Fidel Castro - Cuba

various LINKS to articles | April 14, 2002

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Atlanta - Cuban-Americans skeptical of outcome : Carter "useful tool" Castro "devil" ***Carter is political pawn, some say At the Coco Loco Cuban restaurant in Buckhead, Rey Regalado, 41, a paint contractor from Tucker who came from Cuba in 1991, chuckled as he reviewed the list of Carter's scheduled visits. The former president is being steered to places designed to show Cuba in the best light, Regalado said. "You see? Castro is so smart," he said. "Castro is controlling him. [Carter] is not going to see the real Cuba. I'm not against him going. He's just going to be manipulated."

Regalado said he was "born in the revolution" and knew nothing else. He said life was fine in Cuba until the collapse of the Soviet Union, which had economically propped up the island. By 1991, the economy declined so much he decided to leave. The Soviet Union's collapse showed him communism "wouldn't work," he said. "I decided to get out before it was too late." Even Castro's harshest critics stress that he's smart, and, in the opinion of many Cuban-Americans, he doesn't do anything unless he stands to gain something. For this reason, they say, Carter needs to treat him with suspicion.

"He needs to understand that if the embargo is to be ended, there has to be changes in political prisoners, in human rights and in open and free elections, which is basically what the U.S. government has said from Day One," said Cuban-American Joaquin "Jack" Coello, 57, a lawyer. Rafael Andino, 37, a Lawrenceville biomedical engineer who came to the United States when he was 3 years old, is pessimistic. "I think Carter will try to press for certain freedoms, but I don't think he'll be successful. [Castro] can't allow basic freedoms because it compromises his position," he said. "We wish Carter well, but we're not hopeful."***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Texas farms see Cuba as market for their goods*** "We are not going to help Fidel Castro stay in power by opening up our markets to Cuba," said Cuban-born Otto Reich, whom Bush appointed as the State Department's top official for Latin American affairs over the objections of the U.S. Senate. A democratic transition in Cuba could be expedited, Reich said earlier this year, by "not throwing a lifeline to a failed, corrupt, dictatorial, murderous regime." Hillman, however, said he sees trade as a lifeline not for Castro but for struggling U.S. farmers and for starving Cubans, who wait in long lines for a rationed food supply with little variety.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Crack in the door: Ex-President Carter aims to thaw relations in historic trip to Cuba*** Isolated in the Caribbean by his policies and by the U.S. embargo, the Cuban leader has been struggling to feed his people and keep his communist outpost going years after the fall of the Soviet Union plunged the island into economic chaos. And Castro has made no secret of the fact he would like to purchase food from U.S. farmers and entice more American tourists to his country's beach and diving resorts.

"Castro believes Cuba deserves to be recognized," said Sandra Levinson, executive director of the New York-based Center for Cuban Studies. The center has arranged Cuban study tours for Americans since the early 1970s. "What he will get out of this visit is the satisfaction of having one U.S. president willing to look at the situation for himself," she said. "After 40 years, you may not like the government, but you acknowledge it." ***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Lovefest in Havana***Help me out here: If, as liberals tell us, Socialism/Communism is so terrific, so splendid, so superb, so superior, why, O why does Castro so desparately need the Great Satan of commercialist/capitalist "evil" itself -- the United States? A bailout for Marxism from 'dirty', capitalist 'pigs' -- what's wrong with this picture? Call it 'ideological projection': Liberals doing with Castro exactly what conservatives were falsely accused by liberals of doing with South Africa: To wit, using excuses to prop-up repression. Liberalism has a crush on Castro, a school-girl-like infatuation that forever endures. To liberals, Castro is a heartthrob; he's an inspiration, a "moral" guiding "light", a "moral" compass, the veritable apple of their eyes.

No human rights in Castro's Cuba? Liberals could care less. Under Castro, citizens are deprived of the most basic conceptions of human liberty -- again, lefties don't give a lick. In Cuba's brutal island prison, one-party, one-man-rule prevails: Except for Castro's Communist "party", all political parties are outlawed. The same goes for unions. The liberal media calls Castro, deferentially, the "President" of Cuba -- an utter perversion of language so grotesque it boggles the mind. By what sick, warped, convolution of "logic" can Castro conceivably be referred to as such? Only a twisted media would dare sully the title by bestowing it to Castro, a ruthless killer, filthy crook, murderous tyrant.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

CARTER TRAVELING TO CUBA ON PERSONAL BUSINESS? READ THE FACTS AND DECIDE!!!*** ATLANTA (AP) - James E. "Chip" Carter III, the son of former President Jimmy Carter, announced Monday he will lead a delegation of citizen ambassadors to Iran in May. Carter, 48, is vice president for International Development with The Friendship Force, a worldwide nonprofit group based in Atlanta. President Carter, whose term in office was blemished by the Iranian hostage crisis, announced the founding of the group in 1977. Since then, the Friendship Force has dispatched more than 500,000 citizen ambassadors in 3,600 volunteer clubs in 48 U.S. states and 60 nations.***

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[Cincinatus' Wife]

Carter to visit Cuban biotech center *** HAVANA - As the strains of "The Star-Spangled Banner" faded in the wind at Havana's international airport, President Fidel Castro turned to his visitor and said, "It's been a long time since that happened." Jimmy Carter, the U.S. president who did more than any other to ease tensions with Cuba, arrived for a visit on Sunday - the first time a U.S. head of state, in or out of office, has come to the communist island since Castro's 1959 revolution.

While both men spoke of the desire to improve relations, Carter's visit comes at the latest in many moments of tension, following allegations last week by Undersecretary of State John Bolton that Cuba is seeking to develop biological weapons. Castro denounced those claims as "lies" in a speech Friday and challenged the United States to provide evidence. When Carter arrived, Castro promised him "complete access" to any Cuban biotechnology laboratory.

Carter is scheduled to visit a major laboratory Monday, the Center of Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology on the outskirts of Havana.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

All eyes are on Carter, but what are Castro's intentions? - "..bring America to it's knees"*** Former President Jimmy Carter goes back in time today. In Cuba he will see more than vintage American cars, circa 1950s, smoking up the streets with their patchwork "remodeled" diesel engines. He'll do more than choke on the fumes from the oil refinery near Havana's harbor, the sulfuric acid stinging his eyes whenever the wind turns toward the city. He will be shown all of the Cuban revolution's socialist "triumphs" amid the ruins of communism. He will surely be pained by the contradictions. He'll visit an agricultural cooperative and tour a medical school and the Los Cocos AIDS sanatorium, where Cubans with AIDS are "quarantined" for life. Talk about progressive health care.

Carter even plans a tour of Cuba's Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, a high-tech facility that produces vaccines for other countries. The Bush administration created a stir last week by accusing Cuba of sharing its dual-use biotech capability with "rouge" states that are looking to create plagues for biological warfare. That charge should put into perspective Castro's own warning to the United States during his swing through the Middle East last May. "Iran and Cuba, in cooperation with each other, can bring America to its knees," Castro said at the University of Tehran. "The U.S. regime is very weak and we are witnessing this weakness from close-up."***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Statement by Carter in Cuba regarding Iran and Cuba conducting bio-weapons research. [They have an understanding of sorts.]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Carter Visits Biotech Lab in Cuba- [Brit Hume reported the presentation took so long there was no time to tour the lab.]

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Castro's Daughter Condemns Carter Visit*** Alina Fernandez, the emigre daughter of Cuban dictator Fidel Castro, condemned ex-president Jimmy Carter late Monday for playing into the hands of her father's brutal and repressive regime. "I don't know what [Carter] is doing there," Fernandez complained to Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes." "I always said that Jimmy Carter was drawn to the presidency because of his innocence," she added. "But I don't think he's acting innocently right now.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Officials contradict remarks by Carter (Carter miffed by U.S. bio-weapons statement)
*** Carter suggested Monday that Bolton's statement about biological weapons in Cuba was aimed at embarrassing him during his visit.
"These allegations were made, maybe not coincidentally, just before our visit to Cuba," he said.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cubans sent to Nicaragua say U.S. is final destination*** MANAGUA - The tattoo etched into the smooth underside of Javier Pérez's right arm reads ''U.S.A.'' -- the land of his dreams. Over each letter is a permanent reminder of why this one-time Cuban soldier got on a raft and tried to make it to Miami: round, cigar-sized burn scars that he described as the handiwork of Cuban state security. Pérez never made it to Miami, but on his last try he was picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard and transferred to Guantánamo Bay naval base. The Nicaraguan government recently agreed to give residency to Pérez and 19 others who were some of the last Cubans left living on Guantánamo. But here in Nicaragua, these exiles say they are not satisfied and won't be until they make it to the United States.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Venezuela's opposition seeks unified strategy for ousting Chavez *** CARACAS, Venezuela - Conservatives wore green, while radical leftist students wore red. The vast majority of marchers last weekend, though, were not representing any political party and simply waved Venezuelan flags. The hundreds of thousands of marching Venezuelans dwelled less on their incompatible ideologies than on a deeply shared longing: to oust President Hugo Chavez.

One month after Chavez was removed from office and then quickly restored, dissent is rebuilding in this South American nation of 24 million people - but it is leaderless and disoriented. Most Venezuelans look upon the opposition parties with disdain, considering them corrupt and incapable of proposing a viable alternative to Chavez's self-described leftist "revolution." In desperation, the parties have pledged a unified strategy for toppling Chavez: convoke a national referendum to push him out.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Carter Debates Democracy With Castro*** "In the United States, we believe that it is very important to have absolute freedom of expression and freedom of assembly," Carter told the students Monday, citing two liberties that nearly all human rights groups find lacking in Cuba. On Monday night, Castro played host to Carter at the Latin American School of Medicine, where the Cuban leader argued that the concept of democracy was born in ancient Athens, with fewer than 20,000 citizens ruling some 50,000 non-citizens and 80,000 slaves.

Noting the vast poverty of most of the world's people, Castro compared Western-style democracies to an Athens in which a minority unjustly dominates the majority and said Cuba was striving for "a society with justice" and equal opportunity. He said his country was seeking "that dream of justice, of true liberty, of true democracy, of true human rights."***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuba's Varela Project***The paper [Wall Street Journal] suggests that part of the official paralysis may also be due to Cuba's growing isolation, noting recent spats with Mexico and Uruguay over Cuba's human rights record. At the same time, Cuba's economic situation is deteriorating again. "People are at the end of their rope," says Varela volunteer Regis Iglesias, 32. "But all Castro talks about are the glories of the revolution."

In fact, the government's uncertain response to Varela reflects the country's uncertainty as the Castro regime seems to be drawing to a close. The Cuban dictator is about 75 years old and is rumored not to be in the best health. Although the New Class nomenclatura plans to retain control under Castro's brother and heir apparent Raul Castro, visitors to the island sense widespread feeling of patient expectation, waiting for Castro's death, anticipating regime change soon after. If so, Oswaldo Payá, age 50, may become a very important figure indeed:

"I think Castro doesn't crush Varela because he doesn't see clearly the threat it poses," says Cuban writer Carlos Alberto Montaner, who lives in exile in Madrid. "Meantime, Payá is becoming a sort of Vaclev Havel, a well-khown man of uncompromising moral fiber whom the outside world is watching carefully."***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

July 27, 2001 - Shut up, Jimmy Carter: Debbie Schlussel says former prez should stick to peanuts*** Carter also had the chutzpah to criticize Bush on his missile defense program and abandonment of the 1972 ABM Treaty. "I think it will re-escalate the arms race," and is a setback for the "prestige and respect due our country." That's strange, since our country was the world's Rodney Dangerfield during his presidency, and he attempted to negotiate foolish new arms treaties, like SALT II, all of which the Soviets laughingly cheated on.

Fortunately, Ronald Reagan, Bush's foreign and defense policy role model, repaired much of the damage with his peace through strength paradigm. But we are still paying, diplomatically and strategically, for Carter's failings. And his comments are that of a jealous has-been, envious that in six months President Bush has had more foreign policy backbone and success than Carter ever had in his four nightmarish years.

Thank G-d, Jimmy Carter was only a one-term president. Now, if only he could end his classless dissing campaign and shut up. Or stick to something he actually knows something about. Like peanuts.***

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May 14, 2002 - Shut up, Jimmy Carter*** Mr. Carter also criticizes U.S. sanctions against Cuba, whose dictator regards him as the friendliest of all U.S. presidents to have held office during his reign. This month Mr. Carter will be the highest-profile U.S. figure, the first president - former or sitting - to visit the prison island since its 1959 revolution. As such, will he speak up for democratic change while he tours Cuba's hospitals and schools on Mr. Castro's arm? Will he appeal to Mr. Castro to not kill the 11,000 dissidents as soon as Mr. Carter leaves, who last week presented a petition for reforms? Will he look in on Elian Gonzales?

More likely the trip will bolster the anti-embargo lobby here which, like Mr. Carter, insists that a policy of engagement is the best road to democratizing the island. Unlike the "simplistic" tactics of the current president, Mr. Carter's complex style as president was to lift restrictions on travel to Cuba and establish diplomatic missions. Which turned out to be almost as effective as the engagement tactics the Carter Center employed with Hamas and Yasser Arafat in 1996. Granted, the big success story of his more sophisticated approach to the presidency did concern the Middle East, when in 1978 he paid off Egypt to not attack Israel.

It must be because his own ideas have worked so well that Mr. Carter still feels entitled to an opinion, as well as to a role in international missions. And it must be because he's always had a soft spot for despots and terrorists - his recent op-ed refers to Palestinian bombers and Hamas not as terrorists, but as "misguided" - that he feels he can impose his politics on a mentally sound administration. Indeed, if Jimmy Carter is really worried about the state of the world, particularly carbon dioxide emissions, he should stop talking.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Carter to Cubans: Embrace freedom***"My nation is hardly perfect in human rights," Carter added, pointing out that many U.S. citizens are in prison, "and there is little doubt that the death penalty is imposed most harshly on those who are poor, black or mentally ill."***

Carter reveals democracy effort( Varela Project) *** Former President Jimmy Carter last night told Cubans for the first time of a fledgling democracy effort under way in their country, while Bush administration officials directly contradicted his assertion that he had asked about biological weapons in pre-trip briefings.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Cuba's bio-research activity under scrutiny: Did Castro plant West Nile virus in Florida Keys?***Indeed, in 1998 Clinton administration Defense Secretary William S. Cohen wrote a letter to Armed Service Committee Chairman Sen. Strom Thurmond, R-S.C., pointedly stating that he was "concerned about the use of Cuba as a base for intelligence activities directed against the United States" and "Cuba's potential to develop and produce biological agents, given its biotechnology infrastructure."

Cohen's letter concludes by telling Thurmond that the Department of Defense "remains vigilant to the concerns posed by Castro's Cuba." Attached to the letter was the defense secretary's classified report, "The Cuba Threat to U.S. National Security." The report's publicly released summary read: "Cuba's biotechnology industry is one of the most advanced in emerging countries and would be capable of producing biological warfare agents."

Concurrent with Cohen's letter, the CIA released a much-overlooked 1998 report that warned of the dangers of a biological terrorist attack on the U.S. The report explained that such an assault, if launched by a country with sophisticated means, could go undetected and be erroneously attributed to natural causes. The report listed a little over a dozen smaller nations as suspected of possessing biological weapons. Included high on the list was Cuba.***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Remarks by Jimmy Carter at the University of Havana, Cuba Text from Carter Center.

Here's a little jab at Bush:

Democracy is a framework that permits a people to accommodate changing times and correct past mistakes. Since our independence, the United States has rid itself of slavery, granted women the right to vote, ended almost a century of legal racial discrimination, and just this year reformed its election laws to correct problems we faced in Florida eighteen months ago.

[Cincinatus' Wife]

House Group: Ease Cuban Sanctions (Cuba Policy Foundation: Smith Bagley)*** "The embargo denies Americans the right to trade and travel and has not brought freedom and prosperity to Cuba," said Cowal in a statement. "For 40 years, the embargo has failed to lead to political and economic reform in Cuba. When a policy this old fails to produce the intended results, it is time for a new policy." The Cuba Working Group has 20 House Republicans and 20 House Democrats committed to lifting the travel ban, allowing normal exports of agriculture and medical products and improving human rights for Cuban citizens.

In the Senate, Sens. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and Pat Roberts, R-Kan., have led the charge for an easing of U.S. restrictions on trade and travel. The Cuba Policy Foundation, said spokesman Brian Alexander, "is a centrist organization that shares the U.S. goals of freedom and prosperity for the Cuban people. We just don't believe U.S. policy has served to advance those goals, and we do believe it has had a negative impact on the U.S. economy and does not prepare Cuba for a peaceful and stable transition" to a free society.*** [Mostly it's to help U.S. guaranteed loans to help subsidize trade with Castro and shore up his communist regime]