Bangla2000 | International News - Even Cuba agrees with USA

Elian Gonzalez is welcomed by his grandfather Rolando Betancourt Wednesday June 28, 2000 upon his arrival at the Jose Marti Airport in Havana, Cuba. Seven months after he was cast adrift in the Florida straits, Elian Gonzalez returned to his native Cuba, bringing to a close an international custody battle laced with Cold War passions.

WASHINGTON (AP) - It was a rare example of the United States and Cuba on the same side of an issue, both countries agreeing that Elian Gonzalez belonged back in Cuba.

But as Elian returned to his homeland Wednesday for the first time in seven months, freed by a Supreme Court ruling, President Bill Clinton said he saw little hope for a broader improvement in relations with the Fidel Castro government in Havana.

Before that can happen, there must be a bipartisan majority on Capitol Hill which believes that Cuba has made a "fundamental change" toward pursuit of a new relationship with Washington, Clinton told a news conference.

Clinton said he was not prepared to attach much significance to an agreement reached earlier this week in which House Republicans, in an unprecedented move, agreed to allow sales of food and medicine to Cuba provided they are not financed by either the federal government or private U.S. sources. Cuba would have to pay cash or else obtain credit from a third country, lawmakers said.

Clinton said he first wanted to see an analysis of how U.S. exports to Cuba would be affected, and he also complained about limitations on travel to Cuba that were included in the package.

Anti-Castro lawmakers managed to win approval of language that would bar any expansion of travel to Cuba beyond the dozen or so categories of Americans who are allowed to visit the island. Among those disqualified by the government for such travel are tourists.

In addition, the agreement would prevent a president from either expanding or contracting the category list without congressional approval.

The Clinton administration has strongly supported increased travel by Americans on grounds it expands people-to-people contacts and exposes ordinary Cubans to democratic ideas without strengthening Castro's regime.

Clinton called these contacts "very important" and expressed reservations about any move by Congress that would undermine the policy. Official figures show that travel from the United States to Cuba increased by almost 50 percent last year.

The agreement to allow unlimited food and medicine sales to Cuba for the first time in almost 40 years was hailed as a breakthrough by some free trade advocates.

But the tight restrictions on financing written into the agreement were such that they left anti-Castro lawmakers proclaiming victory and some anti-embargo counterparts wringing their hands.

The maneuvering on Capitol Hill shows the anti-Castro lobby still has strength but there is broad agreement among analysts that the Elian case has weakened conservative Cuban-American groups in general.

This trend is acknowledged by officials of the Cuban American National Foundation, the most powerful of these groups.

The foundation was in the forefront of the groups that fought for lian's right to remain in the United States, a stand opposed by a majority of Americans.

The foundation is embarked on a campaign to recover lost ground, including a major expansion of its Washington office and a television advertising campaign that seeks to remind Americans of what it regards as the true nature of the Cuban regime.

Richard Nuccio, a former adviser to Clinton on Cuba policy, believes the erosion of influence of groups such as the Cuban American National Foundation is healthy.

"Policy (toward Cuba) has been formulated more toward placating domestic political interests than to doing what many believed would be in the national interest," Nuccio says.

"By damaging the image of that Cuban-American leadership, the Elian case is producing pressure for a re-evaluation of U.S. policy toward Cuba that will be perhaps a better balance between domestic and foreign policy interests."

John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, says the fallout from the Elian struggle helped create a climate for easing the embargo, a phenomenon he says was supplemented by a newly energized farm lobby that is eager for new markets.

But Jose Cardenas, CANF's Washington director, says a fundamental change in Cuba policy is not in the works.

"I can't for the life of me imagine seeing a senior U.S. policy-maker worth his salt standing up before the country and the world announcing a radical change in U.S.-Cuban relations without Castro providing a mega-reason to do so," he says.