Rubio & Menendez Amendment on Cuba

Sen. Marco Rubio and Sen. Bob Menendez (D - New Jersey) are co-sponsoring an amendment to the Federal Aviation Administration bill. The amendment would "prevent the expansion of commerce through direct flights with state sponsors of terrorism."

The press release:

"Increasing direct commercial or charter aircraft flights with state sponsors of terrorism is totally irresponsible and would amount to unilateral gifts to tyrants and regimes that actively undermine America’s security," Rubio said. "There is no reason for the United States to help enrich state sponsors of terrorism, especially at a time when free trade agreements with our close allies in Colombia, Panama and South Korea are lingering."

Cuba was placed on the State Department's list of nations sponsoring terrorism in 1982. My personal believe is that the embargo has been a failure. I do wonder did anyone in the Obama administration think about how commercial flights could be justified when its own State Department considers Cuba a terrorist nation. Something tells me President Obama and Sec. of State Hillary Clinton didn't think out the political implications. The Cuban government made complaints to the Obama administration about being on the State DEpartment list. Obama's response was to keep Cuba on the list.

Rubio comes from a family of Cuban hardliners. Rubio's position doesn't surprise me. Rubio overstates the danger posed to the United States by Cuba. After the collapse of the Soviet Union. The Revolutionary Armed Forces has suffered poor morale and has only 49,000 military personnel. Cuba has turned to Pakistan for military assistance. Pakistan is hardly a military powerhouse and sponsors more terrorism than Cuba. Yet the United States considers Pakistan an ally.

Cuba is on friendly terms with nations tied to terrorism. The Obama administration's complaint against Cuba is on the harboring of terrorists. The Raul Castro could help its own cause by kicking ETA terrorists out of the country. Unfortunately, Castro is just as stubborn has his brother.

Obama is triangulating his Cuba policy. Obama wants to label Cuba a terrorist state and open travel and future trade. Obama wants to use the China model and hope that capitalism eventually destroys communism. Cuba is ripe for redevelopment. The nation was a tourist mecca before Fidel Castro took power.

Tourism in pre-1959 Cuba was a major industry and a primary source of hard currency and employment. In 1957, 347,508 foreigners visited Cuba (Truslow 1950; Grupo Cubanode Investigaciones Económicas 1963; Martín Fernández 1988) and tourist receipts
amounted to 62.1 million pesos. In that year, hard currency earnings from tourism were greater than those from the tobacco industry and were only surpassed by earnings from the sugar industry (Banco Nacional de Cuba, 1960b, 1960c). During the
1950s, Cuba’s share of the Caribbean tourism market ranged between 18 and 21 percent (Espino 1994; 1993; 1991) and most visitors to the island were from the United States.

Fidel Castro was forced to open Cuba to tourism after the Soviet Union fell. The Castro government practices tourism apartied. Cubans are not allowed to enter areas where tourists shop or stay.

Cuba and the United States policy are both a mess. Both expect either to chanfe anytime soon.