NAACP & Rep. Serrano Advocate for Cuba Bill
- Originally published by US Fed News April 21, 2005 Copyright 2005 HT Media Ltd.
This week, the nation's leading civil rights organization expressed its
strong support for the Cuba Reconciliation Act, Rep. José E. Serrano's
(D-NY) proposal to lift the US embargo against Cuba. In a letter to the
Congressman, the Director of the NAACP's (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People)
Washington Bureau, Hilary Shelton, expressed the organization's "strong
support" for Serrano's bill and thanked him for his "crucial leadership
in this area." The letter went on to state that "the NAACP has
made enactment of this bill a legislative priority for the 109th
Congress; we are committed to enlisting all of the resources available
to the NAACP... to see that this legislation becomes law."
"It is heartening to have the enthusiastic support of such a respected
leader in the fight for Americans' civil rights in this fight to bring
some sense to our policy regarding Cuba," said Congressman Serrano. "A
growing coalition of Americans from both sides of the partisan divide
are coming together and daring to say what we have long known to be
true: that the embargo against Cuba is useless, outdated, hurtful both
to American businesses and farmers and to the Cuban people, and it
needs to be repealed."
Serrano's bill
"The Cuba Reconciliation Act" (HR 208) proposes to lift the trade
embargo against Cuba, end the ban on Americans traveling to and from
Cuba, and allows for mail communications between the United States and
Cuba.
The April 18th NAACP
letter states that "after more than 40 years, the current U.S.
restrictions on trade and travel between the U.S. and Cuba have proven
most effective in creating tremendous and on-going hardships for the
people of Cuba, hurting American businesspeople and travelers and
making the U.S. a scapegoat for all of the island nation's problems..."
The letter goes on to mention that a majority of Americans, many
well-respected newspapers, and a majority of both the US House and
Senate now support lifting the embargo.
"The American people are sick and tired of this embargo, and it's time
that our leaders in Congress heed their call," said Serrano. "It is
time to end this embargo."
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