Word: cuba
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...nothing so far has helped Peruvian President Alberto Fujimori dislodge Tupac Amaru rebels who continue to hold 72 hostages. Now the President is trying to offer the rebels a new home. Fujimori was in Havana Monday to make a pitch to Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who told him that Cuba would offer asylum to the rebels if all parties can agree on an arrangement. "We have discussed some points that I can't disclose, obviously, because our objective is to liberate the 72 hostages. We must be discreet," Fujimori said. While the President played down his surprise visit to Havana...
...fear is that conscience is not the primary incentive for our sanctions against Cuba. If our Cuban policy has been dictated by conscience, why is our China policy so remarkably unconscionable? China was awarded in spite of its hostility toward Taiwan last year, its foot-dragging in releasing and pardoning the Tiananmen dissidents, its limitations on the number of children parents are allowed to have and other untold abuses on the lives of Chinese citizens...
...Cuba headache, of course, is seen by the current administration as an entirely different situation from China. How they arrived at this distinction is inexplicable. There are only two differences which could have prompted our dual policies. First, being much closer to the U.S. mainland, Cuba is more effective in reminding the U.S. government of the principles we once cherished but abandoned in China's case. Second, Clinton has a significant constituency of Cuban-American exiles who oppose Castro's government and no analogous core of exiled Chinese supporters. (In the latter case I may yet be proven wrong...
...British have criticized the American refusal to be tried in the court of the World Trade Organization (WTO), calling the United States' position "arrogant." In defense, the United States has threatened to invoke "national security" as a justification for its ban on Cuba. This poses a problem for the potential effectiveness of the infant WTO in ensuring free trade practices. (Japan has also invoked "national security" in defense of its inflated rice tariffs.) It would have been much more savvy to avoid resorting to the crutch of national security, but given our contradictory attitude toward the Chinese, we are prevented...
...Clintonites have to justify their different stances toward the authoritarian government the U.S. has decided to embrace as a partner in trade (China) and the authoritarian government the U.S. has not (Cuba). What complex axiom of foreign policy justifies this hypocrisy? Economic expedience perhaps, but certainly not moral conviction. The administration must explain the discrepancy between its two contrasting policies not just so that it can avoid the embarrassment of a hostile international community, but more importantly, because it is the promise of American democracy to aim higher than our neighbors' low criterion of convenience...