BY GABRIELA FLYNN (Special for Granma International)

                   THE weakness of those who support the blockade in the United
                   States against Cuba was demonstrated once again when the
                   California Senate approved a legislative resolution in August urging
                   the lifting of travel and trade restrictions with the island, imposed
                   over 40 years ago.

                   According to the Cuban Policy Foundation (CPF), this resolution will
                   soon be discussed in the State Assembly, where its approval is
                   expected, and is based on the benefits bilateral relations between the
                   two countries could bring to California, including commercial trade
                   and the possibility of acquiring the meningitis B vaccine.

                   A CPF report states that the United States could gain more than one
                   billion dollars in agricultural, tourism and energy sectors if the
                   blockade were lifted.

                   Various legislators from that western state have visited Cuba this
                   year, among them Barbara Boxer, who brought samples of cotton
                   and rice produced in the state, and others who have come
                   accompanied by representatives of industry, such as poultry.

                   Sally Grooms Cowal, president of CPF, an institution dedicated to
                   promoting a change in U.S. policy towards the island, stated:
                   “California’s adoption of this bill is part of widespread
                   acknowledgement that the embargo has failed and is harmful to the
                   United States.”

                   During the past four years the states of Louisiana, Illinois and Texas
                   have approved similar texts favoring the elimination of the blockade,
                   which hold no legal weight but rather represent recommendations
                   from those states to the “President and Vice president of the United
                   States, the Speaker of the House of Representatives and each
                   Senator and Representative from California in the Congress of the
                   United States.”

                   On July 23, the House of Representatives of the United States
                   approved a bill presented by Republican congressman Jeff Flake to lift
                   restrictions on travel to Cuba. Flake, who is also a member of the
                   House’s International Relations Committee, declared that the U.S.
                   government should not impose when and where U.S. citizens can
                   travel, and added that while they have permission to travel to North
                   Korea and Iran, they cannot visit Cuba.

                   The resolution, to be debated in the Senate in September, has been
                   presented to and approved by the House for the past two years, but
                   rejected by the Senate.

                   However, a Senate sub-committee approved a proposal to deny
                   financing to all measures directed at reinforcing the travel ban, which
                   implies that the proposal will pass by both legislative bodies this year.
                   The project will alleviate the difficulty posed by the position of Bush,
                   who has already said he plans to veto the resolution.

                   The bill Senate will have to vote on, incorporated into the Treasury
                   Department and Postal Service Budget legislation, requests flexibility
                   on and the suspension of the travel ban and an end to limitations on
                   remittances and bilateral trade.

                   Even if the Senate approves the measure, President George W. Bush
                   has promised Miami’s reactionary anti-Cuba right wing a veto on any
                   proposal favoring Cuba, given that his brother, Florida governor Jeb
                   Bush, depends on the group’s votes and campaign contribution for
                   reelection this year.

                   Still, the demands for improved relations are increasingly stronger; as
                   California’s Democrat legislator Cal Cooley noted, “I don't know if
                   we're there quite yet, but my position is that it's inevitable.”

                   Since Hurricane Michelle passed through Cuba and the United States
                   offered the island humanitarian aid, imports, paid up front, have been
                   gradually increasing. According to Pedro Alvarez, director of the
                   Cuban food import company, ALIMPORT, to date Cuba has signed
                   contracts with companies from 12 states and if the blockade were
                   lifted, the island could purchase 50-70% of its total imports,
                   amounting to more than one billion dollars, from the United States.