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Jimmy Carter to match wits with Castro
Posted on Tue, May. 07, 2002 in
The Miami Herald.
Aweek before former President Jimmy Carter is to arrive in Cuba, Fidel
Castro released one of the Cuban regime's best known political prisoners,
Vladimiro Roca. That's how Castro, the master manipulator, operates.
Mr. Carter should know that well. He shouldn't be snookered into thinking
that a change in U.S.-Cuba relation alone will improve human rights or
conditions for most Cubans on the island. Nor will allowing U.S. firms to do
business in Cuba improve the odds of a post-Castro democracy. Yet Mr. Carter's
support greatly would aid Cuban activists working to strengthen civil society
and find homegrown solutions.
As president, Mr. Carter was hit with harsh fallout from the 1980 Mariel
boatlift, which included several thousand criminals and mentally ill among the
125,000 persons who arrived here. As was the case then, Castro today will be
looking to exploit any opportunity to improve his standing at the expense of the
United States and Cuba's oppressed people.
Yes, Mr. Carter should visit Mr. Roca at his home. Mr. Roca was one of
''Group of Four'' convicted on sedition charges for criticizing Cuba's one-party
system and calling for democratic reforms in the stirring manifesto The Homeland
Belongs to All of Us. Co-writers Marta Beatriz Roque, Félix Bonne and René
Gómez Manzano, who got lighter sentences, were all released in May 2000.
Though Cuban law permitted his early release some time ago, Mr. Roca served
all but two months of his five-year term. He got the harshest punishment
because, as a hero of the Revolution, his criticism stung the most.
It's important to remember that The Four were condemned for a ''crime''
considered a universal human right: speaking freely about their ideas. Such
expressions are a crime in Cuba because Castro is a dictator whose goal is to
stay in power, and free expression of ideas threaten his state's absolute power.
Castro is aided in his quest by accomplices whose hope is to outlive him and
grab for themselves the remnants of wealth and power that Castro leaves. They
are the ones poised to profit from unfettered trade with the United States --
not Cuba's people.
Mr. Carter should listen to opposition voices. Ask Oswaldo Payá to
talk of the Varela Project and its courageous attempt to stir democratic changes
legally. Mr. Carter would do a great service to speak out about the Varela
Project, Cuba's opposition and political prisoners -- both internationally and
within Cuba itself. | 
