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(Upcoming Bush speech, Carter trip to Cuba ignite debate)

By Eric Green

Washington File Staff Writer

Washington, May 17, 2002  -- The small island nation of Cuba is again back at the top of the news following former U.S. President Jimmy Carter's well-publicized trip there May 12-17, which precedes what is billed as a major policy speech on Cuba by President Bush May 20.  

Bush Administration officials have indicated the president will assert in his speech that the 42-year trade embargo on Cuba and restrictions on U.S. citizens travelling to that island must remain as long as Cuban President Fidel Castro continues to deny civil liberties to his countrymen.  Bush is expected to say that it is important for the United States to maintain a firm stand against a repressive regime, while opening up more contacts with Cuban citizens.

A State Department official was quoted as saying that the president intends in his speech to support measures designed to "expand the flow and the breadth of information to the Cuban people."  That involves revamping Radio Marti, the U.S. government station broadcasting to Cuba, and increasing distribution of radios by U.S. diplomats in Havana to the Cuban people, the official indicated.

White House press spokesman Ari Fleischer said on May 15 that the embargo is a "very important ongoing part" of U.S. policy because trade with Cuba only benefits that country's repressive government.

Fleischer said that trading with Cuba, "unlike [with] almost any other nation in the world, does not help the people" of that country.  The money that Cuba has gotten from trade "has remained firmly in the hands of the repressive government," said Fleischer.

Carter, in his nationally televised speech to the Cuban people May 14, said he hopes for a change in the "destructive state of belligerence" that Cuba and the United States "have been trapped in for the last 42 years."  With Castro seated directly in front of him in the audience, Carter had tough words for Cuba's denial of human and civil rights, pointing out that the Cuban regime allows only one-party rule and that Cuba's citizens are not permitted to organize any opposition movements.

"Your constitution recognizes freedom of speech and association, but other laws deny these freedom to those who disagree with the government," Carter said.

At the same time, Carter said he hoped the U.S. Congress will soon act to permit unrestricted travel between the two nations, establish an open trading relationship with Cuba, and repeal the economic embargo that the United States imposed on Cuba in response to Castro's authoritarian rule.

The embargo, Carter said, "freezes the existing impasse" between the two nations, "induces anger and resentment, restricts the freedoms of U.S. citizens, and makes it difficult for us to exchange ideas and respect."

Meanwhile, a bipartisan caucus in the U.S. House of Representatives issued a nine-point plan May 15 calling for an end to the embargo, saying it has not produced meaningful political and economic reform in Cuba.

Known as the "Cuba Working Group," the caucus is composed of 20 Democrats and 20 Republicans.  The caucus also roundly criticized the Cuban government's "refusal to allow free elections or the creation of opposition political parties and its failure to respect freedom of the press or civil and political liberties."

U.S. policy toward Cuba was the subject of debate May 15 on a U.S. national television program, "The News Hour" (airing on the Public Broadcasting Service).  The program featured two members of the U.S. House of Representatives and two other Cuba-watchers, who discussed the merits of the embargo and the significance of Carter's trip to the island.

Jorge Mas Santos, chairman of the Cuban American National Foundation, said that the obstacle preventing the United States from having normal relations with Cuba is Fidel Castro -- whom he described as "the worst violator of human rights this hemisphere has ever seen."

Santos said Bush's upcoming speech will present a "very harsh rebuke of the regime" yet will also build "a bridge ... to try to benefit the Cuban opposition and give voice to those who cannot speak for themselves."

Rep. Robert Menendez (Democrat of New Jersey) said he did not expect Carter's trip to Cuba to create a "groundswell" of support to drop the U.S. economic embargo.

"To unilaterally get rid of the embargo without any commensurate response by the Castro regime ... would not elicit the response that we wanted," said Menendez, a son of Cuban immigrants.  The embargo, he argued, offers an opportunity for a "calibration of responses to ensure that the Cuban people get what the United States freely enjoys and what most of the Western world freely enjoys."

However, Alfredo Duran, former president of the Cuban Committee for Democracy, said that even the people who are pro-embargo realize that it has not worked in the past 42 years, "is not working now, and is not [likely to work] in the future," adding: "Something needs to change."

"I think we have to be creative and formulate a new policy towards Cuba," Duran said.

As for future U.S.-Cuban relations, Rep. Jerry Moran (Republican of Kansas), a member of the Cuba Working Group that opposes the embargo, said he did not expect to see a "dramatic change" in U.S. policy toward Cuba.

"The Bush Administration has made clear on a number of occasions, and apparently intends to do so again next week, that they don't support liberalizing trade or travel to Cuba," Moran said.  Any changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba, Moran predicted, "will occur incrementally over time."