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CNN Saturday Morning News

Thousands Call for End to Trade Embargo Against Cuba

Aired January 26, 2002 - 09:08   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MILES O'BRIEN, CNN ANCHOR: Trade with Cuba is a big political issue gaining momentum among some college students and U.S. lawmakers. For the past four decades, Cuba has been under a U.S. trade embargo.

But as CNN's Lucia Newman reports, many people are ready for that to end.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Seven hundred university students from the United States sailed into Havana this week to visit their Cuban counterparts. Down the street, the owner of an American supermarket chain signed a deal to sell lard to Cuba, while the governor of Illinois, George Ryan, met with Cuban pharmaceutical executives to see about clinching another deal.

If you didn't know better, you'd think Cuba and the United States had normal relations, which is precisely what an increasingly vocal number of man businessmen and politicians want.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: For a very long time, our point of view has been that markets everywhere in the world should be open and free.

NEWMAN: A market which, in this case, has been closed because of the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The fact that it's 11 million people, 90 miles off our shore, that we can't do business with, for the United States, that's the worst part.

NEWMAN: This month, though, opened a rare window of opportunity as shiploads of American grain and poultry sailed into Havana Harbor for the first time in four decades.

After Hurricane Michele hit the island in November, Cuba asked to purchase more than $35 million worth of food and medicine from the U.S. Washington obliged by issuing expedited licenses to American food exporters.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a historical moment.

NEWMAN: In this case, the historic sale of lard, along with the historic sale of corn kernels, of chicken legs, of flour and soy meal. "Historic" replacing "hysteric" as the new buzzword in U.S. relations with the communist country.

Cuba, for its part, is on a major seduction campaign, no longer demanding the entire economic embargo be lifted, but rather calling for a relaxation of restrictions in return for more purchases of American goods.

(on camera): Both Havana and American business are hoping Congress will lift restrictions on credit and travel to Cuba this year. But it may be a long shot, given President George Bush's commitment to the anti-Castro lobby in Florida, where his brother, Governor Jeb Bush, is up for reelection this year.

Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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