CUBA

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21 May 2008
Bush Calls for Meaningful Changes in Cuba

By Eric Green
Staff Writer

Related:
 • Remarks by President Bush on Cuba, Marks Day of Solidarity
 • Fact Sheet: Promoting Democracy in Cuba
 • State’s Shannon’s Briefing on Solidarity with the Cuban People

Washington -- President Bush says "so-called reforms" by the Cuban regime of Raúl Castro must be accompanied by meaningful change, which includes the release of more than 200 political prisoners and economic moves that open up Cuba's inefficient state-run markets.

Speaking May 21 at the White House on the first Cuba Solidarity Day, Bush said now that Castro is allowing the Cuban people to have mobile phones and DVD players, Cubans should be "trusted to speak freely in public" and permitted to watch films produced by Cuban artists.

Bush added that with the Cuban people being promised they will be allowed to have toasters and other basic appliances in 2010, "they should stop needing to worry about whether they will have bread today."

Because Castro is permitting Cubans to own mobile phones for the first time, the United States is modifying its regulations to allow Americans to send mobile phones to family members in Cuba, Bush said.

"If Raúl is serious about his so-called reforms, he will allow these phones to reach the Cuban people," Bush said in a televised address that also was broadcast to Cuba.

Cuba Solidarity Day seeks to focus international attention on the denial of fundamental freedoms to the Cuban people, with a specific focus on those imprisoned in Cuba for their political beliefs. The day coincides with the death of Cuban independence leader José Martí on May 19, 1895, Cuban Independence Day on May 20, 1902, and the May 25, 1972, death of Cuban anti-Castro leader Pedro Luis Boitel, who died while on a hunger strike in a Cuban prison.

Attending Bush’s speech were several family members of Cuban dissidents who are imprisoned in Castro’s jails and members of the Bush Cabinet, the U.S. Congress and the diplomatic corps.

Family members at the speech included Winnie Biscet, daughter of noted human rights advocate Oscar Elias Biscet, who is serving the fifth year of a 25-year prison sentence in Cuba for alleged crimes against Cuba. Bush awarded Oscar Biscet the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2007 for his fight against tyranny and oppression. That medal is America’s highest civilian award.

Bush repeated in his speech an offer to license U.S. nongovernmental organizations and faith-based groups to provide computers and Internet access to the Cuban people if the Cuban government ends its Internet-access restrictions. The Paris-based press advocacy group Reporters Without Borders calls Cuba one of the world’s worst violators of press freedom, in part because of its tight controls on Internet use.

Bush said Cuba’s political dissidents continue to languish in Castro’s "tropical gulag." The dissidents, he said, are being held in "dens of torture and pain and death" in violation of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, which Cuba signed in February regarding human rights protections.

If the Cuban regime views the treaty as "anything more than a worthless piece of paper, it must immediately stop its abuse of political dissidents and release all political prisoners," Bush said.

The world is watching the Cuban regime, said Bush. "If it follows its recent public gestures by opening up access to information and implementing meaningful economic reforms, respecting political freedom and human rights, then it can credibly say it has delivered the beginnings of change."

But the president said he believes, based on experience, that the Cuban regime has no intention of making real reforms in the Caribbean nation.

The country’s recent gestures toward reforms "appear to be nothing more than a cruel joke perpetuated on a long-suffering people. America refuses to be deceived, and so do the Cuban people," said Bush.

Cuba Solidarity Day, said Bush, marks a day of both "sorrow" regarding oppression of the Cuban people and "hope" because "we see a day coming when Cubans will have the freedom of which they have dreamed for centuries."

The United States must continue observing Cuba Solidarity days until Cuba achieves freedom, Bush said.

Bush also said in a May 20 proclamation that the United States is "rallying the free world to the cause of Cuban liberty. We continue to shine a bright light on the Castro regime's abuses -- and America calls on the government of Cuba to immediately and unconditionally release all prisoners of conscience."

The proclamation declared May 21 as a "Day of Solidarity with the Cuban People to recognize those who are suffering in Cuba."

For additional information, see the proclamation, the full text of the president’s speech, a May 21 fact sheet on promoting democracy in Cuba and a May 20 fact sheet on Cuba Solidarity Day.

See also “Cuba Solidarity Day Offers Hope for Cuban Political Prisoners,” and “Cuba Solidarity Day Reminds World of Cuba’s Political Prisoners.”

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