SECTION: Editorial; Pg. 19A

LENGTH: 521 words

HEADLINE: OUR OPINIONS: Carter opens Cubans' eyes to the possibility of change

SOURCE: AJC

BODY:
Conservative Cuban exiles in this country have blasted former President Jimmy Carter for his trip to Cuba, accusing him of kowtowing to longtime dictator Fidel Castro. After Carter's forthright and occasionally brilliant speech on Tuesday night, those critics owe him an apology.

In an address televised live from the University of Havana --- and with Castro sitting in the front row --- Carter condemned the Cuban government's failure to recognize basic individual rights. "Cuba has adopted a socialist government where one political party dominates, and people are not permitted to organize any opposition movements. Your constitution recognizes freedom of speech and association, but other laws deny these freedoms to those who disagree with the government," Carter said.

Speaking in Spanish, Carter showed the skills of a shrewd diplomat. He did not foist upon the Cubans American-style democracy; instead, Carter insisted that Castro live up to the ideals enshrined in Cuba's own constitution and in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Cuba signed in 1948.

"It is based on some simple premises," he said. "All citizens are born with the right to choose their own leaders, to define their own destiny, to speak freely, to organize political parties, trade unions and nongovernmental groups, and to have fair and open trials."

If it accomplished nothing else, Carter's speech gave a little breathing room to a fledgling movement for democratic reform, Project Varela, which the former president mentioned by name. Last Friday, the organizers of Project Varela delivered to the National Assembly a petition signed by more than 11,000 Cubans demanding a referendum on individual rights.

Given Castro's strict control of state-sponsored news media, millions of Cubans probably heard about the petition for the first time from Carter's speech, which was also broadcast nationally by radio. Now that Carter has elevated the Varela movement to international prominence, Castro will find it harder to ignore.

Even Carter's expected call for an end to the U.S. embargo left Castro little cause for comfort. Castro has long blamed his nation's pathetic economy on the 40-year-old embargo, but Carter rejected the link.

"My hope is that the Congress will soon act to permit unrestricted travel between the United States and Cuba, establish open trading relationships and repeal the embargo. I should add that these restraints are not the source of Cuba's economic problems. . . . But the embargo freezes the existing impasse," Carter said.

Carter is keenly aware of the long odds he faces in trying to change the relationship between Cuba and the United States. He faces intransigence in Havana, where Castro seems determined to retain his iron grip on the island nation, and in Washington, where President Bush seems determined to pander to Florida's Castro-haters with even harsher sanctions against Cuba.

Nonetheless, the former president has chosen to use his influence to accomplish whatever he can. And in time he may find that he has done more good than he has any reason to expect.

LOAD-DATE: May 16, 2002