Dissident's visit warms Washington's Cuba Cold War

Dissident's visit warms Washington's Cuba Cold War
By Patricia Zengerle | Reuters

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A visit to the Congress on Tuesday by Cuba's
best-known dissident may have slightly narrowed one of Washington's
long-standing political gaps - the angry dispute over the U.S. embargo
against the Communist government in Havana.

Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez met on Tuesday with both Democratic and
Republican members of Congress, including some of the staunchest
Cuban-American supporters of the 53-year-old economic embargo against
her country.

In the past, some hard-liners have been reluctant to voice strong
support for Cuban dissidents who want major changes in U.S. policy,
including ending the ban on most trade between the United States and the
Caribbean island nation.

Sanchez was first invited to Capitol Hill by two Florida Democrats,
Senator Bill Nelson and Representative Joe Garcia, a Cuban-American who
promotes President Barack Obama's easing of restrictions on Cuba and
backs expanded U.S. travel to the island.

But she also met with prominent Cuban-American Republicans who strongly
support the continuation of the tough restrictions, including Florida
Representatives Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and Mario Diaz-Balart.

Sanchez says the embargo is an excuse for the Cuban government to blame
the country's economic problems on the United States, rather than its
own policies. But embargo supporters say any easing would provide
hundreds of millions of dollars to prop up the island's government.

'UNITY IN THE CAUSE'

"There has not been a change in attitude or position about dissidents
who advocate for freedom and democracy in Cuba," said Ros-Lehtinen, one
of the top Republicans on the House of Representatives Foreign Affairs
Committee. "Our goals remain the same and there is unity in the cause.
We disagree on how to reach that goal and it has been that way and will
continue."

Cuba is in a period of potential change. President Raul Castro has been
pushing through cautious reforms such as the elimination of travel
restrictions that allowed Sanchez to make her 80-day tour of more than a
dozen countries.

The country also lost a major financial sponsor and counterbalance to
U.S. influence in Latin America with the death this month of Venezuelan
President Hugo Chavez. Chavez' hand-picked successor, Nicolas Maduro, is
expected to continue the country's support for Cuba if he wins the
presidential election next month.

Castro, 81, who succeeded his ailing older brother Fidel as president in
2008, announced last month that he would step down as president after
his second term ends in 2018.

Sanchez, 37, has been blogging since 2007, attracting an audience of
half a million people for posts about the hardships of life in Cuba. She
also uses Twitter to denounce repression.

She visited Washington after a stop in New York. She is due to visit
Miami, the center of Cuban-American life in the United States and home
to her sister and niece, on April 1.

Protesters who back Cuba's government have heckled Sanchez at several
stops during her tour.

(Editing by Warren Strobel)

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