By IANS,
Havana : Cuban dissidents have urged US President George W. Bush to suspend the economic embargo on the communist country to enable it to receive overseas aid following the devastating Hurricane Gustav, EFE reported Friday.
In an open letter released Thursday here, dissident group Agenda para la Transicion asked Bush to suspend the embargo “at least for a period of two months” to help those people affected by the hurricane, which slammed the island last weekend.
Agenda leaders Martha Beatriz Roque and Vladimiro Roca confirmed that the objective of the request was to “give a little respite to those who are suffering.”
“We ask you to lift restrictions, at least for a period of two months, from the embargo that pertains to the ties between exiled Cubans and those who live on the island, referring to remittances, packages and travels,” said the letter.
Currently, the restrictions only allow Cuban family members abroad to send $300 to their relatives on the island every three months and to pay one family visit to Cuba every three years.
In a separate letter to Cuban President Raul Castro, the group confirmed it had addressed Bush for help and asked the Cuban government to accept aid from US and European Union or from any non-governmental organisations to mitigate the suffering of the people.
The letter reminded the government that its refusal to accept help from abroad during natural disasters had only aggravated the people’s suffering and accused it of “intransigence”.
The letter also hailed the humanitarian help from Russia.
Meanwhile, a US State Department spokesperson told EFE the Bush administration told Havana Wednesday that Washington was prepared to send aid package to storm victims but on condition that the assistance was channelled through non-governmental organizations and not the Cuban government.
“Also, we’re offering to send an evaluation team to Cuba to help determine the level of the humanitarian needs,” Sara Mangiaracina said Thursday in Washington.
Another official in Washington said on condition of anonymity that the government was going “to work through appropriate non-governmental organizations to deliver aid provisions in the most rapid and most direct way possible.”
Dan Restrepo, who advises Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Latin America, told the news agency Thursday that the Illinois senator supports a proposal pushed by a sector of the Cuban-American community to lift for a minimum of 90 days the 2004 restrictions pertaining to remittances by overseas Cubans and relatives’ trips to the island.
“The restrictions should be lifted to allow humanitarian aid packages, because very little aid can be sent now,” he said.
Gustav made landfall last Saturday in the western Cuban province of Pinar del Rio as a Category-4 hurricane packing wind speed of 230 km per hour.
Authorities reported no fatalities but the storm damaged more than 120,000 homes in Pinar del Rio, knocked out the region’s power grid and telecommunications network and ravaged farms.