BBC NEWS | Americas | US 'must rethink Cuban embargo' - 0 views
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The US economic embargo on Cuba "has failed" and should be re-evaluated, senior Republican Senator Richard Lugar argues in a report. "We must recognise the ineffectiveness of our current policy and deal with the Cuba regime in a way that enhances US interests," Senator Lugar says.
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President Barack Obama has promised a new look at US policy towards Cuba, including easing travel restrictions. But he has said he believes the embargo is an "inducement" for change in Cuba.
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"After 47 years... the unilateral embargo on Cuba has failed to achieve its stated purpose of 'bringing democracy to the Cuban people'," he says. "It may have been used as a foil by the regime to demand further sacrifices from Cuba's impoverished people."
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"By directing policy toward an unlikely scenario of a short-term democratic transition on the island and rejecting most tools of diplomatic engagement, the US is left as a powerless bystander, watching events unfold at a distance," the report says.
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It stops short of calling for the trade embargo to be lifted but does urge: an end to restrictions imposed during the Bush administration on travel and remittances to Cuba reinstituting formal co-operation on migration and tackling drug-trafficking allowing Cuba to buy US agricultural products on credit.