President calls changes 'empty gestures at reform'
By JENNIFER LOVEN | The Associated Press
May 8, 2008
WASHINGTON - President Bush said Wednesday that Cuba's post-Fidel Castro
leadership has made only "empty gestures at reform" and rejected calls
for easing of U.S. restrictions on the communist island.
"Until there is a change of heart and a change of compassion and a
change of how the Cuban government treats its people, there's no change
at all," Bush said at the State Department to the Council of Americas, a
business group that advocates for democracy and open markets in the
Western Hemisphere. "Cuba will not be a land of liberty so long as free
expression is punished and free speech can take place only in hushed
whispers and silent prayers. And Cuba will not become a place of
prosperity just by easing restrictions on the sale of products that the
average Cuban cannot afford."
The White House also said Wednesday that the president spoke by
videoconference this week with democratic activists in Cuba, an
unprecedented move that may enrage the Castro government.
The developments are part of a stepped-up effort by Bush to talk about
Cuba and press for political change since Fidel Castro officially
stepped down in February after nearly a half-century ruling the island.
Fidel's brother, Raul, took over as president in the ailing leader's
place, and has unveiled a series of changes in Cuba since then, from
raising salaries to dropping irritating limits on what Cubans can buy
and sell.
For years, lawmakers of both parties have been trying to chip away at
the United States' Cold War-era trade, travel and home visit
restrictions aimed at undermining a hostile government just 90 miles
from U.S. shores. They contend the leadership change in Havana provides
the opportunity to lift the embargo.
But Bush has stressed that a new Castro does not mean a new Cuba, and he
did so again on Wednesday.
He said Cuba's government must allow Cubans "to pick their own leaders
in free and fair elections," release all political prisoners and respect
human rights "in word and deed."
"This is the policy of the United States and it must not change until
the people of Cuba are free," the president said.
In the teleconference that occurred Tuesday, Bush spoke with Martha
Beatriz Roque, one of the 75 pro-democracy activists arrested in a 2003
crackdown for offenses against the Castro regime; Berta Soler, the wife
of an activist still jailed for treason, and Jorge Luis Garcia Perez,
who was released last year after 17 years in prison.
Some of what Bush heard echoed the challenges to his Cuba policy that he
hears from some at home. Roque asked Bush to make it easier for
Cuban-Americans in the United States to visit family members on the
island and send money to their relatives here.
The U.S. Interests Section in Havana, where the activists went to
participate in the conference, did not say what, if anything, Bush said
in response to Roque's request. But his speech gave a clue that he's not
open to change in the current U.S. approach.
Also on the videoconference were Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and
Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez. Rice and Gutierrez, a
Cuban-American who left the island with his parents at age 6, chair the
White House Commission for Assistance to a Free Cuba.
Rice once said the commission was created to "accelerate the demise of
Castro's tyranny." The Castros have dismissed it as an effort to
destabilize Cuban society.
The activists said Bush congratulated them on their bravery.
"He's a president who leaves power in 10 months, but he's the head of
state closest to the Cuban people," Soler told The Associated Press
later. "He is one of the few presidents worrying about Cuba's problems."
It was the first time Bush has spoken directly to opposition leaders on
the island, the U.S. Interests Section said. The use of U.S. property in
Havana to facilitate the conversation won't please Cuba's government,
which tolerates no organized opposition and dismisses dissidents as
U.S.-paid mercenaries trying to topple the communist system.
In March, Bush met at the White House with a former Cuban prisoner and
his wife to mark the five-year anniversary of the 2003 arrests.
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/cuba/sfl-flauscuba0508sbmay08,0,1709992.story
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