Helms Supports Cuban News Bureau

Sen. Jesse Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged President Clinton to approve CNN’s application to open a news bureau in Cuba. He said the move would hasten the demise of President Fidel Castro’s government.

In a letter sent Thursday to Clinton, Helms said he supported the proposal provided the “opening is completely unconditional and that the Castro regime will be granted no quid pro quo.”

Helms, R-N.C., also said all U.S. news organizations that make similar applications should be permitted to establish a presence in Cuba.

“I am persuaded that the spotlight of a free press focused on Castro’s tropical gulag will only hasten the day when the Cuban people are free of his brutal communist tyranny,” Helms said in the letter.

He said U.S. news bureaus would benefit the Cuban people by making news organizations less dependent on Castro’s government “for access to the island and thus allowing better reporting on the true conditions in Cuba.”