Posted on 04/23/2003 12:58:03 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
WASHINGTON -Secretary of State Colin Powell called Cuba's human rights record "horrible." Cuba described America's backers around the world as "vile lackeys."
Hardly the stuff of classic diplomacy but no cause for particular surprise: it's been going on for a long time. Indeed, these corrosive exchanges occurred, by coincidence, last week on the 42nd anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion.
The rhetoric took place during a politically charged, U.S.-backed examination of Cuba's rights record at the 53-member U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva.
The commission voted on two Cuba measures, approving a mildly critical one but rejecting by a wide margin another one, which took Cuba to task for imposing long prison terms recently on scores of dissidents. That vote showed that many countries see little harm in the crackdown.
The Bush administration, unhappy about the Cuban action, is contemplating ways to make Fidel Castro's government pay a price. It also has undercut embargo foes on Capitol Hill.
"The embargo is still a bad idea, but changing it isn't going to happen any time soon," Rep. Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., said Monday.
Brian Alexander of the anti-embargo Cuba Policy Foundation said some House members who had entertained dissidents not long ago at a restaurant in Cuba's capital, Havana, were appalled to learn the waiters were state security agents who testified against the activists at their trials.
Cuba contends these dissidents, many of them independent journalists or directors of independent libraries, were subversives working hand-in-hand with the U.S. diplomatic office in Havana, led by career diplomat James Cason. Cuba says the dissidents were funded by the U.S. mission; the State Department denies it and says the mission's role is to seek a peaceful transition to democracy.
Neither Washington nor Havana pays much attention to diplomatic decorum nowadays. In Powell's references to the Cuban leader, he goes straight to "Castro," skipping "president." Castro says President Bush is "stupid." Each side has imposed travel restrictions on the others' diplomats lately. Cuba has even talked about shutting down the U.S. office in Havana and bringing its own envoys home from Washington.
In March, Cuba was troubled when five Cubans convicted of spy charges in U.S. courts were subjected to solitary confinement in small punishment cells, among other abuses. After one month and some second thoughts, the Justice Department eased some of the measures.
Cuba also contends that South Florida anti-Castro groups, intent on provoking an uprising on the island, continue to operate unhindered by law enforcers.
Meanwhile, State Department officials say "walk-ins" at the U.S diplomatic mission in Havana provide bogus "tips" about supposed planned terrorist attacks against U.S. citizens or interests. The results, they say, are wasteful, time-consuming checks.
For the Bush administration, the biggest grievance is the one-party state that Castro, 76, has delivered to Cubans since Bush was barely a teenager.
Until this year, congressional support for curbs on dealings with Cuba had been weakening. Last July, the House voted 262-167 to end restrictions on travel by Americans. A vote on the embargo itself was defeated 226-204. Castro launched a charm offensive, wining and dining visiting U.S. lawmakers and ingratiating himself with those from farm states by importing rice, apples and other food items - all exempted from the embargo in 2000 so long as payment is in cash.
An easing of travel curbs would have been a godsend for Cuba's ailing economy, but the proposal died last year without coming to a Senate vote. In any case, a presidential veto was certain.
Dennis Hays, a vice president of the anti-Castro Cuban-American National Foundation, says the crackdown on dissidents makes it plain that the Cuban leader realizes his wooing of members of Congress has failed.
The best U.S. strategy for Cuba, Hays says, is a "clear call for regime change."
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EDITOR'S NOTE - George Gedda has covered foreign affairs for The Associated Press since 1968.
Logistics for this operation would be much better than the Operation Iraqi Freedom!
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