2007年VOA标准英语-US Official: No Plans to Scrap Cuba Embargo

By Michael Bowman
Washington
21 February 2007

The Bush administration is defending the U.S. economic embargo¹ of Cuba, despite the transfer of executive power on the island from ailing² president Fidel Castro to his brother, Raul. VOA's Michael Bowman reports from Washington, where U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez spoke³ at length about the embargo Wednesday.

For more than four decades, U.S. law has forbidden American companies from doing business in communist Cuba.  In recent years, however, the U.S. government has permitted limited sales of food and medicine to the island that must be purchased with cash.

Speaking at an event organized by the Council of the Americas, Commerce Secretary Gutierrez rejected the Cuban government's oft-repeated contention⁴ that the U.S. embargo is responsible for the island's persistent⁵ economic woes⁶.

Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez speaks during an interview at the Department of Commerce in Washington

"We will not work with a regime that is a declared enemy of the U.S.  Castro has repeatedly demonized the United States, blaming us for the failures of his policies,"
he said.  "The embargo is not the problem. The problem is the repressive communist system, and the only solution is to change the system."

But some foresee change on the island in a post-Fidel Castro era. The Cuban leader had intestinal⁷ surgery last July and has not been seen in public since. Power has been handed over to Fidel's brother, Raul Castro, who is viewed by many as more pragmatic and less wedded⁸ to strict communist orthodoxy than his elder sibling⁹.

Brian Latell is a Latin America analyst¹⁰ who has worked at both the CIA and the U.S. National Intelligence Council.

"Some of the top generals around Raul I consider to be modernizers: men who, like Raul, I believe are attracted to the China model: no political opening, but opening of the economy," he explained.

Should the United States relax the embargo of Cuba to reach out to Raul Castro? Absolutely not, according to Commerce Secretary Gutierrez, who was born in Cuba and whose family came to the United States after the island's 1959 communist revolution.

"Cubans on the island are economic captives and they are political captives," he added.  "They have become the workers of this hemisphere's last plantation¹¹. Forty-eight years of history have shown us that changes will not occur under Fidel Castro or under Raul Castro. And we believe it is naïve to think otherwise."

Nevertheless, some U.S. industries see a potentially lucrative¹² market in Cuba, home to more than 11 million people hungry for basic staples¹³ as well as consumer goods.

It has been pointed¹⁴ out that the United States does business with other communist nations, such as China and Vietnam, and, in decades past, forged a limited commercial relationship with the former Soviet¹⁵ Union. But Secretary Gutierrez says he views Cuba more in line with North Korea, with whom the United States has no commercial or formal diplomatic relations, than with China, with whom the United States has robust¹⁶ economic ties.

Commerical dealings with communist nations have always required the United States to set aside ideological¹⁷ and political differences in order to allow beneficial trade, according to John Kavulich, a policy adviser¹⁸ to the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, based in New York.

But while the council advocates expanding commercial ties between Washington and Havana, Kavulich acknowledges that bilateral¹⁹ trade is a weak tool for promoting change in Cuba.

"We have really become marginalized and pretty irrelevant²⁰, because no matter what we do someone has come to Cuba's rescue," he said.  "And so they have no incentive²¹ to make any changes. That makes us somewhat impotent."

Kavulich notes that Cuba's economy was once propped²² up by the former Soviet Union. Today, Venezuela under President Hugo Chavez provides Cuba with more than $2 billion in fuel and other assistance each year.

1 embargo   

n.禁运（令）；vt.对...实行禁运，禁止（通商）

参考例句：

• This country put an oil embargo on an enemy country.该国对敌国实行石油禁运。
• During the war,they laid an embargo on commerce with enemy countries.在战争期间，他们禁止与敌国通商。

2 ailing   

v.生病

参考例句：

• They discussed the problems ailing the steel industry. 他们讨论了困扰钢铁工业的问题。
• She looked after her ailing father. 她照顾有病的父亲。

3 spoke   

n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说

参考例句：

• They sourced the spoke nuts from our company.他们的轮辐螺帽是从我们公司获得的。
• The spokes of a wheel are the bars that connect the outer ring to the centre.辐条是轮子上连接外圈与中心的条棒。

4 contention   

n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张

参考例句：

• The pay increase is the key point of contention. 加薪是争论的焦点。
• The real bone of contention,as you know,is money.你知道，争论的真正焦点是钱的问题。

5 persistent   

adj.坚持不懈的，执意的；持续的

参考例句：

• Albert had a persistent headache that lasted for three days.艾伯特连续头痛了三天。
• She felt embarrassed by his persistent attentions.他不时地向她大献殷勤，使她很难为情。

6 woes   

困境( woe的名词复数 )； 悲伤； 我好苦哇； 某人就要倒霉

参考例句：

• Thanks for listening to my woes. 谢谢您听我诉说不幸的遭遇。
• She has cried the blues about its financial woes. 对于经济的困难她叫苦不迭。

7 intestinal   

adj.肠的；肠壁；肠道细菌

参考例句：

• A few other conditions are in high intestinal obstruction. 其它少数情况是高位肠梗阻。 来自辞典例句
• This complication has occasionally occurred following the use of intestinal antiseptics. 这种并发症偶而发生在使用肠道抗菌剂上。 来自辞典例句

8 wedded   

adj.正式结婚的；渴望…的，执著于…的v.嫁，娶，（与…）结婚( wed的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• She's wedded to her job. 她专心致志于工作。
• I was invited over by the newly wedded couple for a meal. 我被那对新婚夫妇请去吃饭。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 sibling   

n.同胞手足(指兄、弟、姐或妹)

参考例句：

• Many of us hate living in the shadows of a more successful sibling.我们很多人都讨厌活在更为成功的手足的阴影下。
• Sibling ravalry has been common in this family.这个家里，兄弟姊妹之间的矛盾很平常。

10 analyst   

n.分析家，化验员；心理分析学家

参考例句：

• What can you contribute to the position of a market analyst?你有什么技能可有助于市场分析员的职务？
• The analyst is required to interpolate values between standards.分析人员需要在这些标准中插入一些值。

11 plantation   

n.种植园，大农场

参考例句：

• His father-in-law is a plantation manager.他岳父是个种植园经营者。
• The plantation owner has possessed himself of a vast piece of land.这个种植园主把大片土地占为己有。

12 lucrative   

adj.赚钱的，可获利的

参考例句：

• He decided to turn his hobby into a lucrative sideline.他决定把自己的爱好变成赚钱的副业。
• It was not a lucrative profession.那是一个没有多少油水的职业。

13 staples   

n.（某国的）主要产品( staple的名词复数 )；钉书钉；U 形钉；主要部份v.用钉书钉钉住( staple的第三人称单数 )

参考例句：

• The anvil onto which the staples are pressed was not assemble correctly. 订书机上的铁砧安装错位。 来自辞典例句
• I'm trying to make an analysis of the staples of his talk. 我在试行分析他的谈话的要旨。 来自辞典例句

14 pointed   

adj.尖的，直截了当的

参考例句：

• He gave me a very sharp pointed pencil.他给我一支削得非常尖的铅笔。
• She wished to show Mrs.John Dashwood by this pointed invitation to her brother.她想通过对达茨伍德夫人提出直截了当的邀请向她的哥哥表示出来。

15 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

16 robust   

adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的

参考例句：

• She is too tall and robust.她个子太高，身体太壮。
• China wants to keep growth robust to reduce poverty and avoid job losses,AP commented.美联社评论道，中国希望保持经济强势增长，以减少贫困和失业状况。

17 ideological   

a.意识形态的

参考例句：

• He always tries to link his study with his ideological problems. 他总是把学习和自己的思想问题联系起来。
• He helped me enormously with advice on how to do ideological work. 他告诉我怎样做思想工作，对我有很大帮助。

18 adviser   

n.劝告者，顾问

参考例句：

• They employed me as an adviser.他们聘请我当顾问。
• Our department has engaged a foreign teacher as phonetic adviser.我们系已经聘请了一位外籍老师作为语音顾问。

19 bilateral   

adj.双方的，两边的，两侧的

参考例句：

• They have been negotiating a bilateral trade deal.他们一直在商谈一项双边贸易协定。
• There was a wide gap between the views of the two statesmen on the bilateral cooperation.对双方合作的问题，两位政治家各自所持的看法差距甚大。

20 irrelevant   

adj.不恰当的，无关系的，不相干的

参考例句：

• That is completely irrelevant to the subject under discussion.这跟讨论的主题完全不相关。
• A question about arithmetic is irrelevant in a music lesson.在音乐课上，一个数学的问题是风马牛不相及的。

21 incentive   

n.刺激；动力；鼓励；诱因；动机

参考例句：

• Money is still a major incentive in most occupations.在许多职业中，钱仍是主要的鼓励因素。
• He hasn't much incentive to work hard.他没有努力工作的动机。

22 propped   

支撑，支持，维持( prop的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He sat propped up in the bed by pillows. 他靠着枕头坐在床上。
• This fence should be propped up. 这栅栏该用东西支一支。