Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has long
courted Cuban American voters in the state, played a key role in the
tightening of restrictions.
Early last year, Otto Reich shopped a new project to his
boss, national security adviser Condoleezza Rice. A Havana-born
hard-liner with a habit of picking verbal fights with Cuban President
Fidel Castro, Reich believed the United States was unprepared for
Castro's fall and needed a transition strategy. Rice liked the idea.
The White House was overwhelmed with preparations for invading Iraq, so
she told her new special envoy for Latin America to proceed and
promised to pay closer attention after the war. Reich and a close-knit
team of State Department political appointees felt they had, at last,
an insider's chance to undo Castro. As Reich's initiative gathered
steam, word kept reaching the White House that Cuban Americans in Miami
felt that President Bush had broken his promises to challenge Castro
more sharply. Worse, Republican political figures warned that Cuban
Americans crucial to Bush's 537-vote margin in Florida in 2000 might
stay home in 2004. [more ]
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