CUBA

Documents & Texts from America.gov

20 February 2008
United States Ready To Help Cubans Realize Liberty, Bush Says

Washington -– The change from the regime of Fidel Castro should offer the Cuban people an opportunity to pursue democracy, and the United States is ready to help Cuba realize this possibility, President Bush says.

"The international community should work with the Cuban people to begin to build institutions that are necessary for democracy. And eventually, this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections –- and I mean free and I mean fair, not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as being true democracy," Bush says.

It has been the Cuban people who have suffered the most under Castro, so this period should be the beginning of the democratic transition for them, Bush said February 19 while traveling on a five-nation state visit to Africa.

"There will be an interesting debate that will arise eventually. There will be some who say, let's promote stability. Of course, in the meantime, political prisoners will rot in prison, and the human condition will remain pathetic in many cases," the president said.

The first step, Bush said, is for political prisoners to be released. "It just breaks your heart to realize that people have been thrown in prison because they dared speak out," he said.

Castro announced February 19 that he was stepping down as president of Cuba and commander of the Cuban armed forces. He said he will not seek another term of office when the newly chosen National Assembly meets February 24 to select a 31-member Council of State and Ministers, and a new president.

The 81-year-old Castro has been hospitalized for more than a year and a half with an unspecified illness, and relinquished control of the island nation to his brother, Raul, who is expected to be named president by the National Assembly.

OAS Secretary-General Jose Miguel Insulza said "that decision is no small matter given the Cuban leader's importance in his country and the Latin American region for almost five decades.”

Insulza said he hoped this transition would enable Cuba, which is a member of the Organization of American States –- though suspended –- to become reincorporated into the OAS. "It should fall to Cubans themselves, through free and peaceful dialogue and without external interference, to find the most appropriate path to the well-being of the people," Insulza said.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte said that this leadership change will not change the current U.S. embargo on Cuba. "I can't imagine that happening any time soon," he said.

Cuba remains on the list of State Sponsors of Terrorism and harbors fugitives from U.S. justice, including domestic terrorists.

U.S. sanctions specifically include the embargo and travel restrictions on U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba. The embargo was codified in the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act. The 2000 Agricultural Appropriations Act removed the embargo on food sales, but prohibited financing by U.S. citizens to Cuba.

President Bush also restricted family visits to once every three years and put a ceiling on the amount of remittances Cuban Americans can send to relatives in Cuba. The United States also has said it will not negotiate with any Cuban government headed by either Fidel or Raul Castro.

NO CHANGE IN THE HIERARCHY

While Castro has stepped aside by taking himself out of consideration for another term as president, there will be some shift and some new faces, but it will still be the rulers who have been in power in Cuba since the revolution, says Vicki Huddleston, a visiting fellow in foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington.

"The name of the game in Cuba will always remain: staying in power," Huddleston said February 20. "Raul and the Cuban hierarchy have to stay in power. And, they have to do what is necessary to stay in power, which will be allowing some reforms because the Cuban people want better lives.

"But they're not going to address the democracy side in any concerted way."

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Joe Biden said that with Castro's resignation, "Cuba's darkest days could finally be coming to an end, opening up a new age of possibility for the Cuban people and Cuban-American relations. But a possibility is not a guarantee."

U.S. Representative Howard Berman, acting chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said this change in the Cuban regime may provide an opportunity for the United States to inject creativity and fresh ideas into U.S.-Cuba policies.

"For far too long, the Cuban people have been denied democratic freedoms, fundamental human rights, and the rule of law. I hope today's announcement will mark a turning point in their struggle for a better life," Berman said in a prepared statement.

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