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THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 26, 2009
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Lugar to Obama: Reach Out and Touch Cuba

Senator slams embargo, calls for policy shift, new envoy

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(Newser) – As members of Congress move to rethink US-Cuban relations, Sen. Richard Lugar is urging President Obama to take firm action, including initiating direct talks, the Washington Post reports. The Indiana Republican says the US embargo on the country “undermines our broader security and political interests in the Western Hemisphere,” running counter to Latin American, European, and UN views.

The US should dispatch an envoy to the country for talks and must stop opposing Cuba’s membership in the Organization of American States, Lugar said in a letter to Obama. He pointed to an upcoming summit in Trinidad as “a unique opportunity” to signal a policy shift. The Foreign Relations Committee's ranking Republican is backing a new Senate bill to open up travel to Cuba; a comparable House effort has some 120 sponsors.

Cuba's President Raul Castro, center, and Cuba's Parliament's President Ricardo Alarcon, left, attend a ceremony in Havana, Tuesday, March 24, 2009.
Cuba's President Raul Castro, center, and Cuba's Parliament's President Ricardo Alarcon, left, attend a ceremony in Havana, Tuesday, March 24, 2009.   (AP Photo/Ismael Francisco/Prensa Latina)
Richard Lugar is seen at a news conference in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008.
Richard Lugar is seen at a news conference in Moscow, Wednesday, Dec. 17, 2008.   (AP Photo/Mikhail Metzel)
Lugar has called on President Obama to send a special envoy to Cuba.
Lugar has called on President Obama to send a special envoy to Cuba.   (AP Photo/Chris Harris)
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4 comments
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Zebraone
Apr 2, 09 2:49 PM CDT
lugar is a nitwit and a total asshole! I'd reach out and touch cuba with a good heavy spray of agent orange! Reply
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zaphod
Apr 2, 09 11:58 PM CDT
zebraone zebraone = a pot calling the kettle black it is about time that the U.S.A. takes its political head out of its ass and realizes that we have been wrong on Cuba for too long Reply
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TerrifiedCitizen
Apr 3, 09 1:10 AM CDT
Sounds good to me... I always wanted a winter home in Havana. Reply
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kokuaguy
Apr 15, 09 12:33 PM CDT
As Latin America as a region arrives center-stage on the United States' agenda this week, the Obama administration should not miss the opportunity to include Cuba in the new relationship of respect and mutual interest that it seeks to forge with Latin America. In Cuba, as the notorious US detention camps at Guantánamo Bay are taken down, President Obama may even find useful building blocks for constructing just the sort of cooperative relationship he desires. Working with Cuban doctors and scientists to transform Guantánamo Bay from a blight on our national character to a healthcare center for the neglected diseases of the Americas would be a partnership whose results are felt throughout the hemisphere for generations. Marcus Raskin Reply
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