Posted on 04/13/2002 1:32:20 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
HAVANA (Reuters) - The imminent visit of former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Cuba underlines the growing desire of the American people for a normalization of ties with Havana, President Fidel Castro's government said on Thursday.
Carter will travel to Cuba for several days in May, the highest-profile U.S. visitor to the communist-run island since its 1959 revolution and the most symbolic visit from abroad since Pope John Paul II in 1998.
"We are very happy that he has accepted President Fidel Castro's invitation to visit our country," Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told a news conference.
"We believe his visit is testimony to the new era of growing sentiment within U.S. society and among the U.S. people in favor of a normalization of relations with Cuba," Perez added, saying that was the will of all but a powerful minority of anti-Castro Cuban Americans and ultra-right politicians.
Although Carter did not dismantle the U.S. embargo on Cuba during his 1977-1981 presidency, he briefly lifted restrictions on American travel to Cuba and also established lower-tier diplomatic missions called Interests Sections in Havana and Washington. Cuba and the United States broke formal ties a few years after Castro and his bearded rebels won the revolution.
While the White House is urging Carter to press Castro on human rights and democracy issues, including the cases of some jailed dissidents, he is a critic of the U.S. sanctions and his visit will bolster the internal American anti-embargo lobby.
No other former or sitting U.S. president has visited Cuba under Castro.
"We consider him an honorable and serious man, an exponent of the sentiments of the best aspects of the U.S. people," Perez added. "We respect him, we do not blame him for the aggressions our nation has suffered" from the United States.
CARTER BOUND TO MEET CASTRO
When he comes to Havana, Carter is sure to meet Castro, who enjoys hosting high-profile guests for lengthy chats into the early hours over rum and cigars at his Revolution Palace.
The former U.S. leader, known for his international missions to monitor elections and push humanitarian causes, will also likely receive a tour of some of Cuba's top health and education establishments to show off the social achievements for which the Castro government is often praised internationally.
Local dissidents, however, who are pressing for reform to Castro's one-party system, which they call "tropical Stalinism," have said they expect to meet Carter too to explain their alternative, non-official view of Cuban society.
They particularly hope Carter will press the case of certain jailed dissidents including Vladimiro Roca and Oscar Elias Biscet, both in jail for anti-government activities.
Cuba calls dissidents U.S. pawns.
Perez said the dates of Carter's visit had not been fixed yet, but Cuban officials were working closely with his staff to prepare the program.
"We want him to have the chance to see our reality and to enter into contact with a country which, even though he didn't visit, neither did he make the focus of hostility," he said.
"Even though he did not change the fundamental elements of the blockade, of the policy he inherited, we viewed him as a serious man, a man with moral values that we respect."
Carter needed a license from the U.S. Treasury Department to visit Cuba because of a U.S. trade embargo that bans normal travel there by Americans.
"We hope his visit is a success and that President Carter returns to the United States with a memory of the sympathy, friendship and hospitality of the Cubans, as well as their sense of independence and dignity," Perez said.
There certainly wasn't any love lost between those two.
This seems to the wish of the U.S. people.
And on THAT record, he was elected President!
But they are the classic definition of "cluster ****". One I watched for awhile on Cape Cod must have had two hundred people show up to start framing a 44x26 foot ranch house. This is a job where five people is sometimes too many, and from personal experience, is no more than five days for a weather tight frame. These people seemed to go on forever.
Look, most of them mean well and they volunteer their time so I don't dislike them anymore than I dislike the run-of-the-mill do-gooder.
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