Showing posts for "Cuba"
Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) and Sen. Barack Obama (D-IL) continued to debate the issue of negotiation with U.S. adversaries (AP) on Wednesday.
“My administration will press the Cuban regime to release all political prisoners
unconditionally, to legalize all political parties, labor unions, and free media, and to schedule internationally monitored elections. The embargo must stay in place until these basic elements of democratic society are met. Maintaining the embargo is, however, just one element of a broader approach my administration would make to the people of Cuba. I would provide more material assistance and moral support to the courageous human rights activists who bravely defy the regime every day, and increase Radio and TV Marti and other means to communicate directly with the Cuban people. My Justice Department would vigorously prosecute Cuban officials implicated in the murder of Americans, drug trafficking, and other crimes. While our Cuba policy will not always be in accord with that of our hemispheric and European partners, my administration will begin an active dialogue with them to develop a plan for post-Castro Cuba, a plan that will spark rapid change and a new awakening in that country. The Cuban people have waited long enough.”
“Sitting down at the table, having your picture taken with a tyrant such as Raul Castr
o, for example, lends the status of the office and the status of our country to him. He gains a lot from it by saying, ‘Look at me. I’m now recognized by the president of the United States.’”
“Not so along go Senator Obama favored complete normalization of relations with Fidel Castro’s Cuba. Last night, he said that as president he’d meet with the imprisoned island’s new leader ‘without preconditions.’ So Raul Castro gets an audience with an American president, and all the prestige such a meeting confers, without having to release political prisoners, allow free media, political parties, and labor unions, or schedule internationally monitored free elections.
The Democratic candidates participated in a CNN/Univision debate in Austin, Texas Wednesday night, where Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) tried to stop the Obama campaign’s seeming momentum after his eleven straight victories (NYT) in the recent weeks of the primary season. In their first debate in three weeks, Clinton said she would not meet with Cuban leader Raul Castro unless there is evidence that he is freeing political prisoners, ending “some of the oppressive practices on the press,” and “opening up the economy.”
Most candidates have laid out their positions on U.S.-Cuba policy, and have occasionally expressed concern regarding Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s anti-American rhetoric. But Latin America has rarely generated much debate among Republican candidates this campaign season. The campaigns in Florida, of course, remain an exception. In the days leading up to the state’s January 29 primary, in which Cuban-American voters will represent an estimated ten percent of the Republican vote, candidates have increasingly invoked their anti-Castro positions.
The economy once again took center stage in Thursday night’s MSNBC Republican debate in Boca Raton, Florida. Though candidates first covered domestic economic issues, including President Bush’s new economic stimulus plan, they also answered related questions on the impact of foreign policy on the U.S. economy.
Republican candidates stepped up rhetoric against communist Cuba and President Fidel Castro in a bid to win over Florida’s heavily Republican Cuban vote (McClatchy) ahead of Tuesday’s primary. Mitt Romney pledged not to lift the Cuban embargo (NBC).
Mitt Romney on Meet the Press yesterday attacked Mike Huckabee’s comments in a new Foreign Affairs article that the Bush administration has an “arrogant bunker mentality.” Romney called on Huckabee to apologize to President Bush.
Jim Gilchrist, founder of the anti-illegal immigrant group the Minuteman Project, endorsed Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee yesterday. Huckabee won out over anti-illegal immigration candidate Tom Tancredo (R-CO) even though Gilchrist said Tancredo was the “inspiration for launching the Minuteman Project.” The endorsement also comes as something of a surprise considering accusations from Huckabee’s opponents that he is soft on illegal immigration, like this new ad from the Romney campaign:
When CFR.org started blogging on the U.S. presidential campaign back in May 2007, the foreign policy terrain appeared relatively uncomplicated….
Before a cheering crowd of millions (WashPost) at his inauguration on Tuesday, President Barack Obama called for a “new era…
“We will not apologize for our way of life, nor will we waver in its defense, and for those who…
With Barack Obama set to become the forty-fourth president of the United States today, analysts of international affairs are looking…
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