if Washington plans to scrap the decades-old embargo, Biden replied: "No."

He and President Barack Obama "think that Cuban people should determine their own fate and they should be able to live in freedom," Biden said after taking part in the Progressive Governance Summit of leaders from Latin America, Europe and the U.S.

A "transition" is needed in the Washington policy toward the communist-ruled island but the U.S. vice president said he was in Chile "to talk about the economy, not Cuba."

Leftist or left-of-center governments have been elected in Venezuela, Bolivia, Ecuador, Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Honduras and Uruguay in recent years, and at least five Latin American leaders have visited Cuba this year.

Several of these governments have urged Washington to lift the embargo, saying such a step would improve Washington's relations where the entire region.

Obama said during the presidential campaign that he would be willing to meet with Cuban President Raul Castro without preconditions and supported loosening restrictions on U.S. family travel and remittances to the island. But he does not favor lifting the 47-year-old embargo entirely.

Also attending Saturday's summit in the resort city of Vina del Mar were British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, Brazilan President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, Argentine President Cristina Fernandez and Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg.

Leaders closed the summit Saturday with a promise to respond to protests against the G20 summit in London next week with measures to revitalize the world economy.

Biden said the protests "give us the chance to respond with concrete proposals."

He told a closing news conference that the leaders shared common views of promoting "transparency and accountability" in international financial institutions.

Thousands of people marched through European cities Saturday demanding jobs and economic justice ahead of Thursday's summit of the Group of 20 industrialized and developing economies.

[sndkzyaa]

Instead we end up with corrupt self serving interests that rape our country.
Posted by cbsblogger at 5:04 PM : Mar 29, 2009

Democrats rape.

Republicans pillage.

And the people just hold the door open for all of them.

We're so doomed.

[cbsblogger]

An honest politician with independence and ethics could make decisions that 90% of us average Americans would agree with 90% of the time.

Instead we have a country that is led around by the nose by politicians that care only what special interest groups such as Cuba and special countries such as Israel believe are important. Give us common sense and ethical politicians and for the most part Americans would be satisfied and content. Instead we end up with corrupt self serving interests that rape our country.

[sndkzyaa]

Pretty soon it will be down to a coalition of Hillary fans, blacks and homosexuals.
Posted by summarex at 2:20 PM : Mar 29, 2009

A few more gaffes on Special Olympics and legalizing marijuana, and he'll lose them too.

Presidnet Steve Urkel, the biggest nerd president in history, won't last long. Definitely a single term president. Unless he resigns or gets impeached first.

[presjfk]

Ridiculous, It is time to remove the embargo. It hasn't worked and its not going too...

[summarex]

Little by little Obama seems to be losing all of the people who saw something to vote for in him. Pretty soon it will be down to a coalition of Hillary fans, blacks and homosexuals.

[ceb969]

47-year-old embargo just because Castro was back by the USA when he did his overthrow of Cubas dictatorship and when he over through the government Castro trun his back on USA after we gave him guns and money to run his operation. I think the US is still mad about that. The Bay of Pigs was a slap in the face to FREE CUBA out of Florida. The CIA and FREE CUBA work together on the invasion of Bay of Pigs most were (600) killed and the others went to prison and died. Kennedy had called Castro and told him about the invasion. The invasion people were in radio silents so they could not be called back. But I do think we need to drop and help out Cuba. 47-year-old embargo is to long and we need Cuba in more ways than one. Side note rumor has it that the CIA or FREE CUBA killed Kennedy?

[toolmangler-2009]

Excuse me, but your hypocrisy is showing.
Posted by sndkzyaa at 12:49 PM : Mar 29, 2009





Please tell me what "I" said about Palins daughter! quote it and give date and time reference also.

[sndkzyaa]

Since his daughter is living her own life and not telling me how to live mine, I don't give a traf.
Posted by toolmangler-2009 at 12:18 PM : Mar 29, 2009

Palin's daughter wasn't, either. So why all the big to do over her personal life?

Excuse me, but your hypocrisy is showing.

[toolmangler-2009]

Do you notice that theirs NOT a word about Bidens daughter's coke video? The video shows her snorting five lines of coke. You WON'T even see a note obout it on CBS. If it had been Palin's daughter it would have been at the top of the news
Posted by theystink at 10:19 AM : Mar 29, 2009




Since his daughter is living her own life and not telling me how to live mine, I don't give a traf.
What she does is her business, not mine. Her Dad is using his own ideas to do his job. He is "NOT" taking orders from her. Leave other peoples family out of your comment unless that family directly affects you. BTW do you want me to tell everybody who your daughter is shacked up with?

[bajajohn1]

There has to be more to this continuing Cuban embargo than meets the eye. More than the Cuban missile crisis or the failed Bay of Pigs. We have been playing footsie with other communist nations for a long time now. Seems like the one issue that has never been resolved is the attempted takeover of Cuba by the American Mafia. What do the Castro brothers know that U.S. politicians want to keep quiet?

[JoetheDumbass]

For all the morons who are spamming the "Biden coke incident" Heres the story:
New York Post:
"A friend of the daughter of Vice President Joseph Biden is attempting to hawk a videotape that he claims shows Ashley Biden snorting cocaine at a house party this month in Delaware.
An anonymous male "friend" of Biden took the video, said Thomas Dunlap, a lawyer representing the seller. Dunlap and another man claiming to be a lawyer showed The Post about 90 seconds of 43-minute tape, saying it was legally obtained and that Biden was aware she was being filmed. The Post refused to pay for the video."
The post REFUSED to buy the tape, meaning it was bogus. (The post is a rightwing rag, so they would buy ANYTHING that could condemn the democrats.)
Please people, think for yourself and read the story before jumping on the boat. There is Zero credibility to this slander.

[perceptions5]

Where's the story on Biden's daughter doing cocaine ????/

If it was Sarah Palin's daughter doing cocaine you sure as HELL know we would see it then..

................Just one more example of America's corrupt liberal MSM wolfpack press exercising their NAZI-like censorship............

[straightmate]

Who cares? There are more Cubans in Miami than Havannah. Eventually they'll open it up but Cuba has to get on board with US policy. I couldn't give a shlt. I don't like cigars, and I haven't forgot the chaos they brought by the boatload in the early eighties. I have sympathy for their suffering but we have too much immigration trouble now. If that embargo was lifted they'd all be here the next day

[hungry1968-15]

Do you notice that theirs NOT a word about Bidens daughter's coke video? The video shows her snorting five lines of coke. You WON'T even see a note obout it on CBS. If it had been Palin's daughter it would have been at the top of the news
Posted by theystink at 10:19 AM : Mar 29, 2009





That's because the Palin's are trying everything they can to keep their name in the news.

Just like when Obama made the "special olympics" comment.

THAT AFTERNOON, she was on tv with her developmentally disabled kid on her lap like a prop in a movie.

[theystink]

Do you notice that theirs NOT a word about Bidens daughter's coke video? The video shows her snorting five lines of coke. You WON'T even see a note obout it on CBS. If it had been Palin's daughter it would have been at the top of the news

[johnb8888]

"These ethnic centric groups such as the Cubans (and Jews and Muslims) are dangerous because they twist government policy to their perceived benefit not the USA's benefit.
Posted by cbsblogger



Kind of like how the English sucked in the USA in World War I, eh?

[xmissile]

The embargo has been counterproductive for the past 47 years. If it has achieved one thing that would be unity of the Cuban people. If we want to even have a chance at stopping the spread of nuevo Comunismo in our hemisphere, then drop the embargo for freak sake without precondition. Then renegotiate a proper lease on Gitmo.

Hey Obama, I voted for you because you promised change and so far all I have seen is a return to normalcy pre-Bush. Same flawed economic strategy, same Mideast policy, same drug policy, same trade policy. I still haven't seen a grand unified strategy on alternative energy...just nickels and dimes thrown at wind and solar. Btw, it is oxymoronic to both support clean coal and capping CO2 emissions We need a Manhattan Project-style initiative on battery research.

Change sometimes involves going against the grain of public opinion.

[boandco]

It looks like three South American countries showed up for the summit. Not even a quorum, much less a consensus. More like the US and two European countries meet with three South American countries. The conclusion; there was no conclusion. If you ever wondered what it would be like to throw a big party, and only three people show up, Joe Biden could tell you.

[ranger1948]

Since we have proven time and time again war doesn't work, maybe we should try sitting down with people we do not agree with and discuss our differences. I know our govt will think this is a bad idea because they can't find a profit margin in using some common sense.

[hagar39]

Think back. VIETNAM. We lost 58,200 troops in Vietnam. Vietnam is a Communist nation. We can take vacations to Vietam, and we trade with them.
CHINA. We fought them in the Koren War. 33,369 troops were killed. China is a Communist nation. We trade with China and take vacation to China.
CUBA. Never had a war with them. 90 miles from the USA. But we can't travel or trade with them be cause they are a Communist nation. Hmmmm Make sense to me.