Caribbean News Now!

Dear Sir:

Your current electronic edition carries an article pertaining to the recent decision by the United States Supreme Court ratifying the state of Florida's law prohibiting travel to Cuba, even when another judge, the Honorable Patricia Seitz, had described it as unconstitutional and in conflict with the goals of the federal government.

As a follower of Cuban matters in this country and consultant to various entities on Latin American affairs I must say that there is no surprise here -- none. There is a major obstacle in being able to obtain an overturn of this ruling by the country's highest court, one that for political reasons has stood for years. I am referring to the State Department's List of Terrorist Nations of which Cuba is "a member".

By injecting this Cold War distinction on Cuba, the United States government is able to maintain the blockade on Cuba, along with other prohibitions currently enforced against them. If it were not for their inclusion on that list the argument against many of the sanctions would go out the door, where they should have been many years back.

However, one must remember that the United States does not have permanent friends, it has permanent interests in its foreign policies, and Cuba is not one of them. Why? Because the electoral votes that the state of Florida carries along with a bunch of old-style mercenaries who were thieves in Cuba and perfected their crimes here and who have been able to control certain aspects of the local and state political machines to basically extort our national elected official into maintaining these absurd policies in exchange for votes and political favors not to mention contributions.

It is another sad day in the history of relations or possible advances towards relations with regard to Cuba.

Jose A. Gonzalez, Sr.
Baton Rouge, Louisiana

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