Members of Congress Tour Cuba

With Fidel Castro reported near death and the Bush adminstration showing no signs of thawing relations with Cuba, a bipartisan group of US Congresspeople are visiting Cuba.
The group favors a dialgoue with Cuba and better relations. Apparently the group is there without any official status.

Seems to me that they are undermining the policy of the Bush administration. They are making Bushco look even weaker by not presenting a united front with Cuba.
This is a bad move imho considering the power shift that will occur when Castro dies.

news.bbc.co.uk...

Jeff Flake, a Republican congressman heading the delegation, said he hoped to meet officials and launch a "new era in US-Cuba relations".

It seems that the new Democratic Congress may have an interest in chainging the US policy toward Cuba.

Hence the visit by US lawmakers.
miamiherald story

But now the ailing Castro is largely viewed as unlikely to return to power. Democrats, traditionally less inclined to back the sanctions against Cuba, are set to control Congress. Bush is looking more like a lame-duck leader and his brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, is leaving office in January.

Adding to that perfect-storm scenario, a report by the watchdog Government Accountability Office last month questioned the efficiency of U.S. democracy programs to support dissidents on the island, giving more fuel to foes who argue that a change in policy is overdue.

''If you're a hard-liner on policy toward Cuba, things are not looking very good for you,'' said Tomas Bilbao, executive director of the Cuba Study Group, a centrist nonpartisan group based in Miami and Washington.

While I don't like members of Congress acting like they're in charge of foreign policy negotiations, it is probably time to drop sanctions against Cuba. The sanctions haven't worked to remove Castro and with these changes taking place, I think engaging and trading with Cuba is more likely to drive change there than sticking with the sanctions.

Agreed. I thought there were proper channels for this type of mission. It sneds the wrong message to the world.



Anyhow, I also agree it time to re-evaluate our relations with Cuba. We trade with Communist China. We trade with Russia.
We have this situation with a country 90 miles off our shore.
Time for a change, imho.

It will be interesing to see how this plays out as the Cubans living in Florida have been vocal in their displeasure of Castro--either brother-- and Cuba.

so let me get this straight: it is illegal for me, as a private citizen, to enter the country of cuba but congressmen can do so without any official sanction and all that happens is that they make the news? am i the only one who finds that more than slightly hypocritical?

twenty bucks says they took a government jet and will be allowed to bypass customs....ie, they all bring back personal boxes of cuban cigars.

I don't think it's illegal for Americans to visit Cuba anymore, although you have to go through a third country to do it, as there's still no legal regularly-scheduled commercial flights between the U.S. and Cuba.