Carter Meets With Cuban Dissidents
Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter, who has already given Cuban dissidents as much domestic publicity as they have ever had, met Thursday with opponents of Fidel Castro's government.
The first to arrive for the meetings, held in the house of a U.N. official, was Vladimiro Roca, who was freed May 5 after nearly five years in prison for demanding changes in Cuba's communist system.
Others included organizers of the Varela Project, who say they gathered 11,020 signatures seeking a national referendum on rights including free speech, free assembly and the ability to open a private business.
Mr. Carter used a nationally broadcast speech Tuesday night to mention the Varela Project, suggesting that the world "would look on with admiration" if Cuban leaders had the courage to hold a debate and vote on the project in their single-party state.
Cuba's communist news media on Thursday printed Mr. Carter's comments in full — giving unprecedented attention to dissidents who are generally ignored by government broadcasters and television.
It also included the text of Tuesday night's responses to Mr. Carter from Communist Party loyalists such as national student leader Hassan Perez, who charged that the project backers were "tied to a mafia" in the United States.
Cuban leaders commonly accuse dissidents of being hired agents of a hostile government.
On Wednesday, one of the project organizers, Hector Palacios, said his colleagues were "satisfied, because the Cuban people heard about our project."
"I believe that after this visit (by Mr. Carter), nothing will be the same for us," Roca said Wednesday. "He has spoken of the Varela Project and the people know there are opinions other than those of the government."
CBS News Correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that for some dissidents, like Miriam Leyba, who never thought there'd be a day when such criticism of Castro would get such a high profile platform inside Cuba, Mr. Carter's trip marked a small step closer to democracy.
"I don't think he's going to change what's going on in Cuba, but these are steps," Leyba told CBS News.
Mr. Carter took a brief break for birdwatching outside of Havana on Thursday morning following four days that included two dinners with Castro, a baseball outing with the Cuban president and visits to schools, farms, hospitals, research laboratories, churches and historic sites.
His visit was to end on Friday.
On Wednesday, U.S. President George W. Bush's administration rejected Mr. Carter's call for an end to the 40-year U.S. trade embargo against Castro's Cuba.
"The president believes that the trade embargo is a vital part of America's foreign policy and human rights policy toward Cuba because trade with Cuba does not benefit the people of Cuba — it's used to prop up a repressive regime," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said.
Mr. Bush is expected to renew his hard-line isolationist policy against Cuba on Monday, when he unveils findings of a five-month review of ways to promote democracy in the communist state, officials said.
Mr. Bush is expected to announce some new steps aimed at increasing pressure on Castro. But they are likely to be modest, rear-guard actions to hold the line against rising political momentum to lift the trade embargo and travel restrictions that carry out the isolation policy.
"I don't expect major changes to be made," said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, anti-Castro Florida Republican and the first Cuban-American elected to Congress.
"We are quite satisfied to have the president remain with his strong stance in favor of the embargo and in favor of his isolation of Castro at a time when ... there's increased pressure from Wall Street, from Main Street, from human rights groups, from leftists and conservatives to lift the travel restrictions and totally eliminate the embargo," she said.