Argentina wants Cuba to join Latam bloc vs U.S.

[Osolomia]

By Anthony Boadle
Reuters

HAVANA, Nov. 3 — Argentina wants Cuba to join other Latin American countries to negotiate with the United States over a major free trade pact, the new Argentine ambassador to Cuba said on Monday.

''The worst thing we can do to this beautiful country is to isolate it,'' Ambassador Raul Abraham Taleb said at his first news conference in Havana.

''Cuba and other countries must join in the total integration of Latin America, so that we can sit down at the negotiating table with the United States in a strong position,'' Taleb said.

Negotiations on Cuba's $2 billion debt to Argentina will begin in late November, while Cuba will sign contracts to buy 50,000
tons of Argentine wheat on Wednesday, Taleb said.

Cuba, the western hemisphere's only communist nation, was excluded from negotiations on a Free Trade Area of the Americas led by the United States, which has maintained economic sanctions against Cuban President Fidel Castro's government since 1962.

More...
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters11-03-192604.asp?reg=AMERICAS

[La_Serpiente]

1. I'm sorry, but we cannot be beholden to the Cuban Americans

The Senate voted to lift sanctions recently and it is inevitable. I wrote a letter to Dean and Kerry saying that they should lift the sanctions.

Now, I know they recently changed their vote this past year after the dissidents were arrested. However, I think we could reach a compromise on this. If Cuba releases the political prisoners AND does not arrest anymore of them, the sanctions will be lifted.

The sanctions are a product of the Cold War and many of the exiles haven't been to the island in decades. Cubans rank very high on international statistics and they are educated and have medicine.

We have already seen evidence that when there is easing of the sanctions, there is more pluralism in Cuba.

When Bush called on other nations to put pressure on Cuba, I thought that was so stupid of him. The EU has been trading with them for years and Brazil just signed a 200 million dollar trade pact with them.

So while we are sitting here in our own little bubble thinking that other countries will follow the lead, we find out that there is much international support for the lifting of the santions.

[Vogon_Glory]

2. Snactions on Cuba? Looks Like Dubya Will Cause Sanctions on US!

It looks like that as trade disputes and as the US continues to alienate old friends and allies, the problem facing the incumbent and his fellow GOPsters isn't going to be about sanctions on Cuba, but that most of the rest of this hemisphere is going to be aligned against the US.

Gee, thanks, George and Tom! <brappppppppppppt!>

[Say_What]

3. You're right about the bubble and Argentina isn't the only one

who wants Cuba in Mercosur. Lula spoke out about it to--in fact I believe he initiated it.

This month, for the 12th straight year, the UN General Assembly will again vote to condemn the embargo on Cuba. From the beginning most countries condemned it, so you have to know that the embargo was never thought very much of by the planet. Last year the vote was 173 countries voting to condemn. Only three, the US, Israel, and the Marshall Islands voted against. Israel trades with Cuba and Jews travel to the island in droves--the Marshall Islands probably just needs $$$.

While the US tries to starve Cubans into submission, they have the audacity to point their finger and cry "human rights abuses". Meanwhile, free those political prisoners in GITMO (some of whom are CHILDREN) and then talk about how other countries should act. Hypocrisy at its very best displayed as usual by one of the worst human rights abusers in the world--the USA--but 'muiKans are too brainwashed and Bushwacked to see it or to take the time to find out about it.

[Judi Lynn]

5. Couldn't be more important expressing the difference

between the political prisoners at Guantanamo, and the imprisoned "dissidents" and "independent journalists" in Cuba who received money regularly from the U.S., and wrote anti-Cuban articles for years and years, quite openly, actually. Their compliance with U.S. interests, and their sponsorship was verified by Cuban undercover people who worked among them for over a decade. No one is Cuba is laboring under any confusion about where their loyalaties are, and their U.S. patronage.

This kind of "activism" connected to a foreign government would not be tolerated here. Someone already has posted the corresponding legal prohibition at D.U.

Cuba's "political prisoners" are about as far as one could ever get in a universe from the U.S. Guantamo prisoners.

[goforit]

4. I think that is a grand idea!

The US has done nothing but abuse Cuba for a half a century!!!!

GROW UP AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!!