Raul Castro Meets U.S. Leaders

First Face-To-Face Meeting Since Castro Became Cuba's President Last Year

(CBS/ AP)  President Raul Castro met Monday with six visiting members of the Congressional Black Caucus, his first face-to-face discussions with U.S. leaders since he became Cuba's president last year.

State television showed images of Castro, who holds the rank of four-star army general, wearing a business suit instead of his trademark olive-green fatigues and sitting down with Rep. Barbara Lee, a California Democrat, and other members of the American delegation behind closed doors.

Seven Democratic representatives traveled to Havana but an official communique read on the air said only six attended the meeting with Castro. The statement provided no details of what was discussed or how long the meeting lasted. It added that the group also spoke in recent days with the head of parliament and the country's foreign minister.

The lawmakers came to talk about improving U.S.-Cuba relations amid speculation that Washington is ready to loosen some facets of its 47-year-old trade embargo against the island.

The meeting came as Fidel Castro said Cuba is not afraid to talk directly to the United States and that the communist government does not thrive on confrontation as its detractors have long claimed.

In a column published in state-controlled newspapers earlier Monday, the 82-year-old former president also praised U.S. Sen. Richard Lugar, saying the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee "is walking on solid ground" with a proposal to appoint a special envoy to reshape U.S.-Cuba relations.

Castro wrote that "those capable of serenely analyzing the events, as is the case of the senator from Indiana, use an irrefutable argument: The measures of the United States against Cuba, over almost half a century, are a total failure."

Though they share a strong and mutual distrust of Washington, both Castro brothers have said for decades that they would be willing to talk personally with U.S. leaders. Fidel repeated Cuba's desire for dialogue in the column, saying direct negotiation "is the only way to secure friendship and peace among peoples." Currently, the countries do not have formal diplomatic relations.

"There is no need to emphasize what Cuba has always said: We do not fear dialogue with the United States," he wrote. "Nor do we need confrontation to exist, as some foolish people think. We exist precisely because we believe in our ideas and we have never feared dialogue with the adversary."

CBS News producer Portia Siegelbaum reports from Cuba that analysts there say the purpose of his writing it to reassert his long-term domination of U.S.-Cuba relations, despite his forced retirement for health reasons.

Suffering from an undisclosed illness in a secret location, Fidel Castro was succeeded by the 77-year-old Raul as president last February.

In a second column posted late Monday night on a government Web site, the ex-president saluted the members of the Congressional Black Caucus for traveling to the island, saying he "values the gesture of the legislative group."

"They are witnesses to the respect with which Americans who visit our homeland are always received," Castro wrote. "It's unlikely that the delegation has seen a face twisted with an expression of hate, and maybe they admire the total absence of illiterate people or children shining shoes in the street."

Despite recent changes at the cabinet level in Cuba, Ricardo Alarcon remains Fidel Castro's point man on U.S.-Cuba relations, Siegelbaum reports. Alarcon is a skilled politician, who is savvy about the U.S. political system and media. He headed up successful efforts to obtain the return of Elian Gonzalez, the 5-year-old boy who Miami's hard-line Cuban Americans tried to turn into the poster boy for the anti-Castro movement, Siegelbaum said. Alarcon was the first senior Cuban official to meet with the U.S. lawmakers, and was present at their meeting with President Raul Castro.

Lawmakers in both houses of the U.S. Congress have proposed a measure that would prohibit the president from barring Americans from traveling to Cuba except in extreme cases, effectively lifting a travel ban that is a key component of the embargo.

Lee has said that many of the representatives, who arrived in Cuba on Friday and are scheduled to leave Tuesday, support the travel legislation.

Democratic Rep. Mel Watt of North Carolina said that Fidel Castro's writings make it "clear that both countries can exist without either dialogue or adversity to each other."

"But wouldn't it be so wonderful," he added, "if we struck a dialogue and found the things that were mutually advantageous and mutually of interest to our two countries and stopped the historical divisions that have separated us (though we are) so close geographically?"

[tomadams99]

Does anyone see what is wrong with this scenario? I think most people in the nation believe it is time to establish some stronger ties to Cuba, however, what is the real agenda by the "Black Caucus?" Seems to me they should have made their trip to Cuba as representatives of Congress, rather than a racial centered group. So, once again what was the real agenda? Be careful Raul...you are getting suckered.

[enriquecaliente]

I believe that once Castro himself dies, things will change in Cuba. I believe his brother has seen the writing on the wall and is just biding his time.

[clancy49]

Dear whitemale08; thank you. I never could figure out why certain countries were tagged the axis of evil. Now I finally understand. It makes perfect sense. That is what I love about blogs. Every now and then you get the light bulb over your head. "I get it now." "Eureaka".

[mitdgreenb]

So here's a question:
Folks on the board here are arguing that the Castro brothers built up Cuba for 50 years... that everyone there has healthcare and there are not "children shining shoes in the streets."

Suppose the Cuban communities in Miami and Tampa... people who fled the revolution and claim to have had their property expropriated... started firing rockets occasionally into Cuba. Every so often, someone in those communities would sneak into Cuba and blow himself up in a cafe in Havana.

Now whose side are you on? Do you favor the Cuban government or the rights of those who were displaced to try to retake what was taken from them? Think hard.

Now recast this:
Cuba = Israel
Castros = Zionists
Tampa = "the occupied West Bank"
Miami = Gaza

Still on the same side? If not, then please explain your logic. (And, please, religion should have nothing to do with it.)

[sleepyric]

i remember as a kid, that Cuba was the Las Vegas of the Carribbean (Lucy and Desi)...I would like to see it that way again....i hope to go there before I die. I'm all for renewing our relations with them.

[cbsantispin]

The easiest way to defeat communism is to make sure all the youth can gain access to iPods, and the're done!

[whitemale08]

It's about time.

We have to go back to respecting the sovereignty of the Nation-state.

British 'free trade' and 'globalization' is finished and we must go back to a 'sovereign credit-system' where each country controls its own currency and credit, not some private central banking system run out of the City of London.

The countries remaing without private central banks:

1. Cuba
2. Iran
3. North Korea
4. Syria
5. Sudan
6. China (but we make an exception for them, although Yuan is non-convertible)
7. Libya (now it has a private central bank)
8. Iraq (a psuedo private central bank forced upon them by President Bush)
9. Afganistan ( a psuedo private central bank forced upon them by Darth Cheney)

All of these countries at some point were considered 'The Axis of Evil'

I wonder why...