WASHINGTON, DC – Congressman Bill Delahunt released the following statement today in reaction to President George W. Bush’s speech on US policy toward Cuba:

"Today, President Bush gave his first major address on US policy toward Cuba in four years.  He could have used the occasion to announce a break with a strategy that has seen nothing but decades of failure.  That has only hurt Americans and Cubans alike.  That has been rejected by dissidents struggling on the island and by the Cuban Catholic Church.  That has isolated America from some of our closest allies instead of isolating the Cuban regime.  And that has left the United States open to charges of hypocrisy and inconsistency.

"President Bush could have announced that he was seeking to end the embargo on Cuba.  After all, we trade freely with regimes like China and Vietnam, which – last time I checked – are not democracies. 

"He could have announced that he was restoring diplomatic relations, so that an American Embassy could advance US interests, as we are doing in Libya – which is still a dictatorship. 

"He could have announced that he was ending the US government prohibition on travel by Americans to Cuba – the only country in the world that the American government prevents its citizens from visiting.  If ordinary Americans can go to Egypt and Burma, which are governed by authoritarian regimes, why doesn’t our government trust them to go to Cuba? 

"At the very least he could have ended the shockingly cruel restrictions he imposed on Cuban-Americans in 2004 – allowing them only to visit their families once every three years, with no exceptions for severe illness or death.  He has not inflicted such heartless restrictions on Iranian-Americans or Korean-Americans; why is it acceptable to do so to Cuban-Americans?

"Ending the embargo, or at least the travel ban, is what will open up Cuba to the outside world and allow assistance by individual Americans to go directly to the Cuban people.  And changing our approach to Cuba will bring more credibility to our efforts to promote democracy in the world – thus improving the image of America, which under this President has sunk to such low levels that, according to the nonpartisan Government Accountability Office, our national security is threatened.

"Instead, President Bush offered nothing new.  Just more rhetoric designed to appeal to a shrinking domestic audience in a key electoral state. In doing so he missed a golden opportunity to help Cubans – and Americans."

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