Staunch anti-Castro U.S. congressman to retire (some good news)

[flamingdem]

* The expectation is that Joe Garcia will step into the game, he is "pro-embargo" (a necessity in Southern Florida still?), but positive about lifting the travel ban

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE61A41520100211

Staunch anti-Castro U.S. congressman to retire
Jane Sutton
MIAMI
Thu Feb 11, 2010 4:31pm EST


MIAMI (Reuters) - Republican U.S. Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, one of Congress' staunchest supporters of the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba, said on Thursday he would not seek re-election to his Florida congressional district.

Havana-born Diaz-Balart, 55, has represented a predominantly Hispanic district in the Miami area since 1993.

"Today, I am announcing that I will not seek a 10th term in the United States Congress this November," he told reporters in Miami. He said he planned to return to practicing law.

His brother, Republican U.S. Representative Mario Diaz-Balart, also holds a Florida congressional seat. He said on Thursday he would run in November for Lincoln's District 21 seat, which is considered more reliably Republican than the District 25 seat Mario currently holds.

All 435 seats in the Democrat-controlled House of Representatives will be up for grabs in November. There are now 18 House Republicans and 12 Democrats who have said they will not run for re-election.

The Diaz-Balart brothers and Cuban-born U.S. Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen of Florida have been a powerful force in support of a hard-line U.S. policy against the communist government in Cuba established by Fidel Castro after his 1959 nationalist revolution on the island.

Analysts of U.S.-Cuban relations said that because of Lincoln Diaz-Balart's seniority in the House, his absence from November would be felt among supporters of the embargo.

"His departure is significant in that he is stalwart and effective and he has seniority," said Phil Peters, a Cuba expert with the Lexington Institute in Virginia.

But analysts said Lincoln Diaz-Balart's announcement, and his brother's decision to run for the safer District 21 seat, also reflected a more moderating shift in the anti-communist Cuban exile community in recent years in favor of greater contacts with Cuba, as opposed to isolation.

"He understands that his base is changing and shifting," said Carlos Saladrigas, a Cuban American businessman in Miami who argues that the best way for Washington to bring political change to Cuba is to increase contacts and engagement.

"There are a significant amount of Cuban Americans who are voting with their feet," added Saladrigas, citing the increased numbers of Cuban exiles who have visited their homeland since U.S. President Barack Obama last year eased restrictions on Cuban-American family travel to the island.

"PROUD" OF TIGHTENED EMBARGO ON CUBA

The U.S. embargo, which currently prohibits all trade except for the non-subsidized sale of food and medicine, took effect in 1962, after Castro embraced communism and aligned himself with the Soviet Union.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart said one of his proudest achievements was helping write into law a provision that prevents U.S. presidents from lifting the embargo until Cuba frees all political prisoners, legalizes political parties and labor unions and schedules free multiparty elections.

"The reason why the world today debates the issue of Cuba, in contrast to the also condemnable internal situations in the other totalitarian states ... is because the U.S. embargo exists, and will continue to exist until those three fundamental conditions are met," he said.

The aunt of Lincoln Diaz-Balart is Mirta Diaz-Balart, Castro's ex-wife.

Debate over the U.S. embargo's effectiveness increased after Castro stepped down as Cuban president in 2008. He was replaced by his brother Raul Castro, who has largely maintained his brother's policies to preserve Cuba's communist system.

Lincoln Diaz-Balart said he would work to support Cuban political prisoners, without specifying how.

"I am convinced that in the upcoming chapter of the struggle, I can be more useful to the inevitable change that will soon come to Cuba, to Cuba's freedom, as a private citizen dedicated to helping the heroes within Cuba ..." he said.

Ros-Lehtinen praised his work on behalf of immigrants and called his departure a sad day for south Florida, which has the United States' largest concentration of Cuban exiles.

"We have lost a tireless fighter for a free and democratic Cuba and a savvy and keen parliamentarian who was a great leader in the Rules Committee, one of the most powerful committees in Congress," she said.

(Additional reporting by Tom Ferraro and Pascal Fletcher; Editing by Eric Beech)

[Judi Lynn]

1. There's something fishy if Lincoln Diaz-Balart is stepping down.

Seems if he does, it's only because he's planning to run for the Senate, or Florida Governor. He's far too obsessed with the power he has enjoyed being a Congressman, just like his dear old dad, Rafael, who started out as the attorney for the United Fruit Company in Cuba and worked his way up to Speaker of the House of Representatives there, before being appointed to Fulgencio Batista's cabinet as Secretary of the Interior.

We're just going to have to see what his next move is!

Joe Garcia was the spokesman for the Cuban American National Foundation for years. He is vicious. He's pretending to be a little more moderate these days, but he's still the same guy who has always raged against people who want to have dialogue with Cuba.

It's great Ileana Ros-Lehtinen is losing her old side-kick, Lincoln. The two of them have wrought havoc together, thwarting all the legislation concerning Cuba, destroying it in committee, spreading false rumors, false information in Congress, like their whopper Cuba i1 s making dual-use biological weapons in their medical research laboratories.

Cuba extended a standing invitation to Jimmy Carter when he was there on a personal visit, and addressed the nation live on tv and radio, and toured the island, throwing open the doors to him to come back to Cuba at any time, bringing his own experts to thoroughly examine, without warning, their medical research laboratories. He has passed on THAT information to the world, with no hesitation.

Joe Garcia has absolutely NO charisma whatsoever, and he may get a horse laugh from the community when he attempts to campaign, from what I've seen. Lincoln Diaz-Balart and his brother always carried the authority with the "exile" community of their own father, who was powerful in Cuba and in Miami, subsequently, after the revolution. Highly regarded by fellow right-wing, racist Battistianos.

Oh, oh! Here's some real Diaz Balart fantasy, from the article:

"I am convinced that in the upcoming chapter of the struggle, I can be more useful to the inevitable change that will soon come to Cuba, to Cuba's freedom, as a private citizen dedicated to helping the heroes within Cuba ..." he said.

God, isn't that sad? He's yet ANOTHER guy who sees himself as the next President of Cuba, just like the late head of the C.A.N.F., Jorge Mas Canosa! Holy smokes!

They envision themselves, resplendant in their white linen suits motoring down the street while the poor of Cuba prostrate themselves as they roll by.....

Boy would they ever be in for one hell of a surprise! They'd be praying for the next go-fast boat to get them back to Miami in a hurry.

http://media.naplesnews.com.nyud.net:8090/media/img/photos/2009/12/03/090521nst.gofast_pogodu_t607.jpg

http://www.wavelife.com.nyud.net:8090/wave-online-issues/W22/poker-run/poker-miami.jpg

http://horsesmouth.typepad.com.nyud.net:8090/hm/PumpkinBoat.jpg

[flamingdem]

2. Thanks Judy! That was a good laugh

envisioning the Balart Bros. dropping their Cohibas and hightailing it out of Havana.

Thanks for the information, especially about Joe Garcia. Too bad that the pro-Change advocates don't have another choice of candidate.

Who are the progressive leaders in Miami? I can't seem to identify them but there are more and more young Cubans pushing for an opening.

[Judi Lynn]

3. The name I've heard before is Annie Betancourt, a Democrat who ran against Mario Diaz Balart.

Since he's going after Lincoln's seat, she might run again for his spot. (Joe Garcia claims to be a Democrat, too, but no one would view him as progressive.)

From what I've heard, she's well liked, and she supports progressive ideas toward Cuba.

http://www.lwv.org.nyud.net:8090/AM/Images/Leaders/storybank/Betancourt.jpg
Miami New Times:

Politics & Parties & Power
How to campaign in the new House District 25? There's always Cuba.
Share

By Kirk Nielsen
Published on October 31, 2002

It used to be that challenging the Cuba embargo establishment in this town could get you spit on, fired, ostracized, bombed, or even shot. Now, in these more civilized times, it only gets you accused of being a one-issue candidate, at least in the race for Florida's new U.S. House District 25.

This district is one big anomaly, with several smaller ones inside it. Geographically it creates a strange unity between the Cubans and other Latinos in the urban sprawl of west Miami-Dade and the Anglos who inhabit the swamplands of eastern Collier County. Somehow its easternmost point wedges into the wealthy seaside enclave of Palmetto Bay in Anglo-centric South Dade; its western extreme is Naples on the Gulf Coast. Politically it is the only congressional contest in the nation in which Fidel Castro plays a pivotal role. Stranger still is that the two candidates actually differ on how the United States should deal with the planet's longest-reigning socialist dictator -- and both are Cuban Americans. One was born in Havana in 1947 and is the widow of a Bay of Pigs veteran; the other was born in Fort Lauderdale in 1961, two years after the revolution. Guess which one supports a rethinking of U.S. Cuba policy?

Earlier this month former state Rep. Annie Betancourt, the Democratic Party candidate, sent a letter to the Miami Herald articulating a widely held view about the trade embargo against the island: "The current outdated policy has only served to isolate the Cuban people and has given the Castro regime an excuse for failed economic policies," she wrote. "It is time to frame a changed posture towards Cuba, one that doesn't pander to the Cuban regime but likewise doesn't punish the Cuban people. It is time to put an end to the tired and fruitless formulas that have helped perpetuate the power of a tyrant." The 55-year-old Miami-Dade County Public Schools administrator added, "I will not be afraid to take the first steps to change this policy by considering different options and working with my colleagues in Congress to build consensus."

It was a bold move for someone running in Miami-Dade. But opinion polls show that while a diminishing majority of el exilio supports the embargo, a growing majority also considers it a failed policy. "The current policy is incoherent," Betancourt said on a sunny Monday afternoon in Margaret Pace Park, upshore from the Heraldbuilding, where she had just met with the paper's editorial board along with her rival, former state Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, a Republican. The federal government does not enforce its ban on travel to Cuba, she noted, and Cuban Americans send millions of dollars annually to relatives on the island.

Why take this stand now? "Because I've seen the changes coming," she replied with a hint of exasperation, speaking English tinged with a Miami Cuban accent. "I think I have evolved in my thinking. And I still admit that it's an oppressive regime, that he's a tyrant, and I do it with a deep respect of people who have been in jail.... But when it comes to the policy, first it's not being enforced. Let's revise it, that's all I'm saying."

Even if she loses, Betancourt has made history by being the county's first Cuban American in public office to publicly reject the embargo. And some of the most informed political minds of el exiliowere impressed with Betancourt's stand. "I think it's a very good tactical move," opined public opinion analyst Sergio Bendixen shortly after her announcement. "But more importantly, it's a courageous cmove that will benefit political dialogue and political maturity for this community."

However, the guardians of those circles in which questioning the embargo is tantamount to treason swiftly denounced Betancourt. U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican whose coastal District 18 stretches from Key West to Surfside, branded her pro-Castro. "There is certainly money to be made in holding these positions in favor of Castro," Ros-Lehtinen told the Herald, suggesting that Betancourt's announcement was a ploy to attract campaign contributions from companies eager to do business in Cuba.

More:
http://www.miaminewtimes.com/2002-10-31/news/politics-parties-power/

It would be such a wonderful change seeing someone like Annie Betancourt going to Congress from Miami!

Hope more like her will be coming forward now the Diaz-Balart-Ros-Lehtinen 3-member mafia has lost the loud mouth.

[Billy Burnett]

4. Judi, FWIW, I worked for the Annie Betancourt campaign.

Along with many volunteers, I was accused and hounded as a "Castro supporter" by many older gen exiles. I was posting reports on DU during the campaign (before the advent of DU's Lat Am forum).

Even Annie thought my positions on (support for) the Cuban revolution were extreme. ;)

Needless to say, she (we) lost.








:hi:

[Judi Lynn]

5. I didn't want to "out" you without your permission, as a Betancourt supporter!

She just didn't have the bankroll and the power behind her Mario had.

Now she has more name recognition.

Do you think she'll try it again? As the Battistianos fade away, the community should consider aligning with more moderate Cuban Americans, it would seem....

I imagine she did see your beliefs as more in touch with sanity privately, Billy Burnett!