Posted on 04/14/2002 4:36:10 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Castro says Bush's power is excessive [Full text] SANTIAGO, Cuba - In his latest response to George W. Bush's hardline statements on Cuba, Fidel Castro on Saturday said the powers of the U.S. president are too vast and accused Bush of acting as the world's master. "The power and prerogatives of that country's president are too extensive, and the economic, technological and military power network in that nation is too pervasive," Castro said of the United States.
"The world is coming under the rule of Nazi concepts and methods," he said, without elaborating. Bush has ignored the United Nations in his declared war against terrorism, "assuming the role of world master and policeman," Castro told hundreds of thousands of people gathered for the early morning rally in this eastern provincial capital. As for Bush's May 20 statements on U.S. policy toward Cuba, "he went too far," Castro said. "He was rude. He insulted, he lied, and he threatened."
Bush vowed not to lift the four-decade old sanctions against this Caribbean island until independently monitored elections are allowed and a series of other conditions are accepted for a "new government that is fully democratic." International human rights groups often criticize Cuba's electoral process. Although they do not complain of electoral fraud, they charge that the elections are not competitive because only one political party - the Communist Party - can participate. Cuba's one-party system has elections every five years for the National Assembly, created in 1976. [End]
As an economist, he rose through the ranks of the Ministry of Foreign Investment, where he worked closely with eastern European countries. During the 1980s Espinosa Chepe grew increasingly disillusioned with hard-line government policies and looked toward reforms in the Soviet Union as a last hope. But when he shared his views with his colleagues, Espinosa Chepe was once again blacklisted. He was demoted from his job in 1992 and ultimately fired four years later. Today he says he hopes for "a great reconciliation" between the exile community and Cubans on the island.
Though Radio Marti is often lambasted by critics on both sides of the Florida Straits for being too one-sided, Espinosa Chepe says his "moderate" views have never been censored. "I'm thankful they've given me the chance to address the people and criticize the embargo and also the [Cuban] government," he said. Espinosa Chepe's work on Radio Marti and his frequent articles for foreign journals could easily earn him political asylum, but he says he'll never leave the island of his birth. "It's my duty to stay here and contribute modestly to the changes which I believe are coming," he said. "I'm not one of those people who believe if things ever change the communists should be persecuted. I think within the Communist Party there are many people with ideals who are disillusioned."***
Castro said that in Havana alone at least 1 million people were expected to participate in the event Wednesday, adding that such a march "has never been done before."
"It will put our organizational ability to the test ... to organize the march in all of the country's provincial capitals, in all of the country's municipalities," Castro said after an evening gathering of the national leadership of the government's popular support organizations.
The announcement comes one month after activists delivered more than 11,000 signatures to Cuba's National Assembly, demanding a referendum for broad changes in the island's socialist system. The government has given little hope for its success.
During a subsequent visit in mid-May, former President Jimmy Carter mentioned the Varela Project signature drive by name - the first time most of the island's 11 million citizens had heard of it - during a live and uncensored television address to the Cuban people.
Seen as the biggest homegrown, nonviolent effort in more than four decades to push for reforms in Cuba's one-party system, the proposed referendum would ask voters if they favor civil liberties such as freedom of speech and assembly, the right to own a business, electoral reform and amnesty for political prisoners.
Before Castro spoke Monday, hundreds of representatives of the popular organizations, which form the pillars supporting Cuba's one-party system, unanimously agreed to ask the National Assembly to consider approving the proposed amendment. The proposal asks lawmakers to ratify that "Cuba is a socialist state of workers, independent and sovereign, organized with all and for the good of all, as a unified and democratic republic, for the enjoyment of political liberty, social justice, individual and collective well-being, and human solidarity."
In addition, it asks that the amendment to Cuba's 1976 constitution state that "the political will of the people is that the economic, political and social regimen consecrated in the constitution of the republic is untouchable."
It also asks lawmakers to "ratify that economic, diplomatic and political relations with any other state are never negotiated under pressure, threat or pressure of a foreign power."
Castro said the marches are an extension of speeches he's made the last three Saturdays in eastern provincial capitals, responding to President Bush's May 20 address reiterating his promise not to ease up on Cuba trade or travel restrictions until the communist country undertakes deep reforms, including the holding of free and competitive elections. [End]
"I propose the following: let's call a march on Wednesday to support the document presented here," Castro told a meeting of leaders of pro-government worker, student and farmer organizations. The meeting followed rallies Castro has led for three Saturdays in a row to reject calls by President Bush that Cuba allow freedom of speech and open elections.
In policy speeches on Cuba on May 20, Bush called Cuba a "tyranny" and vowed to maintain a four-decade-old trade embargo against Cuba until its one-party state undertook reforms. Bush also announced increased aid for independent groups in Cuba, including grants for the children of political prisoners. Speaking to 780 leaders of social groups, who chanted "Fidel, Fidel" and revolutionary slogans, Castro said Bush's speeches to anti-Castro exiles in Washington and Miami were "insulting and threatening." ***
President Fidel Castro's government plans to shut down almost half of Cuba's inefficient sugar mills, which cannot compete at today's rock-bottom world price of about 5 U.S. cents a pound. The drastic measure will leave tens of thousands of Cubans out of work in Cuba's largest industry, which for decades was the backbone of its socialist revolution.
Cuba's pressing need for hard currency to pay for essential imports of food and oil led the government to jack up prices for consumer goods sold in dollar shops by up to 30 percent. The price hikes angered Cubans, most of whom earn local pesos but need dollars to buy a fan, a refrigerator or other basic consumer goods in the state-run shops.
"It is going to be a very hot summer in Havana, which can only mean more push for migration and more social tension," said Damian Fernandez, an expert on Cuba at Miami's Florida International University. ***
But the emotional reception soon gave way to mundane realities to which most did not adjust. Rice and beans were served at the cafeteria almost every day. There were no toilet seats in the bathrooms. The students had to take a bus 45 minutes into the city every time they wanted to check their e-mail. Castro's critics predicted the American medical students would not complete the rigorous six-year program. Opponents dismissed the scholarships as propaganda calculated to highlight disparities between the United States and Cuba in health care and educational opportunities for the poor. ***
Wearing his traditional olive green uniform and cap and the black high-top athletic style shoes he now favors, Castro waved a small red, white and blue Cuban flag as the sea of people marched toward the U.S. Interests Section, the American mission. ``Come on, comrades! Everyone will participate in the great march against the lies of Mr. W!'' an unidentified man with a megaphone said in a reference to U.S. President Bush. ``Come on, comrades! In support of the constitutional amendment!''***
It was not clear how much choice Cubans had to stay away from the marches. Residents who have lived through dire economic hardships since the collapse of the Soviet Union a decade ago lose benefits if they shun official events by the ruling Communist Party. Cubans were driven at dawn to the marches in buses and open trucks in a massive operation.***
While Caracas has been silent, Havana says the suspended deliveries have caused grave problems, forcing it to seek more expensive crude elsewhere. Energy-saving blackouts have been a way of life for years in Torres' town and elsewhere. While they now come only every 15 to 20 days, in the early 1990s they were daily.
In 1993, in a financial crisis caused by the former Soviet Union's collapse, Cuba reluctantly adopted modest economic reforms. These included legalizing the use of the U.S. dollar, approving a limited number of small businesses, permitting foreign investment, and opening dollar stores. There have been no major reforms in the state-controlled economy since.***
Beginning Saturday, Cubans will be able to sign petitions over a four-day period in support of Cuba's economic, political and social systems, Castro said during a live appearance on state television. More than 120,000 petition stations will be set up around the island, said Castro, who established the country's socialist system in 1961, two years after he came to power with the triumph of the 1959 revolution.
The constitutional amendment was proposed Monday by the island's popular support organizations, which are linked to the Communist Party of Cuba. Opposition activists say the government's appeals for public support of its socialist system are a response to the Varela Project, an initiative that would ask voters if they favor civil liberties including freedom of speech and assembly, the right to own a business, electoral reform and amnesty for political prisoners.
Most Cubans first heard of the Varela Project in mid-May, when former President Carter mentioned it in a live, uncensored television address to the Cuban people. Castro's initiative also comes less than a month after President Bush called for democratic reforms in Cuba. In a May 20 address, Bush promised not to lift American trade and travel restrictions until Cuba holds competitive elections and undertakes other deep reforms. Castro said the referendum would give Bush his answer.***
Defying U.S. calls for political reform, Castro announced on Thursday a nationwide campaign to support a petition in favor of making the socialist system "untouchable."
Critics said his aim was to squash a dissident attempt to seek moderate internal reform and guarantees of civil liberties through a popular referendum known as the Varela Project.
State Department spokesman Philip Reeker agreed.
"Instead of addressing this peaceful plea for change, Castro has chosen to manufacture an alternative petition supporting the current constitution and to intimidate the population into signing it," he told a daily briefing.
He added: "Obviously, given Castro's control over the Cuban population, he is no doubt going to try to get more signatures on this than on Project Varela.
"No matter what the outcome, he's not going to be able to obscure the fact that one important thing has occurred with Project Varela, and that's it's succeeded in getting 11,000 Cubans to brave Castro's tyranny and to call for change."
President Bush has offered to ease the U.S. restrictions on trade and travel to Cuba, provided the Cuban government holds free and fair elections, liberalizes the economy and allows independent trade unions. [End]
''I've worked under dictatorships just about everywhere I've been,'' said Cason, 57. ``I was in Uruguay when there was a dictator. I was in Panama when [Manuel] Noriega was in charge. I was in Portugal during the dictatorship there. So I'm aware of dictators and the kinds of things they do.'' ``I don't want to tip my hand before I get down there. . . . But I plan to be creative and active and vigorous.''***
No such luck. In March, Montes confessed in U.S. District Court to one count of conspiracy to commit espionage. She had become a crown jewel for the Cuban intelligence service, one of the most effective in the world. Experts say she spilled a flood of secrets to her Cuban handlers. ''They wanted everything. They just sucked everything out of her,'' said one security official knowledgeable about the case. ``[Fidel] Castro trades in this kind of information.'' [--Sells it to other countries???]
…………… As she funneled secrets, Montes also molded debate about Cuba on Capitol Hill and at the Pentagon and the State Department. In 1998, she was a principal drafter of a Pentagon paper that concluded that Cuba no longer represented a military threat to the United States. In 1999, Montes was a principal briefer on an inter-agency war-game-like exercise about Cuba that may have required her to review U.S. military capabilities toward Cuba should turmoil erupt on the island, one U.S. official said.***
But members of the country's illegal but tolerated dissident groups said the "referendum" -- which allows only a yes vote or an abstention -- was a transparent ploy to foil Cuban aspirations to democracy. "This shows the fundamentalism of the government," said high-profile dissident Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz of the opposition Cuban Human Rights Commission. "They are trying to head off the Varela Project," he said, refering to a petition bearing more than 11,000 signatures seeking a referendum on political pluralism and market-minded economic change.***
Opposition leaders said the effort was in response to their own signature drive, known as the Varela Project. Activists last month submitted more than 11,000 signatures to the National Assembly seeking a referendum asking voters whether they favor civil liberties such as freedom of speech and assembly, the right to own a business, electoral reform and amnesty for political prisoners.***
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