Support for Cuba embargo breaks down in Congress

WASHINGTON -- Despite President Bush's tough line on Cuba, support for trade sanctions is crumbling in Congress, with anti-Castro activists struggling to preserve an embargo that has lasted more than 40 years.

"We're working hard and we know the odds are against us. It's like David vs. Goliath," said Cuban-born Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla.

The House in late July approved proposals by two Republican lawmakers that, while leaving the embargo in place, would effectively ease travel and trade restrictions. The Senate is considering similar changes.

Last week, House Majority Leader Dick Armey told reporters in Kansas that the United States needs access to Cuban markets. If economic sanctions continue for another year, he said, "it will be the last year they last."

His comments dealt a blow to pro-embargo lawmakers who were counting on Armey to use his office to derail efforts to weaken the sanctions.

"I think because he is an economics professor, he should know better than to pump money into a failed, totalitarian regime," Ros-Lehtinen said. Armey, who is retiring from Congress this year, once chaired the University of North Texas' economics department.

Bush threatens veto

If the changes get through Congress, pro-embargo lawmakers have a big ally in Bush, who has threatened a veto. Bush has had strong support from anti-Castro Cubans in Florida and his brother Jeb is seeking re-election there as governor.

But a veto would have consequences beyond Cuba. The proposals to ease the embargo are part of a Treasury and Postal spending bill. A veto would affect billions of dollars of unrelated programs.

"We know we're asking the president for a lot," Ros-Lehtinen said.

The embargo is intended to force democratic changes on Fidel Castro's communist island.

It prohibits most business dealings with Cuba and limits travel to certain categories of visitors, including relatives of Cubans, researchers and working journalists.

For many years, liberal Democrats were practically the only opponents of the embargo, considering it ineffective and too harsh on Cuban citizens.

But after the Cold War, with Cuba seen as less of a threat to the United States, some conservative lawmakers became uneasy about government-imposed travel restrictions.