Leahy lifts hold on democracy funds for Cuba
Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vermont, has lifted his hold on $14 million in
democracy funds for Cuba.
By Juan O. Tamayo
jtamayo@elnuevoherald.com
Democratic Sen. Patrick Leahy of Vermont on Tuesday lifted the final
hold on the last part of a $20 million allocation for Cuba democracy
programs, ending a bitter three-month fight over the programs'
effectiveness.
The funds are designed to help more than a dozen types of non-government
activities, from youth groups to training on computers, communications
and private enterprise and support for the communist-ruled country's
lesbian and gay community.
Leahy, who chairs the Senate subcommittee that oversees State Department
spending, announced that he freed the final $14 million of the $20
million package after the Department and its Agency for International
Development answered his questions about human rights and civil society
initiatives in Cuba.
But his statement made it clear he remains concerned about the
programs, repeatedly criticized since their start in 1996 as wasteful
and inefficient and managing only to provoke Havana into cracking down
on dissidents who receive the U.S. assistance.
"The United States has a strong interest in helping the Cuban people
improve their lives and protect their rights," the statement said. "We
also have a responsibility to know how U.S. taxpayer dollars are used
and whether programs are effective."
"For too long this program has been carried out in ways that have
been neither transparent nor accountable, and with no way to measure
results. That needs to change, and getting answers about the way these
funds are spent is a constructive first step," he added.
Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., who chairs the Senate Foreign Relations
committee, put a "hold" on the full $20 million April 1 as his committee
challenged the usefulness and transparency of the programs. Leahy added
his own hold shortly afterward.
Kerry lifted his hold last week, after winning a promise by State
and USAID officials that they would send his committee a detailed report
on questions such as the programs' effectiveness and how many Cubans
they benefit.
Leahy let it be known on the same day that he had no issues with $6
million of the $20 million but needed more information on the rest.
The two senators expressed private concerns last week that freeing
the funds might anger Cuban authorities amid speculation that they could
release Alan P. Gross, a USAID subcontractor serving a 15-year prison
sentence in Havana.
The 62-year-old development specialist from Potomac, Md., was
arrested in 2009 for delivering a satellite telephone to Cuba's tiny
Jewish community so that it could access the Internet independently of
Cuban government controls.
Cuba's highest court heard his appeal last month, and U.S. officials
have repeatedly expressed the hope that he would be released soon on
humanitarian grounds because his wife, daughter and mother all face
health problems"-.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/08/03/2342297/leahy-lifts-hold-on-democracy.html
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