Governor Bill Richardson Leads Mission to Cuba

AP Photo/ Javier Galeano

As with any governmental visit to Cuba let’s hope that positive things come from this exchange. I praise any general effort to engage in diplomacy and improve relations with our Cuban neighbors. As for more details on the outcome, we will just have to wait until the delegation returns. I will be following developments closely.

However in the meantime, I encourage New Mexicans to visit and/or call up all three House Representatives, Heinrich (D-1), Teague (D-2), and Lujan (D-3), while they are still on summer recess. The House Representatives of New Mexico should not only support the efforts of their Governor, but also their State’s sure gained benefits in expanding trade and travel to Cuba.

Note that none of New Mexico’s Representatives have yet cosponsored the legislation, H.R. 4645, also known as the Travel Restriction Reform and Export Enhancement Act.

Fellow New Mexicans, take your Governor’s lead and visit or at the very least call your Representatives this week and urge them to cosponsor, H.R. 4645.

Click on their hyper-linked names above to get their contact information.

Also, we applaud both New Mexico’s Senators for cosponsoring the Senate bill, S. 428, also known as the Freedom to Travel to Cuba Act, which would end all travel restrictions for all U.S. Americans to travel to Cuba.

The following is taken from an official Press Statement released from the Governor’s office this afternoon.

The Governor traveled today to Havana, Cuba “as part of a mission to strengthen potential trade and cultural partnerships between New Mexico and Cuba. During the visit, Governor Richardson will help market New Mexico commodities and follow up on inroads made on potential trade partnerships during a visit to Cuba last year.

The Governor has made increasing international trade a priority of his administration and the state has seen tremendous growth since 2003. Just this past Friday, Governor Richardson announced he was forming a Task Force on International Trade to look at ways to further expand trade with foreign countries.

This week’s mission will include meetings with officials from Alimport, which is the Cuban Government agency responsible for agricultural commerce. Under a provision of the US Treasury Department Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), states are authorized to sell agricultural, medical and IT products in Cuba on a cash basis.

During his visit last year, Governor Richardson called on the U.S. to ease travel restrictions to Cuba, which the Obama Administration appears poised to soon do, as a first-step to improving relations between the two countries which could potentially lead to increased trade opportunities. The connections New Mexico has made with the commerce officials in Cuba during these missions will put the state in a good position to take advantage of those new opportunities.

Accompanying Governor Richardson to Cuba will be state Agriculture Department Secretary Miley Gonzalez and Cultural Affairs Secretary Stuart Ashman.

Governor Richardson and Secretary Ashman will pay for all of their own expenses during the trip. The delegation is set to return to New Mexico on Friday.

Angelica Salazar