Chuck Hagel + Kerry = Buh Bye Embargo

[flamingdem]

(In spite of Robert Menendez and his one trick Cuba pony in the Senate)

Chuck Hagel Worked To Lift The Cuba Embargo

Another point of conflict with Senate Republicans.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/andrewkaczynski/chuck-hagel-worked-to-lift-the-cuba-embargo

Add the Cuba embargo to the growing list of hot-button issues Defense Secretary nominee Chuck Hagel may have to address during his impending confirmation hearings.

Hagel first wrote to President Clinton in 1999 after Clinton announced he was loosening restrictions on humanitarian aid and travel to Cuba, calling it a "good first step." But Hagel added "he should have done more."

When calling for a bipartisan commission to review the U.S. policy toward Cuba, Hagel called it "outdated and ineffective, and not relevant for the next century."

In 2001, Hagel and former Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd introduced a bill to open the Cuban market for the export of American agricultural and medical products.

"The exports of American food and medicine is not just an economic issue, it is also a humanitarian undertaking. Blocking exports in these commodities harm the health and nutrition of the people of the sanctioned nation. It does nothing to harm governments and the government leaders with which we disagree," said Hagel.

"Passage of this provision, and the one last year, acknowledges what most Nebraska grain and livestock producers have always known – when the United States places unilateral sanctions on other nations, American producers are hurt, not the sanctioned nation," Hagel continued.

[rustydog]

1. We can't lose that embargo! shit we borrow 800-million a week from CHINA

to finance fighting the Afghan war but the IMPORTANT ISSUE is we need to keep up the embargo of the evil cubans.

[flamingdem]

3. It's amazing how few people benefit off the embargo

vs how many would benefit, such as US farmers, if it were lifted.

Too bad for Cuba that they don't have oil or we'd be over there making friends or .. well let's hope it would be friendly anyway!

[TwilightGardener]

2. Marco Rubio already said he won't vote for Hagel because of it--will he vote

for Kerry?

[flamingdem]

4. Good question, I wonder if he has piped up about that

Rubio's popularity rating is 10% in Florida I believe!

Those one trick Cuba pony positions he holds won't make him many new friends.

[TwilightGardener]

9. I will bet money that Rubio votes for Kerry.

[libinnyandia]

5. I just saw a program on PBS about how Cuba has escaped some of the environmental

disasters Americans have caused in other places. I hope if the embargo is ended thry aren't hurt by overdevelopment.

[flamingdem]

7. Inadvertently they are one of the most pristine places in the Caribbean

There is a great CNN special about the coral reefs having many species that are extinct elsewhere. They are protecting the reefs from tourists very carefully. I just had to do a quick search to check:



Named for Queen Isabella of Spain 500 years ago by Christopher Columbus, the Gardens of the Queen (Jardines de la Reina) archipelago is a string of hundreds of mangrove-fringed islets and keys stretching over 150 kilometers along Cuba’s southeastern coast. Still nearly devoid of human footprints today, the area is “a window into the Caribbean as it looked in Columbus’ time,” says Dan Whittle, director of EDF’s Cuba program.

In the 1990s, the Cuban government set aside the Gardens as an 850-square-mile marine reserve—the biggest in the Caribbean–as part of a planned island-wide network designed with help from EDF. With commercial fishing and other damaging activities restricted, the area, now a national park, provides a baseline for gauging the health of sea life and habitat in adjacent areas where such activities are not curtailed.

With no inhabitants and only several hundred divers allowed each year, this highly productive, biodiverse area contains some of the most pristine coral reefs left in the Caribbean and remains a haven for fish and other sea life. The reserve has large populations of sea turtles, including hawksbill and green, and an abundance of sharks, huge groupers and thick seagrass meadows—all indicating an ecosystem in balance.

We’re working with our Cuban partners to conduct research and develop management strategies for the Gardens. The reserve, together with the Canarreos archipelago on the southern rim of the Gulf of Batabano, has been proposed as a World Heritage Site. This 500-mile-long stretch, which includes nine protected areas, is the subject of a five-year Global Environmental Facility (GEF) project on ecological reserves and coral reefs.

Pairing marine reserves with incentives for fishermen

Illegal fishing and conflicts with fishermen are major threats to protected areas throughout the Caribbean. In the Gardens, enforcement is a big issue. For cash-strapped Cuba, patrol boats are prohibitively expensive. But, with the right incentives, fishermen can be persuaded to help conserve the resource. For example, by granting fisherman the rights to fish on the edges of protected areas where abundant fish spill over into fishing grounds, they can become partners instead of adversaries.

[Joe Shlabotnik]

6. Decades overdue. Get over it, and end the cold war. n/t

[flamingdem]

8. Believe it or not Robert Menendez will make it his number 1 priority

to block any move made to soften the embargo.. so Kerry may not want to waste time there but somehow I think he'll figure out a way to improve things. The Cubans trust him much more than Hillary and they had a bad experience with Susan Rice who was somewhat arrogant with them. Kerry understands the situation much better, I'm not sure what role Hagel would play.

[Hekate]

10. Hot damn. I could forgive Hagel the sins of his past for this.

The Cuba embargo is one of the stupidest things this country engages in.