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02/22/13 - Washington Times - The Obama administration should — and has the legal authority to — use its executive power to be

The Obama administration should — and has the legal authority to — use its
executive power to begin lifting the decades-old embargo on trade with
Cuba, according to two papers this week issued by an influential Latin
America think tank and a leading Cuban exile group.

The New York-based Council on the Americas and the Washington-based Cuba
Study Group both call on the White House to ease the 60-year-old embargo
in order to promote free market activity on the communist island.

The State Department so far has declined to comment on the documents, but
one official described the Council on the Americas as “influential” and
told The Washington Times that the State Department does “appreciate their
views.”

Circulation of the white papers came the same week that a delegation of
U.S. lawmakers, headed by Sen. Patrick J. Leahy, Vermont Democrat, met
with Cuban President Raul Castro in an unsuccessful attempt to secure the
release of Maryland contractor Alan Gross, who has been imprisoned in Cuba
since 2009.

Mr. Gross is accused of illegally bringing communications equipment to
Cuba as part of a democracy-building program supported by the U.S. Agency
for International Development. His detention remains a source of friction
between Washington and Havana.

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland categorically denied a Boston
Globe report Thursday which suggested that newly confirmed Secretary of
State John F. Kerry may be seriously considering removing Havana from the
U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism as a first step to improved
relations.

Citing interviews with “a series of top administration officials and
members of Congress,” the newspaper reported that “there is a growing
consensus in policy and intelligence circles that Cuba’s support for
terrorist groups has been terminated and the country should be removed
from the list — much like the George W. Bush administration did with North
Korea in 2008.”

Ms. Nuland said The Globe piece was “incorrect,” telling reporters at
Thursday’s briefing that “this department has no current plans to remove
Cuba from the state sponsor of terrorism list.”

She added, however, that officials review the list annually and will do so
during 2013.

Questions about Cuba’s status coincide with growing speculation in
Washington that Mr. Kerry — a former Democratic senator from Massachusetts
— may be eager to push the White House toward an easing of relations with
the communist island.

Mr. Kerry did not single out Cuba during his wide-ranging foreign policy
address Wednesday at the University of Virginia, but he did publish an
article in 2009 in The St. Petersburg Times calling for a lifting of all
restrictions to travel to the island.

The white papers circulated this week argue that Mr. Obama should do just
that despite a law preventing the restoration of U.S.-Cuba diplomatic
relations without congressional approval.

The 1996 Helms-Burton Act also blocks the lifting of the embargo on trade
unless significant democratic reforms are implemented and a functional
democratic government is established on the island.

The Cuba Study Group called on Congress to repeal the 1996 law, saying it
would allow the White House to “adopt more efficient, targeted policies
necessary for pressuring the Cuban leadership to respect human rights and
implement political reforms, while simultaneously empowering all other
sectors of society to purse their economic well-being and become the
authors of their own futures.”

The Council on the Americas paper argues that Mr. Obama could work around
restrictions associated with Cuba’s current status as a state sponsor of
terrorism. The White House, according to the paper, should “grant
exceptions” for “sales and imports” of goods for businesses in Cuba that
can prove they are not working for the Castro regime, as well as allowing
for the “sale of telecommunications hardware” such as cellphone towers and
satellite dishes in Cuba.

Original Source / Fuente Original:
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2013/feb/21/the-obama-administration-should-and-has-the-legal-/