Iowa grain contracts.(CUBA)

0 Comments | Caribbean Update, July, 2003

An Iowa trade delegation signed grain contracts with Cuba, where U.S. business enthusiasm has cooled over recent political repression and diplomatic tensions with Washington, reports Reuters (May 19, 2003):

The delegation was led by Democratic Representative Leonard Boswell who met President Fidel Castro and top officials in his one-party government. "I looked them square in the eye and let them know that the American people as a group are united in condemning the arrests and sentences of 75 dissidents and requested that they be released," Boswell said. told a news conference. Boswell said, however, the U.S. should continue to engage rather than isolate Cuba to foster political reform and said he supported lifting a ban on American tourism to Cuba. FC Stone, a...