Re: News: US names Cuba transition coordinator

[JohnnyCastaway]

well, "interesting" would be a word....   :th:  
 
 
 US names 'Cuba transition coordinator'
 
 Friday, July 29, 2005
 WASHINGTON, USA (AFP): Caleb McCarry, a veteran Latin America hand and congressional staffer, was named Thursday the US "Cuba transition coordinator" tasked with helping speed Fidel Castro's downfall, officials said.
 
 US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced the appointment of McCarry to the position created on the recommendation last year of a panel established by President George W. Bush.
 
 Rice said the aim of the effort was to "accelerate he demise of Castro's tyranny" on the Caribbean island 90 miles off the US coast that the Communist guerrilla leader has run since 1959.
 
 "For nearly 50 years, the regime of Fidel Castro has condemned the people of Cuba to a tragic fate of repression and poverty," Rice told a gathering of US officials and Cuban dissidents at the State Department.
 
 She said Bush's Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, armed with a 59 million dollar action plan, was "speeding progress along many fronts" in the bid to undermine the 78-year-old Castro.
 
 "We are empowering Cuban civil society to better organize and advocate democratic change," she said. "We are working to deny resources to the Castro regime ... and to broadcast the truth about its deplorable treatment of the Cuban people."
 
 She praised McCarry, saying he brings to the coordinator's job a "lifetime of experience and expertise in Latin American affairs."
 
 McCarry has served for eight years as a staff member for the House International Relations Committee, and before that was Vice President for Americas Programs at the Center for Democracy.
 
 He told the gathering that the creation of his post was "a comprehensive statement about how the United States is prepared to help the Cuban people secure their liberties, their prosperity and their rights."
 
 "Viva Cuba libre," McCarry concluded.
 
 
 taken from Caribbean Net news online
 http://www.caribbeannetnews.com/2005/07/29/transition.shtml

[Harlequin]

It is only a matter of time before the Castro regime comes to a end and it would appear that the US is planning a dirty tricks campaign for when Castro meets his maker, they have not managed to remove him in the past 50 years can't see it happening in the next few years. How this will help the Cuban people is not clear but in the short term it could involve bloodshed, in the long term i can't see the US eradicating poverty in Cuba it is more likely to exploit it,
 
 If the US wanted to help the people of Cuba it would give the 59 million dollars in aid and lift the embargo, the US deals with worse regimes than the Cuban government but these are not on it's doorstep, the US has not got a good track record on foreign policy  why would it get it right this time.

[JohnnyCastaway]

You're absolutely right Garin.
 
 If you want to see how good of a job the US will do for the poverty in Cuba, just look at the US.