Published on Monday, April 7, 2008
By Sue Pleming and Arshad Mohammed
WASHINGTON, USA (Reuters): Cuba must make bolder reforms, free political
prisoners and improve human rights before Washington can engage
President Raul Castro and end a half-century of isolation, a US official
said.
In an interview with Reuters as part of a Latin American summit series,
the State Department's top diplomat for the region, Tom Shannon, said
recent reforms in Cuba showed pressure for change was building inside
the communist island.
"These things, as small as they are, are good but they are clearly not
enough from our point of view," said Shannon, assistant secretary of
state for Western Hemisphere Affairs.
Raul Castro, since officially succeeding his ailing brother Fidel Castro
as president in February, has begun lifting some of the state's economic
restrictions.
Cubans can now buy computers, DVDs and other products, stay at tourist
resorts and access cell phone service, all previously off-limits.
Shannon said changes could not just be about what Cubans could buy.
"We would urge the Cubans to be bolder, more audacious in their reform,
and to ensure that as they undertake these reforms, that they build in a
human rights and democracy ... component," said Shannon.
Washington broke off diplomatic relations with Havana in 1961, two years
after Fidel Castro seized power in a revolution and turned Cuba into a
communist state.
Communications were restored with the opening of low-level diplomatic
missions called interest sections in 1978 but a strict US sanctions
regime remains in place.
Washington has been preparing in recent years for Castro's departure but
the hand-over to Raul Castro dampened any hopes of major changes that
could lead to an opening with Washington.
Before Raul Castro formally took over, the Bush administration dubbed
him "dictator lite."
"We ultimately believe that the way Cuba begins a larger transition
process that is both peaceful and enduring is by releasing political
prisoners and showing that the Cuban state doesn't require a repressive
apparatus to manage political dialogue," said Shannon.
In a speech last July, Raul Castro said Havana was open to talks with
Washington to end more than four decades of hostility, but only when US
President George W. Bush had left the White House.
"Ultimately, we don't want our engagement to be strengthening an
existing state. We want our engagement to be transforming that state. We
want our engagement to be part of a broader process of change," Shannon
said.
Shannon said he believed the recent changes were made for several
reasons -- first to send a signal to the Cuban people that change was
coming but also to challenge the United States.
"Ultimately, the Cubans count on us being rigid and not being able to
respond," he said.
Cuba also hoped to attract countries that "instinctively" wanted to
engage with it but were reluctant to do so because of the nature of the
government, said Shannon, adding Washington had urged caution and
patience on the part of those nations.
He said Cuba needed to find suitable interlocutors to help the country
change course, citing South Africa as an example where the apartheid
government released political prisoner Nelson Mandela and invited his
then-banned African National Congress out of exile.
Shannon said that while Raul Castro was in charge on a day-to-day basis
of Cuban affairs, Fidel Castro was still "very much alive." He said the
new president had surrounded himself with hard-liners connected to his
brother.
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