Cuba News and Information

AP

President Bush has reached out to Cuban dissidents, speaking by videoconference with activists on the communist island who are still struggling for change there, the White House said Wednesday.

The conversation between Bush and three dissidents took place on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday, Bush also was using a speech at the State Department to call on Cuba’s leaders to begin a process of democratic change.

Those remarks were being made at the State Department, before the Council of the Americas, an international business organization committed to economic and social development, open markets, the rule of law, and democracy.

The developments are part of a stepped-up effort by Bush to talk about Cuba and press for political change since Fidel Castro officially stepped down in February after decades ruling the island. Fidel’s brother, Raul, took over as president in the ailing leader’s place. He had been provisional president since Fidel Castro, who led the nation for nearly a half-century, underwent emergency surgery in July 2006.

But Bush has stressed that a new Castro does not mean a new Cuba.

In the teleconference, Bush spoke with Martha Beatriz Roque, one of the 75 pro-democracy activists arrested in a 2003 crackdown for offenses against the Castro regime; Berta Soler, the wife of a still-jailed activist; and Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, who was released last year after 17 years in prison. They were at the U.S. Interests Section in Havana while they talked to Bush.

“This was an opportunity for the president to hear directly from those in Cuba who are struggling on behalf of human rights,” White House spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

It seems odd. It was a similar case with the “Mothers” a little while ago, wasn’t it?

It is my understanding that Beatriz Roque is Bush’s #1 ally in Cuba and thus has had more than a few communications with the U.S. president.  What this article neglects to mention is that in this video call, Beatriz Roque pressed the U.S. to change its Cuba policy, specifically advocating a lifting of travel restrictions and the limits on how much money Cubans in the U.S. can send to their families.  This is a big shift by the person who has for so long resisted any loosening of U.S. policy.
It’s another indication of how “out there” the Bush policy is and how counterproductive it has been.  The number of Cubans on the island who support the embargo could be zero.
This is a big deal to me.
I heard a more complete report on NPR.  I’m too lazy to look for the link but maybe somebody could do that for me.

It would help if I had added the links!

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90262785
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=90259938

I feel I should add that Bush’s speech the next day seemed to dismiss any possiblility of reforming/ending the embargo.  Not that it’s a surprise, but I think this should serve as an example when we are trying to make the case during the next administration to end the embargo.  I think one can now fairly say that no one in Cuba favors the embargo in its current form.

The following was taken from an email sent out by “The Cuba Central Team” (http://www.democracyinamericas.org/cubacentral ):

This week, when President Bush addressed the 38th Annual Washington Conference on the Americas, he came to praise the wonders of video conferencing while disparaging the reform process in Cuba.  He said in his speech:

“Yesterday I had a fascinating opportunity to speak with a leading Cuban dissident, a former political prisoner, and a wife of a man who is held in a Cuban prison simply because he expressed his belief that all people should live in a free society. Video-conferencing is one of the great wonders of the 21st century, and to be able to sit in the White House and talk to these three brave souls in Havana was a(n) inspiring moment for me.”

He went on to say “there’s no change at all,” and said the regime had engaged in “empty gestures at reform.”

Apparently, the president was so inspired by his video conference experience that he forgot to mention what he actually heard on the call from one prominent dissident, Marta Beatrice Roque.  As covered by the AP, The Cuban Triangle, NPR, and others, Roque asked the President “to make it easier for Cuban Americans in the United States to visit family members on the island and send money to their relatives” there. 

In other words, the President was asked by one of Cuba’s leading dissidents to reverse the policies that he put into place four years ago now that Cuba’s government is introducing the changes which the president and his administration dismiss as cosmetic.  Apparently, videoconferencing has its limits.  Having heard this appeal, the President announced, as ever, that U.S. policy would not change. 

Meanwhile, in Cuba, the list of reforms adopted by the government continues to grow longer.

In the three months since Raul Castro took office, Cuba’s government has removed wage limits for workers, ended restrictions on cell phones, ended limits on the use of tourist facilities by Cubans, ended restrictions on where Cubans fill their prescriptions, ended limits on the sale of consumer items such as DVD players and computers, reorganized the family doctor program, provided raises for retirees and court employees, provided titles to Cuban families for government owned housing, commuted death sentences, introduced decentralizing reforms for agriculture, and encouraged a broadening public debate about these changes.

While it is impossible to know where this process will ultimately lead, foreign governments have to decide whether applauding these changes or denigrating them will more likely lead to a better outcome for the Cuban people.  The President appears to count himself as one of a dwindling number of critics for whom progress on Cuba will never be enough to provide even a measure of encouragement.  It’s hard to know whether it’s worse to be wrong or simply irrelevant in the eyes of history.  For now, our policy is both.

Bush is totally irrelevant at this point, he can talk to whoever he wants but it means nothing, he has done as much damage as a president can do, but for all intent and purposes he is done.

Aside from that, talking to someone who has no authority or control over what happens in Cuba is an excercise in futility. Like it or not the people to talk to are Raul and his inner group, turning our back on them is to follow the same old tired policy we have been pursuing for the last 48 years, it hasn’t work and it won’t work, so get over it and start using your head.

I believe it will happen when Mr. Obama becomes president.

True, everyone has an agenda, however, the end result for Cuba I believe will be good with an increased numbers of people travelling to the Island and more opportunities for trade with the U.S. which would inevitably result in better standard of living for Cubans.

My interpretation of his statement “leading the world” is slightly different than yours and in any event, I do not believe the world is buying the same b.s. Bush has dished out, even if it has a different face or philosophy.