May 22, 2002
Embargo Remains Until Cuba Alters Policy, Bush Says
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
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| Associated Press |
| President Bush rejected pleas to ease the trade embargo against Cuba and instead set detailed conditions for loosening the ban. |
MIAMI, May 20 — President Bush, in a speech harshly critical of Fidel Castro, said today that he would not lift a trade embargo against Cuba without substantial movement toward democracy there.
His remarks were greeted by roars of approval from thousands of Cuban-Americans in a state that is critical to the president's re-election campaign in 2004.
"Nearly a half century ago, Cuba's independence and the hopes for democracy were hijacked by a brutal dictator who cares everything for his own power and nada for the Cuban people," Mr. Bush said. "In an era where markets have brought prosperity and empowerment, this leader clings to a bankrupt ideology that has brought Cuba's workers and farmers and families nothing — nothing — but isolation and misery."
Mr. Bush's remarks, made on the 100th anniversary of Cuban independence, placed him in direct opposition to the recommendations made by former President Jimmy Carter, who called for an easing of the economic sanctions last week when he became the most prominent American politician to visit the island since Mr. Castro took power in 1959.
The president's pronouncements were also at odds with Democrats and a number of Republicans in Congress, who consider an approach that Mr. Castro has survived for more than four decades to be outdated and ineffective.
But Mr. Bush said that he would only consider lifting the embargo, as well as travel restrictions to the island, if Mr. Castro met a broad variety of democratic and economic changes.
"Then, and only then, I will explore ways with the United States Congress to ease economic sanctions," Mr. Bush said, to chants from the crowd of "Libertad! Libertad!"
The president also threatened to veto any attempt by Congress to ease trade restrictions to the island. Republicans from farm states have been pushing for liberalized trade with Cuba, and two years ago Congress passed a measure allowing food exports to Cuba, though anti-Castro lawmakers placed a number of restrictions on those sales.
"I want you to know that I know what trade means with a tyrant," Mr. Bush said. "It means that we will underwrite tyranny, and we cannot let that happen."
This morning at the White House, the president said that Mr. Castro — Mr. Bush never once referred to him as "President Castro" — had "turned a beautiful island into a prison."
Mr. Bush's remarks at the James L. Knight Center here were a more rollicking version of his speech earlier in the day at the White House, and the result of a five-month administration review of Cuba policy.
Mr. Bush laid out a long list of conditions that Cuba must meet before his administration would consider a change of policy. Specifically, the president demanded that Mr. Castro release all political prisoners and give opposition political candidates in Cuba's National Assembly elections in 2003 the freedom to organize, assemble and speak.
"For 43 years, every election in Cuba has been a fraud and a sham," Mr. Bush said. "Mr. Castro, once, just once, show that you're unafraid of a real election."
Mr. Bush also demanded that Mr. Castro allow international human rights organizations to monitor those elections.
The president's remarks drew criticism from Senator Christopher J. Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut. "President Bush has set forth a laundry list of actions that the Castro government must take before the U.S. takes even one step toward modifying U.S. policies," he said in a statement. "By doing so, he has guaranteed that the current political system in Cuba will remain the same — as it has for the last 40 years that the U.S. has pursued this ill-advised policy."
But the president's position was enthusiastically applauded today by huge numbers of Cuban-Americans, who were essential to Mr. Bush's slender victory in Florida, and the presidential election, in 2000. The Cuban-American community is also important to this year's re-election campaign of the president's younger brother Gov. Jeb Bush of Florida.
Tonight the brothers were the guests of honor at a $2 million fund-raiser for the Florida Republican Party at the Coral Gables home of Armando Codina, a Cuban-American real estate developer and a former business partner of Jeb Bush. Contributors paid $25,000 per couple to attend, and most of the money was expected to go to Jeb Bush's campaign. The White House closed the event to the news media.
While underscoring a hard line toward Cuba, the president did say that he would take some minor steps to ease life for Cubans living under the Castro regime. He said that his administration would support private organizations that aid Cuba, and that it would provide scholarships in the United States to Cuban students, professionals and children of political prisoners.
In addition, Mr. Bush said that he was willing to negotiate resuming direct mail service between the United States and Cuba, and that he would "continue to look for ways" to modernize Radio and TV Marti, American government broadcasts in Cuba.
But Mr. Dodd, for one, dismissed the administration's proposals as "much ado about nothing" and said direct mail service and scholarship programs for Cuban students were unlikely to happen without the cooperation of the Cuban government.
Mr. Bush's speech today was delivered at a sometimes raucous event where Jeb Bush delivered remarks almost entirely in Spanish and Gloria Estefan sang the Cuban national anthem. "Ironically, the citizens of Cuba are still waiting for the freedoms embodied in this anthem," Ms. Estefan said from the stage.
Several times, the president inserted in his own remarks Spanish somewhat less practiced than his brother's, including the line "No quiero destriur un idioma que bonita, y por eso voy a hablar en inglés" — "I don't want to destroy a beautiful language, so I'm going to speak in English."
The crowd interrupted the president's remarks frequently with huge waves of applause, particularly when Mr. Bush said that his administration would continue to bar tourist travel to Cuba. (People with professional business or family ties in Cuba are permitted to go.)
Despite predictions last week that Mr. Bush would further restrict travel to Cuba, the president made no mention of that today. But a senior administration official with the president on Air Force One said the White House might still impose further restrictions on travel. "As we move on throughout the year, we're going to be looking at all steps at our disposal," the official said.
The official also said that Mr. Bush's speech was about foreign policy, not domestic politics. Asked if Jeb Bush had any input into the president's speech, the official said, "Not to my knowledge, no."
