Two views of Kerry's stance on Cuba

TALLAHASSEE - Two Florida congressmen attacked John Kerry on Tuesday, saying he misled Miami residents about a vote on economic sanctions against Fidel Castro's regime, but Sen. Bob Graham came to the Democratic presidential candidate's defense.

Republican U.S. Reps. Mark Foley and Mario Diaz-Balart said Kerry lied during a recent South Florida stop when he said he voted for the 1997 Helms-Burton Act, which was designed to discourage foreign investment in Cuba by punishing foreign companies investing in property confiscated from Americans.

While Kerry voted for the original Senate bill, he voted against the final version, which added a provision called Title III that lets Americans sue people or companies who control properties confiscated from Americans in Cuba 40 years ago. President Clinton and President Bush have opted to waive enforcement of Title III.

Foley and Diaz-Balart said Cuban-Americans, who tend to strongly support Republicans, should be upset about Kerry's claim to have supported the bill.

"When they start reflecting on what Kerry said to them in Miami . . . it's like coming into the living room and lying to somebody," Foley said. "That doesn't fare well with the Hispanic voters. I think he's in trouble with that corridor."

He and Diaz-Balart said Kerry has also been supportive of loosening sanctions against Cuba.

"Not only has he consistently voted - really on every issue - to go along with what the Castro regime is wanting, but then he just misstates his votes. He just outright says something that's just absolutely not true," said Diaz-Balart.

But Graham, D-Fla., and Hialeah Mayor Raul Martinez, a Democrat, defended Kerry and said it's President Bush that has not been tough on Cuba.

"I'm not going to represent that I know everything John Kerry has ever said about Cuba, but I know as someone who has sat with him for the last 17 years that he has had a strong anti-Fidel Castro policy," Graham said.

Bush criticized Cuba policy during his 2000 campaign and vowed to make it tougher, but has done little to follow through, said Martinez, mayor of Florida's fifth largest city.

"Too many times presidential candidates come to South Florida, scream out "Viva Cuba Libre' and they get the votes and they get the money and they don't come back," Martinez said. "The perfect example that we have is President Bush."

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