Gorbachev Urges Bush to End U.S. Embargo on Cuba Former Soviet Leader Calls on U.S. to Take the First Step toward 'Constructive Engagement' with Cuba CORAL GABLES, Fla., Oct 4, 2003 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Mikhail Gorbachev, former president of the Soviet Union, urged U.S. President George W. Bush to change U.S.-Cuba policy in his address at the National Summit on Cuba Saturday evening at the Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, Florida. Gorbachev used language from former U.S. President Ronald Reagan's 1987 speech, which urged Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall, to issue his own challenge to Bush. "I'm urging President Bush to tear down the wall of the embargo now, in order to lay the foundation for a new relationship with Cuba," Gorbachev said. "The wall of the economic embargo is the last remaining relic of the Cold War." Gorbachev also expressed his support for the legislation recently passed by the U.S. House of Representatives that would lift restrictions on Americans to travel to Cuba, recalling the beneficial aspects of Reagan's policy of open travel to the Soviet Union. "Freedom of travel is something that should have been done a long time ago," said Gorbachev. He went on to state that U.S. engagement with Cuba could provide "an understanding that could benefit the citizens of both the U.S. and Cuba and hasten the reunification of the divided Cuban family". Several South Florida Cuban American leaders invited Gorbachev to come to their community to discuss his longstanding interest in Cuba and other historic perspectives on U.S. foreign policy. Gorbachev's speech took place at the National Summit on Cuba: Florida. The event was organized by the World Policy Institute's Cuba Project at New School University, Puentes Cubanos, Cuban Committee for Democracy, Fundacion Amistad, the Time is Now Coalition, Cambio Cubano, and Americans for Humanitarian Trade with Cuba (AHTC). The National Summit on Cuba: Florida presented approximately 30 speakers including: General John Sheehan, former Commander in Chief, U.S. Atlantic Command; former assistant Secretary of State William Rogers; U.S. Representative William Delahunt (D-MA), international dignitaries, elected officials from Florida and Alabama, Cuban-American leaders, former U.S. government officials, academics, business leaders, representatives of Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International. The Summit also received a message from former U.S. President Jimmy Carter reiterating his own call that the U. S. take the first step towards engagement in order to improve conditions for more political freedoms in Cuba. Gorbachev served as president of the Soviet Union from 1985-1991. He is the current President of the Gorbachev Foundation, a non-profit, non-partisan, educational foundation and he founded Green Cross International, a non-governmental, environmental organization with chapters in the U.S., Russia, the Netherlands, Japan, and Switzerland. He also received a Nobel Peace Prize in 1990. "Now that we have ended the Cold War, it's time to lift the embargo," Gorbachev said. http://investor.stockpoint.com/leftnav/newspaper.asp?Mode=cuba (not working0
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