Friday, July 7, 2006

WASHINGTON, USA (AFP): A US Cabinet-led panel recommended tightening an embargo against Cuba and boosting opposition financing, warning that Cuba is teamed with Venezuela in a bid to thwart regional democracy, according to a draft document obtained by AFP.

The draft by the Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba, presented to President George W. Bush Wednesday at a National Security Council meeting, says "there are clear signs the (Cuban) regime is using money provided by the (Hugo) Chavez government in Venezuela to reactivate its networks in the hemisphere to subvert democratic governments."

It recommends that Bush help bolster the opposition to Cuban President Fidel Castro by creating the Cuba Fund for a Democratic Future, a two-year, 80-million-dollar program, and earmark 20 million dollars a year after that "until the dictatorship ceases to exist."

"The more financially stressed the system is, the more difficult it will be for any leader who follows Fidel Castro to preside over a succession within the dictatorship," said the commission, co-led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, a Cuban-American.

It recommends tightening the embargo by better enforcing existing sanctions against the island, including those against companies that supply oil, nickel, tobacco and rum, and by better preventing avoidance of the embargo by those who operate through a third country.

The document has not yet officially been made public and could be subject to changes before it is released.

White House spokesman Tony Snow told reporters Wednesday that the United States was "not trying to depose Cuba. What we're trying to do is provide democracy for Cuba, whenever possible."

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