CUBA-US: Carter Plans to Inform Bush of His Visit

By Patricia Grogg Reprint | | Print |

Patricia Grogg

HAVANA, May 17 2002 (IPS) - Former United States President Jimmy Carter ended a six-day visit to Cuba Friday, with the hope of having contributed somewhat to improving relations between the two countries, which are at a new low.

Carter was bade farewell at the Havana international airport by Cuban President Fidel Castro, who on this occasion wore his trademark olive fatigues instead of the sober grey suit he sported at last Sunday’s welcome ceremony.

The former U.S. president, the most prominent U.S. political figure to set foot in this socialist island nation in four decades, announced that he would present the White House and State Department with a complete report on his visit.

Shortly before heading back home, Carter told the press that he would provide the government with a report “expressing my opinion and the opinions of dissident groups about U.S. policy towards Cuba.”

“It may be that President (George W.) Bush” – who plans to make a public address on his government’s Cuba policy next Monday – “would consider those opinions,” said Carter.

Carter said he was fully aware that “after 43 years of misunderstanding and animosity, a brief trip cannot change the basic relationship between our peoples. But my hope is that in some small way at least, our visit might improve that situation in the future” – one of the three main goals of his trip.

He said he had successfully met his other two goals: ample contact with the Cuban people, and broad discussions with Castro, other government officials and opposition and church leaders.

During his stay, the former president visited scientific, educational, and health care institutions, including the Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, a sanatorium for AIDS patients, and a school for special education students.

But the core event on his agenda was the speech he delivered in Spanish Tuesday evening in the main hall of the University of Havana, which was broadcast live by Cuba’s state-run television and radio networks.

In his “message to the nation,” Carter said the United States should take the first step towards improving relations. He also praised Cuba’s social achievements, while criticising the lack of civil liberties and true democracy.

Representatives of Cuba’s illegal internal opposition groups welcomed Carter’s strong support for Project Varela, a dissident initiative, to which he referred several times in his address.

The 119 dissident groups that took part in Project Varela submitted to parliament 11,000 signatures, asking for a referendum on freedom of speech and assembly, new electoral laws, an amnesty for political prisoners, and free enterprise.

“When Cubans exercise the right to peacefully change their laws through a direct vote, the world will see that it is Cubans and not foreigners who determine the future of this country,” Carter said on Tuesday.

According to the former president, Project Varela was one of the issues he discussed with Castro, Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque, and the president of Cuba’s single-chamber parliament, Ricardo Alarcón.

Carter said that he believed the Castro government had not yet decided how to deal with Project Varela, which invokes an article of the constitution that allows draft laws to be directly submitted to parliament, if they are accompanied by at least 10,000 signatures.

He emphasised the fact that “tens of thousands of Cubans heard about the initiative” for the first time in his speech.

His address was later printed in full by the ruling Communist Party publications Granma and Juventud Rebelde.

Carter said he was pleased that Cuba’s 11 million people were able to hear his point of view without censorship, although he added that he had no way of knowing what impact his words would have.

A popular vote like the one sought by Project Varela would demonstrate that the Cuban people “have no fear, within their own system of government, of considering dissident viewpoints” in an open and legal manner, said Carter.

But that is up to the people of Cuba, said the 77-year-old former president, who travelled to Havana with his wife Rosalyn and directors of his Carter Centre, on an invitation by Castro.

Carter spent nearly three hours Thursday meeting with 22 prominent dissidents who represented a number of illegal but somewhat tolerated opposition groups.

His meeting with the opposition leaders, the largest such event of its kind in 43 years of socialism in Cuba, was held in the home of United Nations official Luis Gómez Echeverri.

As they left the residence of the U.N. official, the dissidents freely conversed with reporters who had gathered outside, and no measures were taken to block traffic along the street.

The president of the opposition Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, Elizardo Sánchez, who met with Carter Thursday, described the former U.S. leader’s visit as “historic.”

But while he acknowledged a slight change in the government’s attitude, he underlined that what is needed are lasting, irreversible reforms, rather than “momentary, passing changes.”

He also said both the Cuban and U.S. governments should take note of Carter’s suggestions, which “represent the views of the great majority of Cubans and U.S. citizens.”

A rapprochement was seen during Carter’s term in office, from 1977 and 1981. Cuban and U.S. interests sections were opened in Washington and Havana to represent each nation and provide consular services, and travel restrictions were lifted to allow Cuban immigrants in the United States to visit Cuba.

However, the tension began to mount again towards the end of the Carter administration, when more than 125,000 Cubans left the island for Florida in 1980 in what became known as the Mariel boatlift, the greatest exodus since the 1959 revolution. Carter was reviled at the time by the Cuban press.

Twenty-two years later, Carter and Castro chose to leave their past discrepancies aside. The Cuban president received the former U.S. president as a friend, and gave his guest complete freedom to go anywhere he wished and meet with anyone he chose.

“We are right,” said Castro, explaining why he permitted Carter such freedom of action. “The revolution is stronger than ever, and we have never been afraid.”

But the 75-year-old Cuban leader also defined the limits of any possible opening: “All my life I have believed in change – but in forward-looking, not backward-looking, changes.”