Dear Andrea,

This week, we have a special edition of the news blast and we hope that you read and enjoy it.

We’re giving our editorial voice a rest, and giving you an opportunity to consider the opinions of twelve others – from both sides of the Florida Straits – who have reacted to the recent release of the so-called transition commission report.

This is what they think. Don’t forget to tell us what you think!

Reactions to Commission Report

Cuban Americans

Representative Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), who was born in Cuba, said the report showed, “the strong commitment of President Bush to help the Cuban people free themselves from the shackles of their brutal oppressor,” the Associated Press reported.

Not all Cuban Americans agree: The Association of Christian Women on Behalf of Family Rights is leading a demonstration against restrictions on family travel this Saturday at the Torch of Friendship, Bayfront Park, Downtown Miami, Biscayne Blvd and NE 2nd St between 10:30 and noon. For more information, call: 305 643-5481.

The Miami Herald also spoke out about the pain imposed on Cuban families in an editorial this week: “These sanctions punish Cuban families, weaken communication and add to the misery that Cubans on the island already suffer. These policies certainly don't encourage mutual understanding or reconciliation. U.S. travelers who visit the island dispel myths and fears promoted by the regime. They bring news and information from the outside world that otherwise would be blocked by the dictatorship. They are the best promoters of democracy and capitalism for the island.”

Religious leaders

Some religious leaders are concerned that U.S. policy toward Cuba clamps down on religious freedom. Stan Hastey, executive director of the Alliance of Baptists, said, “There is no doubt in my mind that the administration has not only exceeded its regulatory authority but also has trampled on the free exercise of religion -- not only in this action but in a series of actions limiting our ability to work with churches in Cuba," the Associated Baptist Press reported.

Other leaders worry that the report’s recommendations will impede their ability to provide humanitarian aid to Cuba. Rev. John L. McCullough, Executive Director of Church World Service, said, “If the recommendations contained within this Report are put into effect by the Commerce Department, it is likely that we will no longer be allowed to provide humanitarian aid through the Cuban Council of Churches, our agency’s partner in Cuba for 60 years,” according to an action alert from CWS.

Policy Experts

Wayne Smith, who once ran the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, criticized the report’s unworkable recommendations saying, “We need a reality check here. Anyone who knows Cuba knows the Cuban people aren’t going to rise up against a successor regime,” the Associated Press reported.

Phil Peters, a Cuba policy expert, knocks the report for beefing up an already failed policy toward Cuba writing, “U.S. influence will be limited by decades of policies that have blocked communication between our peoples and governments, and by the all-or-nothing posture that the Helms-Burton law imposes on U.S. diplomacy. Even after two long reports from the Administration’s Cuba commission, those are problems that remain to be fixed.”

Reactions in Cuba

The Central Workers Union of Cuba vowed to, “respond to these new threats in a united front for Fidel Castro and the Cuban Communist Party,” Prensa Latina reported.

Granma, Cuba’s communist party’s newspaper asserted that, “The entire document reflects the will to sooner or later annex the island of Cuba.”

Activists

Rev. Lucius Walker, executive director of Pastors for Peace, stated the following as he returned from Cuba this week after delivering humanitarian goods: “[The report] claims to show concern for the very same Cuban people who have suffered so terribly for so many years precisely because of the U.S. government’s relentless economic war against Cuba,” according to a press release from the group.

Dissidents in Cuba

Cuban dissident Manuel Cuesta Morua referred to the report’s $80 million budget as “80 million arguments for the Cuban government to make it seem all Cuban dissidents are financed by the United States,” the AP reported.

Miriam Leiva, a founding member of the Ladies in White, a group of Cuban women who regularly protest their family members’ imprisonment, wrote in the Miami Herald that the report plays to election year politics and serves the exact opposite purpose it purports to achieve in Cuba: “Once again the pretext of the external enemy, of the aggression by ‘Yankee imperialism,’ will serve [Castro’s] efforts to justify the systematic violation of human rights, bad management, misery suffered by the people and imprisonment of the 'mercenaries' -- we, who have not received and won't receive the millions of U.S. dollars that don't reach the opposition. The whole world, mainly the Cuban government, knows this. But the road to hell is paved with good intentions, particularly during an election year in the United States.”

Until next week,