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May 16, 2002.
Former president Carter calls for US-Cuba friendship as Bush moves
toward tougher line
Thu May 16, 9:41 Am Et . By John Rice, Associated Press
Writer
HAVANA - As the current U.S. president moved toward a tougher line in the
40-year embargo of communist Cuba, former president Jimmy Carter called for "cooperation,
friendship and love" between peoples of the two countries.
Carter — a Bible school teacher back home in Plains, Georgia —
took to the pulpit of a small Havana church on Wednesday to bear witness to the
power of God in his life and to appeal for understanding between Americans and
Cubans.
Speaking in Spanish, Carter referred to St. Paul's second letter to the
Corinthians, saying "the things that are most important of all in life"
are "the things that cannot be seen, that cannot be measured."
"It is not education. It is not electricity in the house, it is not
money in the bank," he told the congregation at Havana's Ebenezer Baptist
Church. He urged "justice, peace, humility, service, compassion. These are
very simple things, but the most important."
In Washington, White House advisers said President George W. Bush would
reject pleas by Carter, farm-state lawmakers and others to lift the trade
embargo against Fidel Castro (news - web sites)'s Cuba and pledged an even
tougher U.S. policy.
They said Bush would try to punish Castro's government while trying to ease
hardships on the Cuban people. That appeared to echo President Bill Clinton's "two-track"
policy of aiding dissidents and independent Cuban groups while punishing its
government, as well as efforts by earlier administrations dating back to the
1960s.
Carter had an official "farewell dinner" with Castro on Wednesday
night, ending the formal part of a visit that began on Sunday. He had scheduled
Thursday afternoon meetings with dissidents.
The man who served as U.S. president from 1977 to 1981 has questioned the
Bush administration's allegations that Cuba was developing biological weapons.
He challenged Castro to his face to expand democracy — and then played at
baseball with him in a good-natured Cuban All-Star Game exchange on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, Carter appeared at the Baptist church in Western Havana for a
meeting with more than 40 Protestant clergymen from the Cuban Council of
Churches. They gave him a Bible, flowers, a painting and some rousing
Spanish-language hymns.
In response, a seemingly weary Carter spoke slowly and solemnly in Spanish,
without notes, of his own faith.
Noting that he had served as president, had been married for 56 years, had
four children and 11 grandchildren, Carter told the congregation: "The most
important thing in my life is my faith in Jesus Christ."
Cuba's Protestant denominations have been growing after losing most of their
pastors to emigration immediately after the 1959 revolution led by Castro.
While local Communist Party functionaries sometimes clash with new
charismatic or Pentecostal churches that bubble up without official permission,
Ebenezer's pastor, the Rev. Raul Suarez, said that 1,176 once-illegal
congregations have been legalized in recent years. The government has shifted
from open hostility to a wary tolerance of religious organizations. Suarez said
another 600 were pending.
Suarez himself is a noncommunist member of Cuba's National Assembly, or
parliament, and his congregation on Wednesday included National Assembly
President Ricardo Alarcon, long the chief adviser to Castro on U.S. affairs, who
was accompanying Carter.
Earlier in the day, Carter toured facilities for addicts, for special-needs
children, a housing project, a school and a family medical clinic — the
sorts of programs that Castro's government is most proud of.
Hundreds of Cubans lined the main street in the little town of Frank Pais
south of Havana to greet the former American president with chants of "Car-TER!
Car-TER!"
The town school asked him to plant a tree ceremonially. Instead of tossing a
quick spadeful of dirt, Carter and his wife Rosalynn set to work, each dumping
seven or eight healthy shovelfuls of earth for the small Washington palm as
worried hosts increasingly called, "Enough! Enough!"
The night before, Carter told Cubans during a live television broadcast that
their country does not meet international standards of democracy and repeatedly
promoted a grass-roots campaign for greater civil liberties as well as
denouncing the U.S. embargo of Cuba.
Cuban newspapers' Internet sites carried Carter's full speech on Thursday
along with his exchanges with pro-government members of the audience afterward.
Democracy, Carter told viewers, "is based on some simple premises: all
citizens are born with the right to choose their own leaders, to define their
own destiny, to speak freely, to organize political parties, trade unions and
non-governmental groups and to have fair and open trials."
Jimmy Carter tells Cuba churchgoers of power of God, after national
broadcast call for civil liberties
Wed May 15, 9:52 Pm Et . By John Rice, Associated Press
Writer
HAVANA - Bible school teacher Jimmy Carter took to the pulpit of a little
Havana church Wednesday to speak of the power of God, a day after the former
U.S. president used a nationwide broadcast to call for free speech and elections
on this communist island.
Carter, a deacon at Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Georgia, where he
has served as a Sunday school teacher for many years, said he had been blessed
by serving as president, by having been married for 56 years, having four
children and 11 grandchildren. "But the most important thing in my life is
my faith in Jesus Christ."
Carter's talk during an enthusiastic service at the Ebenezer Baptist Church
followed an hour-long meeting with more than 40 Protestant clergymen from 22
denominations.
In the evening, Carter traveled to the Palace of the Revolution for his
second and last dinner with President Fidel Castro during his five-day visit
here, marking the ceremonial end of his official and semiofficial meetings, his
staff confirmed.
Carter was then embarking on his own personal itinerary, which on Thursday
had him meeting with human rights and political opponents. He is due to leave
Cuba on Friday.
While the Roman Catholic Church is by far Cuba's largest, Protestant
denominations have grown after losing most of their pastors immediately after
the 1959 revolution Castro led.
While local Communist Party functionaries sometimes clash with new
charismatic or Pentecostal churches that bubble up without official permission,
Ebenezer's pastor, the Rev. Raul Suarez, said that 1,176 once-illegal
congregations have been legalized in recent years as the government has shifted
from open hostility to a wary embrace of religious organizations. Suarez said
another 600 were pending.
Suarez himself is a non-communist member of Cuba's National Assembly, or
parliament and his congregation on Wednesday included National Assembly
President Ricardo Alarcon, long the chief adviser to Castro on U.S. affairs, who
was accompanying Carter.
The clergymen presented Carter with a Spanish-language Bible, flowers and a
painting — as well as rousing hymns during a service in his honor that
ended with an English-language rendition of "We Shall Overcome."
Carter said he had read the Bible nightly in Spanish for years, and he used
that language on Wednesday. He quoted St. Paul's second letter to the
Corinthians, saying "the things that are most important of all in life"
are "the things that cannot be seen, that cannot be measured."
"It is not education. It is not electricity in the house, it is not
money in the bank," he said.
Instead he spoke of "cooperation, friendship, love" and said that
among citizens of the United States and Cuba there should be "justice,
peace, humility, service, compassion. These are very simple things, but the most
important."
Earlier in the day, Carter visited social service programs, including a
special education school for children, a housing construction project and a
family medical clinic — the kind of efforts that Castro's communist
government is proud of.
Scores of Cubans greeted Carter in the town of Frank Pais outside Havana
with chants of "Car-TER! Car-TER!" when he arrived to tour a family
medical clinic.
The night before, Carter told Cubans that their country does not meet
international standards of democracy and repeatedly promoted a grass-roots
campaign for greater civil liberties.
Cuban newspapers on Wednesday underscored Carter's criticisms of
Washington's policies toward Havana, as well as his call for an end to the U.S.
embargo of Cuba, but they did not mention Carter's references to a lack of
liberties.
Democracy, Carter told viewers, "is based on some simple premises: all
citizens are born with the right to choose their own leaders, to define their
own destiny, to speak freely, to organize political parties, trade unions and
non-governmental groups and to have fair and open trials."
"Your constitution recognizes freedom of speech and association, but
other laws deny these freedoms to those who disagree with the government,"
he added.
In Washington, the White House rejected pleas by Carter and farm-state
lawmakers to lift the trade embargo and pledged an even tougher U.S. policy
against Castro.
"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.
Bush Holds Firm to Cuba Embargo
Wed May 15, 6:26 Pm Et . By Ron Fournier, Ap White House
Correspondent
WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House rejected pleas by former President Carter
and farm-state lawmakers to lift the trade embargo against Fidel Castro (news -
web sites)'s Cuba on Wednesday, pledging an even tougher U.S. policy to
undermine "one of the last great tyrants left on earth."
President Bush will hew to a hard-line stance against the Castro government
while seeking ways to ease hardships on the Cuban people when he spells out the
policy next week, advisers said. The president hopes to curb what aides concede
is growing momentum to ease restrictions against 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.
The White House has been put on the defensive by critics who say the
four-decades-old embargo has failed to produce democratic reforms while making
everyday life harder for the Cuban people. Bush also was accused of shaping his
policy to win support of Cuban Americans, a force in Florida politics and thus a
key to his re-election hopes.
Bush plans to unveil his Cuban policy at the White House, visit a
Cuban-American community in Miami and headline a fund-raiser for his brother,
Florida Gov. Jeb Bush — all on Monday.
"The embargo should stay so long as there is no freedom in Cuba,"
the governor told reporters in Tallahassee, Fla.
With Carter still visiting Cuba, the president's brother said: "All I
know about Fidel Castro is this: He manipulates people that come to the island.
He uses them for his own purposes." In Washington, White House advisers
expressed similar sentiments in private about Carter's trip.
Describing Bush's new policy in broad terms, aides said the president will
seek to toughen U.S. action against the Cuban government and soften the approach
toward the Cuban people. Measures aimed at the Castro government are designed to
inject elements of democracy.
Bush will seek ways to plant seeds of free enterprise such as establishing
government-business foundations modeled after an approach the U.S. took with
Poland as that nation emerged from communism, one official said.
The president is likely to propose increased aid to dissidents and will seek
to overcome jamming of Radio Marti and TV Marti broadcasts, according to outside
activists who advise the White House. However, administration officials
cautioned that those plans are not the focus of Bush's speech Monday, and noted
that he made similar pledges last July.
The president previewed his remarks, aides said, when he told reporters
Tuesday: "My message to the Cuban people is: Demand freedom, and you've got
a president who stands with you."
While Secretary of State Colin Powell called Carter "straightforward
and tough" for telling Cubans to embrace democracy, White House officials
complained in private that the former president's anti-embargo rhetoric
threatened to swamp Bush's message.
Their frustration was increased Wednesday when a group of 40 lawmakers
announced support for easing the embargo.
"For over 40 years, our policy toward Cuba has yielded no results,"
said Rep. Jeff Flake (news, bio, voting record), R-Ariz., a House International
Relations Committee member. "Castro hasn't held free and fair elections, he
hasn't improved human rights and he hasn't stopped preaching his hate for
democracy and the U.S.
The House's Cuba Working Group proposed a nine-point program that called for
repealing a travel ban, allowing unsubsidized exports of agricultural and
medical products, communicating with Cubans through scholarships instead of TV
and Radio Marti, cooperating on hemispheric security and environmental
protection and settling property claims.
"This is not about foreign policy. We are talking about Florida
politics," said Rep. Charles Rangel (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y.
Fleischer denied that politics played a role.
Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle emerged from a congressional
leadership meeting with Bush to say the United States and Cuba "must tear
down the barriers that do exist." He praised Carter for visiting Cuba.
Critics of Bush's stance point to the fact that he favors trade with China,
a country accused of severe human rights abuses, and has joined in the war
against terrorism with countries such as Malaysia with borderline democracies.
Fleischer said China has "been moving in the area of democratic reform"
since it opened its doors to trade while the Cuban public has not benefited from
trade between the government and its allies.
"The president believes that trade with Cuba ends up giving the
government more resources to repress its people," Fleischer said. "Cuba
is one of the last great tyrants left on earth." | 
