U.S. Delegation Meets Cuban Leaders
A U.S. Congressional delegation, speaking during its first full day of a visit to Havana, expressed its hope of a productive dialogue with Cuban leaders to better bilateral relations that had worsened considerably under the Bush Administration.
"I think the entire world is very optimistic about a shift in direction in terms of U.S. foreign policy" throughout the world," said Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., who headed the 8-member delegation.
"I know we do," she said, "and that's why we're here."
The delegation met Friday with Cuban parliament president Ricardo Alarcon and today will continue talks with Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez, as well as visit Cuba's state-of-the-art Bio-tech and Genetic Engineering Labs, reports CBS News producer Portia Siegelbaum in Havana.
"Prior to our departure we me with the appropriate State Department officials and of course the U.S. Interests Section here in Havana," Lee told the press in a Saturday morning briefing.
Although they had not met with President Obama, Lee said that many of the actions taken by his administration "are moving in the correct direction, and we are very proud of his administration for witnessing this change in direction in our foreign policy."
Last night an online Wall Street Journal story cited an unnamed senior administration official as saying the President plans to lift the prohibition on Cuban-American family travel and remittances to the island. If he does so, Mr. Obama will be making good on a campaign promise first articulated in a speech to Cuban Americans in Miami in May 2008.
Regulations restricting travel to Cuba were severely tightened by the Bush administration in May 2004. Family visits were limited to once every three years for just 15 days, and only those with parents, grandparents or children on the island were allowed to apply for a travel license; aunts, uncles and cousins were in effect eliminated from the definition of a family.
Provisions attached to a budget appropriations bill signed into law by President Obama in mid-March now allow family visits once a year, an unlimited stay, and raise the amount they can spend from $50 a day to $179. However, these changes will only be effective until the end of the fiscal year September 30.
Last Tuesday, a group of Senators from both parties announced their support for the "Freedom to Travel to Cuba" bill. One hundred and twenty members of the House of Representatives are co-sponsoring an identical bill.
Speaking to the press on Saturday, Rep. Bobby Rush, D-Ill., referred to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, who was assassinated 40 years ago today, saying, "Dr. King used to say only when it's dark enough then you see the stars. And, certainly the last eight years has been a real dark period for both the Cuban and American people."
He went on to say that the U.S. and Cuba had to move in ways that would benefit both peoples. "We can't approach this as a zero-sum game where one side wins, another side loses. All have to win," Rush concluded.
The delegation, mainly composed of members of the Congressional Black Caucus, will be in Cuba until Tuesday morning.