US is firm in strategy toward Cuba
Commerce official says island's policy needs to change
WASHINGTON -- Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutiérrez had some straight talk yesterday for lawmakers and business groups pressing for a softer approach toward Cuba as the island prepares for a post-Fidel Castro era.
The Bush administration won't waver from its tough stance toward Havana, he said.
"The question is not when will the US change its policy," Gutiérrez said at a Council of the Americas event on Cuba.
"The question is when will the Cuban regime change its policy," he added .
Gutiérrez took aim at critics of the US policy who say that, after 48 years of attempting to isolate Cuba politically and economically, the time has come for a different approach.
He dismissed the argument, long espoused by Castro, that US sanctions against Cuba are to blame for the island's hardships. The United States, Gutiérrez noted, supplies one-third of the island's food and medicine, and millions of foreign tourists haven't improved the plight of the Cuban people.
Congress is expected to debate several bills that would relax travel and trade sanctions against Cuba. Democratic control of Congress for the first time since 1994 gives hope that some restrictions will be relaxed to opponents of US policies toward Cuba.
Also, the island is thought by many to be undergoing a transition after Castro fell gravely ill last summer.
In a jab at some Democrats who oppose free-trade agreements because they don't take labor rights into account, Gutiérrez said foreign companies paid the Cuban government for their labor in dollars but that the workers received only a fraction of that money in pesos.
"And pity the worker who dares talk openly about the need to organize and operate unions," he said.
"The topics of trade, globalization , and the working conditions of foreign laborers are being discussed when debated regularly in Washington, D.C. But why do labor conditions lose relevance when it comes to Cuba?" Gutiérrez asked .
Gutiérrez, the highest-ranking Cuban-American in the Bush administration, rejected the idea that the administration could relax its restrictions on Cuban-American travel to the island. "We believe our policy is correct," he said.
He also said President Bush "has no imperialist intentions. We have no military intentions to occupy the island."
"We will not confiscate property or support any arbitrary claims for property," he added.
