Richardson Returns to Rescue Castro

Less than a year ago, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson traveled to Cuba looking to expand trade relations with that island's totalitarian regime.

Richardson returned from that trip advocating for the U.S. to unilaterally lift sanctions.

But just how much commerce did that trip generate for New Mexico?

Zero.

So Richardson is now -- once again -- looking to dupe the people of New Mexico and is heading back to Cuba for another "trade mission."

Obviously, it's not the people of New Mexico he's looking to benefit from this new mission, it's the regime of the Castro brothers (including some of his "personal friends" in that regime, as he's publicly referred to them).

It's hardly a coincidence that just last week Richardson placed an op-ed in The Washington Post urging the Obama Administration to unilaterally lift as many sanctions as it can -- within the Executive Branch's limitations under U.S. law -- towards Cuba.

Therefore, Richardson is now going to ask his "friends" in the Castro regime to grant him some cosmetic "gesture" -- as usual, the release of an innocent person that was unjustly imprisoned for political reasons in the first place -- and will come back declaring it as a major concession by Castro.

Let's not forget that Richardson has experience with this.

In 1996, the Castro regime released three political prisoners to Richardson. At that time, the regime was under siege from the international community for the murder of four Americans (pursuant to the shoot-down of the "Brothers to the Rescue" civilian planes on international waters) and from the domestic pro-democracy movement (pursuant to the unity meeting of opposition groups under the umbrella movement, Concilio Cubano).

Since then, the Castro regime has imprisoned thousands of more Cubans for their peaceful dissent.

Yet sadly, Richardson still wants to help hostage-taking pay off for Castro.

Here's Richardson's misleading press release:

Governor Bill Richardson Leads New Mexico Trade Mission to Cuba

SANTA FE – Governor Bill Richardson today traveled 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.