The following speech was
made Tuesday at the Univesity of Havana by former U.S.
President Jimmy Carter and broadcast on Cuban state TV
and radio:
I appreciate President
Castro's invitation for us to visit Cuba, and have been
delighted with the hospitality we have received since
arriving here. It is a great honor to address the Cuban
people.
After a long and agonizing
struggle, Cuba achieved its independence a century ago,
and a complex relationship soon developed between our
two countries. The great powers in Europe and Asia
viewed ''imperialism'' as the natural order of the time
and they expected the United States to colonize Cuba as
the Europeans had done in Africa. The United States
chose instead to help Cuba become independent, but not
completely. The Platt Amendment gave my country the
right to intervene in Cuba's internal affairs until
President Franklin Roosevelt had the wisdom to repeal
this claim in May 1934.
The dictator Fulgencio
Batista was overthrown more than 43 years ago, and a few
years later the Cuban revolution aligned with the Soviet
Union in the Cold War. Since then, our nations have
followed different philosophical and political
paths.
The hard truth is that
neither the United States nor Cuba has managed to define
a positive and beneficial relationship. Will this new
century find our neighboring people living in harmony
and friendship? I have come here in search of an answer
to that question.
There are some in Cuba who
think the simple answer is for the United States to lift
the embargo, and there are some in my country who
believe the answer is for your president to step down
from power and allow free elections. There is no doubt
that the question deserves a more comprehensive
assessment.
I have restudied the
complicated history (in preparation for my conversations
with President Castro), and realize that there are no
simple answers.
I did not come here to
interfere in Cuba's internal affairs, but to extend a
hand of friendship to the Cuban people and to offer a
vision of the future for our two countries and for all
the Americas.
That vision includes a Cuba
fully integrated into a democratic hemisphere,
participating in a Free Trade Area of the Americas and
with our citizens traveling without restraint to visit
each other. I want a massive student exchange between
our universities. I want the people of the United States
and Cuba to share more than a love of baseball and
wonderful music. I want us to be friends, and to respect
each other.
Our two nations have been
trapped in a destructive state of belligerence for 42
years, and it is time for us to change our relationship
and the way we think and talk about each other. Because
the United States is the most powerful nation, we should
take the first step.
First, 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. Cuba can trade with more than 100
countries, and buy medicines, for example, more cheaply
in Mexico than in the United States. But the embargo
freezes the existing impasse, induces anger and
resentment, restricts the freedoms of US citizens, and
makes it difficult for us to exchange ideas and
respect.
Second, I hope that Cuba
and the United States can resolve the 40-year-old
property disputes with some creativity. In many cases,
we are debating ancient claims about decrepit sugar
mills, an antique telephone company, and many other
obsolete holdings. Most U.S. companies have already
absorbed the losses, but some others want to be paid,
and many Cubans who fled the revolution retain a
sentimental attachment for their homes. We resolved
similar problems when I normalized relations with China
in 1979. I propose that our two countries establish a
blue-ribbon commission to address the legitimate
concerns of all sides in a positive and constructive
manner.
Third, some of those who
left this beautiful island have demonstrated vividly
that the key to a flourishing economy is to use
individual entrepreneurial skills. But many Cubans in
South Florida remain angry over their departure and
their divided families. We need to define a future so
they can serve as a bridge of reconciliation between
Cuba and the United States.
Are such normal
relationships possible? I believe they are.
Except for the stagnant
relations between the United States and Cuba, the world
has been changing greatly, and especially in Latin
America and the Caribbean. As late as 1977, when I
became President, there were only two democracies in
South America, and one in Central America. Today, almost
every country in the Americas is a democracy.
I am not using a U.S.
definition of ''democracy.'' The term is embedded in the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Cuba signed
in 1948, and it was defined very precisely by all the
other countries of the Americas in the Inter-American
Democratic Charter last September. It is based on some
simple premises: 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 non-governmental groups, and to have fair and
open trials.
Only such governments can
be members of the OAS, join a Free Trade Area of the
Americas, or participate in the Summits of the Americas.
Today, any regime that takes power by unconstitutional
means will be ostracized, as was shown in the rejection
of the Venezuelan coup last month.
Democracy is a framework
that permits a people to accommodate changing times and
correct past mistakes. Since our independence, the
United States has rid itself of slavery, granted women
the right to vote, ended almost a century of legal
racial discrimination, and just this year reformed its
election laws to correct problems we faced in Florida
eighteen months ago.
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.
My nation is hardly perfect
in human rights. A very large number of our citizens are
incarcerated in prison, and there is little doubt that
the death penalty is imposed most harshly on those who
are poor, black, or mentally ill. For more than a
quarter century, we have struggled unsuccessfully to
guarantee the basic right of universal health care for
our people. Still, guaranteed civil liberties offer
every citizen an opportunity to change these
laws.
That fundamental right is
also guaranteed to Cubans. It is gratifying to note that
Articles 63 and 88 of your constitution allows citizens
to petition the National Assembly to permit a referendum
to change laws if 10,000 or more citizens sign it. I am
informed that such an effort, called the Varela Project,
has gathered sufficient signatures and has presented
such a petition to the National Assembly. When Cubans
exercise this freedom to change laws peacefully by a
direct vote, the world will see that Cubans, and not
foreigners, will decide the future of this
country.
Cuba has superb systems of
health care and universal education, but last month,
most Latin American governments joined a majority in the
United Nations Human Rights Commission in calling on
Cuba to meet universally accepted standards in civil
liberties. I would ask that you permit the International
Committee of the Red Cross to visit prisons and that you
would receive the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner to
address such issues as prisoners of conscience and the
treatment of inmates. These visits could help refute any
unwarranted criticisms.
Public opinion surveys show
that a majority of people in the United States would
like to see the economic embargo ended, normal travel
between our two countries, friendship between our
people, and Cuba to be welcomed into the community of
democracies in the Americas. At the same time, most of
my fellow citizens believe that the issues of economic
and political freedom need to be addressed by the Cuban
people.
After 43 years of
animosity, we hope that someday soon, you can reach
across the great divide that separates our two countries
and say, ''We are ready to join the community of
democracies,'' and I hope that Americans will soon open
our arms to you and say, ``We welcome you as our
friends.''