The top story from the Americas in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and Miami Herald this morning is again from Cuba where all three papers run an AP story about a meeting between Raúl Castro and six U.S. lawmakers in Havana. The lawmakers, led by Congressional Black Caucus chairwoman, Barbara Lee (D-CA), were the first U.S. leaders to meet with the younger Castro since he assumed the presidency in 2006. An official communiqué provided no details of what was discussed or how long the meeting lasted, but did say the group of U.S. legislators also met with the head of parliament and Cuba’s foreign minister. After praising Senator Richard Lugar (R-IN) in a Monday column that ran in a Cuban state newspaper, Fidel Castro also saluted the members of the Congressional Black Caucus for traveling to the island in a piece posted late Monday night on a government Web site. The former leader said he “values the gesture of the legislative group, adding that “it's unlikely that the delegation has seen a face twisted with an expression of hate, and maybe they admire the total absence of illiterate people or children shining shoes in the street.” In a separate MH piece, White House advisor to the upcoming Summit of the Americas, Jeffrey Davidow, confirmed on Monday that President Barack Obama intended to ease family travel and remittances to Cuba in the coming days, while adding that the administration hopes Cuba will not dominate next week’s gathering of the 34 hemispheric leaders in Trinidad and Tobago. Mr. Davidow would not rule out a meeting between Obama and Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez either
From the Washington Post, more on Cuba in an opinion piece from yesterday by Marc Thiessen, former spokesman for the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under past conservative chairman, ex-Senator Jesse Helms (R-NC). Reacting to the announcement that the Obama administration would lift travel and remittance restrictions, Thiessen writes that Raúl Castro is a little respected figure within the Cuban hierarchy and that leadership infighting within Cuba centers around who can end the U.S. embargo. Thus, according to Thiessen, the embargo and other restrictions should not be lifted as they remain the U.S.’s best leverage for strengthening democracy and influencing who Castro’s successor might be.
And in the LA Times an opinion piece from a Drug Policy Alliance associate says that with drug-fuelled violence raging in Mexico, President Obama has yet to go far enough in supporting changes to U.S. marijuana policy. The piece cites the drug policy findings of the Latin America Commission on Drugs and Democracy which urged policymakers to spark public debate on the decriminalization of marijuana and other measures. However, the writer argues that in a recent online town hall meeting, President Obama brushed off questions about changing marijuana policy jokingly. “I don't know what this says about the online audience. This was a fairly popular question; we want to make sure that it was answered. The answer is no, I don't think that's a good strategy to grow our economy,” the op-ed reports Obama saying.
Also in the WSJ, more from Cuba. The paper reports that while the U.S. has limited the entry of immigrants to the United States during the global economic downturn, it has expanded the number of U.S.-bound migrants who can establish that they are citizens of Cuba, even if they have never set foot on the island. According to Homeland Security records, in just the last fiscal year, nearly 41,000 residence permits were issued to foreigners asking to stay under the Cuban Adjustment Act of 1966. Of those permits, more than 3,400 were born in a country other than Cuba, up from 2,725 applicants with a similar status during the previous fiscal year. Curiously, the paper reports that even nine Cubans were admitted from Ukraine.
In an opinion piece running today in the MH, the chairmen of the House Foreign Affairs, Armed Services, and Intelligence Committees together argue that talk of Mexico as a failed state is nonsense but add that the U.S. must aid Mexico by fully funding the three-year, $1.4 billion Mérida Initiative. However, the three House chairmen argue that the initiative alone is not enough and say a comprehensive, cross-jurisdictional domestic effort to complement Mérida is needed, along with a Mérida central coordinator perhaps sitting on the National Security Council. Lastly, Congressmen Howard Berman, Ike Skelton, and Silvestre Reyes propose authorizing the president to “establish a Western Hemisphere drug policy commission to review and assess the critical steps required to tackle more effectively the scourge of illegal drugs and its attendant violence.” The three men recently traveled to Mexico to meet with Mexican drug officials.
Finally, two additional notes of interest in the MH. First, an AP report on Venezuela says that country has reached an agreement with Japan to deepen ties in energy, investment and trade, with Japanese companies ready to participate in gas and crude production in Venezuela shortly. Chávez has said Venezuela expects $500 million in Japanese investment to help upgrade Venezuela's Puerto La Cruz refinery. And finally, ahead of next week’s Haiti donors conference in Washington, D.C., a top U.N. official says Haiti's economy has been battered by $1 billion in damage from last year's hurricanes and a drop in money transfers from Haitians working abroad, primarily caused by the global financial crisis.
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