Cuban Oil Drilling Could Put U.S. Embargo Over An Economic Barrel

Is Cuba on the verge of an oil bonanza that could pump financial life into Fidel Castro’s regime and soften U.S. trade policy toward the island?

If so, new U.S. Sen. Mel Martinez could find himself at the intersection of conflicting agendas – as a loyalist to President Bush, who draws support from energy interests as well as from anti-Castro Cubans, as a hard-line refugee who fled the dictatorship, and as a member of a Senate committee that weighs energy development against environmental protection.

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