Sargent Shriver joins a bipartisan group of prominent business leaders, ex-government officials, elected officials and humanitarian leaders from across the nation today, in an open letter to President Bush, who call on the administration to work with the majority of members of Congress who seek to lift all restrictions on humanitarian trade and free travel to Cuba
Prominent American Leaders Call Upon Administration to Lift All Restrictions on Humanitarian Trade and Travel to Cuba
Thursday May 20, 2:22 pm ET
WASHINGTON, May 20 /PRNewswire/ -- A bipartisan group of prominent business leaders, ex-government officials, elected officials and humanitarian leaders from across the nation today, in an open letter to President Bush, called on the administration to work with the majority of members of Congress who seek to lift all restrictions on humanitarian trade and free travel to Cuba.
The letter was issued by Americans For Humanitarian Trade With Cuba (AHTC) in response to the administration's recent adoption of measures that would limit Cuban American family visits, humanitarian aid and travel recommended by its interagency Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba.
"These draconian and anachronistic limits on family interaction play right into Castro's hands," AHTC Chairman Sam Gibbons, a former 34-year member of Congress from Tampa and WWII war hero, said. "It's time we turned the tables on Castro by increasing -- not limiting -- American interaction with the people of Cuba by allowing free travel and normal humanitarian trade."
"Mikhail Gorbachev asked President Bush to 'tear down the wall of embargo' when he came to Miami to support the majority of Cuban Americans who want more engagement with Cuba. Instead, President Bush has built a wall so high we cannot even see our families in Cuba anymore," said one of the signers of the letter, Silvia Wilhelm, President of Miami-based Puentes Cubanos and a member of AHTC's Advisory Council.
Text of the letter and list of signers follow:
May 20, 2004
Dear Mr. President,
We are proud of the historic tradition of Americans meeting the needs of
hungry and sick people wherever they are found. Americans have been long
recognized for being generous and giving. Few people have stronger
historic, cultural and particularly family ties to Americans than the
people of Cuba. For humanitarian reasons alone, they deserve our
support.
In this spirit, we are concerned that your recent moves to limit Cuban
Americans' ability to help family in Cuba contradicts that historic
tradition. Despite the passage of legislation in 2000 which has allowed
some American companies to make cash sales of food to Cuba, ordinary
Cubans are also paying a bitter price for the continued restrictions on
the sale of U.S, food and medical products. The recent tightening of
American travel limits the interaction so widely appreciated by the Cuban
people.
For our country to continue to deny the Cuban people the normal transfer
of food and medicines and normal contact with American citizens achieves
nothing. Forty-three years of the strongest embargo in our history has
resulted in increased hardship for the people of Cuba while making no
change whatsoever in the political makeup of the Cuban government. We
can no longer support a policy carried out in our name which causes
suffering of the most vulnerable-women, children and the elderly.
We call upon you to work with a majority of members of the U.S. Congress
who seek to lift all restrictions on the sale of agricultural products
and medicines to Cuba including restrictions on travel to Cuba, which
hinder the ability to meet with Cuban counterparts, block efforts to
achieve humanitarian trade and violate Americans' fundamental right to
freedom of movement. These changes would be totally consistent with
current U.S. policy as expressed by the Department of State and spelled-
out in the Cuban Democracy Act and the Helms-Burton laws to "support the
Cuban people."
Sincerely,
David Rockefeller
South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford
Carla Anderson Hills, former U.S. Trade Representative under first President Bush
Paul Volcker, former chair of the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank
Frank Carlucci, Reagan National Security Adviser
James Schlesinger, former Nixon CIA Director and Secretary of Defense
John Whitehead, former Assistant Sec. of State
General Jack Sheehan, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander
Peter H. Coors, Chairman, Coors Brewing Company, Colorado
Craig L. Fuller, Former Chief of Staff, Vice President Bush and President, National Association of Chain Drug Stores
Francis Ford Coppola, producer/director
Dwayne Andreas, Chairman Emeritus, Archer Daniels Midland Company
Mayor Micheal Dow, Mobile, Alabama
Bob Odom, Louisiana Commissioner of Agriculture
former U.S. Surgeon General Julius Richmond
Oliver Stone, producer/director
Dr. Alberto Coll, Pell Center, Rhode Island (Cuban American)
Silvia Wilhelm, Puentes Cubanos, Miami (Cuban American)
Richard E. Feinberg, Former NSC Chief for Latin America, President Clinton
Phil Baum, American Jewish Congress
Lloyd M. Bentsen, Jr., former Treasury Secretary under President Clinton
Reginald K. Brack, Jr., former Chairman, Time Inc.
Dr. Joan Brown Campbell, Chautauqua Institution
A.W. Clausen, former Chairman BankAmerica Corporation and former President World Bank
Mark O. Hatfield, former U.S. Senator, Oregon, Chairman Appropriations Committee
Dennis Rivera, President 1199, National Health & Human Service Employees Union
Kurt L. Schmoke, Former Mayor, Baltimore
Sargent Shriver, Special Olympics International
Malcolm Wallop, Former U.S. Senator, Wyoming
George Sturgis Pillsbury, Sargent Management Company, Minnesota
Jim Winkler, General Secretary United Methodist Church
A.J. Pete Reixach, Director, Port of Freeport, Texas and Former Pres., Gulf Coast Ports Association
Rev. Dr. Robert Edgar, former U.S. Representative, now General Secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ of the U.S.A
