Carter urges U.S., Cuba to reconcile

The Washington Post

HAVANA – Former President Jimmy Carter, in an unprecedented address carried live Tuesday night on state radio and television, urged Cuba to “join the community of democracies” and endorsed the “fundamental right” of Cuban dissidents to seek changes in the country’s laws through direct elections.

Outlining his vision of improved relations between the United States and Cuba, Carter also called for the United States to “take the first step” by lifting the four-decade-old economic embargo against President Fidel Castro’s Communist nation – a position he has stated in the past.

“Our two nations have been trapped in a destructive state of belligerence for 42 years,” Carter said in his 20-minute address, which he delivered in Spanish. “And it is time for us to change our relationship and the way we think and talk about each other.”

As Castro and his top aides watched from the front row of an auditorium at the University of Havana, Carter praised the Varela Project, a petition drive that gathered signatures of more than 11,000 people demanding new freedoms in Cuba. It was one of the first times the government has allowed the project to be mentioned on state-run television and radio.

Tuesday night’s speech was the centerpiece of Carter’s five-day visit to Cuba, the first by a current or former U.S. president to this Caribbean island since 1928.

As expected, Carter said he hoped the U.S. Congress would “soon act to permit unrestricted travel between the United States and Cuba, establish open trading relationships and repeal the embargo.”

Carter said the embargo, which is strongly backed by the Bush administration, is not the cause of Cuba’s deep economic problems, as Castro has long claimed. However, Carter said, “the embargo freezes the existing impasse, induces anger and resentment, restricts the freedoms of U.S. citizens, and makes it difficult for us to exchange ideas and respect.

“I did not come here to interfere in Cuba’s internal affairs, but to extend a hand of friendship to the Cuban people and to offer a vision of the future for our two countries.”

Carter proposed creation of a bi-national commission to discuss property disputes. Many Cubans in the United States still claim ownership rights to property seized during and after Castro’s 1959 revolution.

Carter said he wanted to see “a massive student exchange” between the two countries and for Cuba to adopt the democratic changes necessary to join a Free Trade Area of the Americas.

Without directly criticizing Cuba’s human rights record, Carter noted that Cuba’s socialist system prohibits organized political opposition, and although its constitution recognizes freedom of speech and association, “other laws deny these freedoms to those who disagree with the government.”

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