Dodd would lift the blockade

Quote:

Flooding Cuba with American capital might further undermine the what's left of Cuban socialism unless very carefully and slowly managed.

new_man_of_communism wrote:

I think that is debatable. Flooding Cuba with American capital might further undermine the what's left of Cuban socialism unless very carefully and slowly managed.

Quote:

Clinton is not excluded from all of this, neither is the Democratic Party’s candidate. The Helms-Burton Act was passed with his support, with a ready-made excuse: the downing of Brothers to the Rescue planes, those which on more than one occasion had flown over the city of Havana and which had violated Cuban territory dozens of times. The order to fend off flights over the Capital had been given to the Cuban Air Force just weeks earlier.

I must tell you that, close to that episode, Congressman Bill Richardson had arrived on a visit to Cuba on January 19, 1996. As usual, he brought with him petitions asking that several counter-revolutionaries be released from prison. We explained to him that we were by now tired of receiving such petitions, and I talked to him about what was happening with the Brothers to the Rescue flights. I also talked to him about the unfulfilled promises regarding the blockade. Richardson returned a few days later, on the 10th of February, and very earnestly told me, to the best of my recollection, the following: "That will not be happening again; the President has ordered those flights to be suspended".

In those days, I believed that orders issued by the President of the United States would be carried out. The planes were brought down on February 24, some days after the reply. The New Yorker Magazine supplies details about that meeting with Richardson.

Apparently, Clinton gave the order to suspend those flights, but nobody paid any attention to it. It was an election year, and he took advantage of that excuse to invite the Foundation leaders over and to sign that criminal Act, with the approval of all.