[Mb-civic] Bush's plan to punish Castro has backfired with Florida Cubans... :-)

[Barbara Siomos]

It looks like Bush's plan backfired on him when he put restrictions on
how much and how often Miami Cubans could send to their families in Cuba
even if deathly ill. He has cut how often they visit as well even for
illness and funerals. By trying to punish Castro he lost votes in
Florida, I say g-o-o-d...., not for the suffering of the Cuban people
but because Bush is losing votes.

barbara
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William C. Velásquez Institute
http://wcvi.org/
 
 
SATURDAY - JULY 10, 2004
PRESS RELEASE
 
HEADLINE: Bush Losing Support Among Cuban
Voters, though he still enjoys majority support.
New travel restrictions eroding support
 
MIAMI -- A recently conducted survey by the William
C. Velasquez Institute (WCVI) and the MirRam Group shows that the new
Bush administration
regulations limiting travel and remittances to Cuba
may be eroding the presidents support among his
most loyal voters in Florida, though he still enjoys
strong approval ratings.

While Florida Cubans voted 82% for Mr. Bush in
2000, 66% would support him today. The survey
demonstrates that there appears to be a solid
one-third of Cubans who are disenchanted with the
presidents performance on the economy and the
war in Iraq. It shows that the top issues for Cuban
Americans are jobs/economy (18%), education
(13%) and immigration (9%). Cuban Americans
share basic working class, populist concerns like
other U.S. Latinos. Their top issues have to do with
bread and butter issues, said Antonio Gonzalez,
WCVI president.

New restrictions on Cuban American travel and
remittances to the island are opposed by a
significant minority of Cuban Americans who also
say they would be open to a candidate that favors
unrestricted travel. President Bush's new restrictions
have divided our community. A narrow majority
supports the measures and a significant minority
opposes them, especially the prohibition on emergency travel to Cuba,
said Alvaro Fernandez,
president of the Cuban American Commission for
Family Rights, a cosponsor of the survey. 

While intended to gather support, the Presidents measures are causing
his most loyal base to
consider other electoral options, added Gonzalez.

The research also suggests that younger Cuban
Americans, and those who arrived after 1980, are
not as attached to the Republican Party as previous
generations providing an opening for the Democrats.

Following are some of the key findings of the survey:
 
The discontent with Bush's performance doesn't
necessarily translate into more support for John
Kerry. Support for his candidacy is at 16%. A
presidential candidates position on Cuba policy is
considered very important for nearly half of Cuban
Americans, especially older ones. But Cubans
contradict themselves on the specifics of Cuba
policy.

Most say opposing Fidel Castro is important at the
same time that they believe that current anti-Castro
policies are not working and it's time for a new
approach.

Cuban Americans are polarized on the issue of
travel to Cuba to visit relatives, with a relatively
even split across the board.

Arrivals after 1980 and those born here disapprove
of the increased restrictions on travel. There is
strong disapproval to the proposal to limit travel,
even for emergencies and death in the family.

.


The William C. Velásquez Institute (WCVI) is a
tax-exempt, non-profit, non-partisan organization chartered in 1985. The
purpose of WCVI is to
conduct research aimed at improving the level of
political and economic participation in Latino and other
underrepresented communities. WCVI holds a
unique position among national Latino organizations. In its tradition of
working with
grassroots organizations, academic institutions and
local elected officials, WCVI fills the gap between
intellectual think tanks and community groups.

WCVI conducts research in selected areas of concentration and follows up
the implementation
stages: WCVI translates ideas into research,
research into education, education into policy
advocacy and policy advocacy into action. WCVI
was created: · To provide information to Latino
leaders relevant to the needs of their constituents
· To inform the Latino leadership and public about
the impact of public and international policies on
Latinos · To inform the Latino leadership and public about
political opinions and behavior of
Latinos.