By Jim Burns. Senior Staff Writer.
CNSNews.com, January 29, 2002.
www.CNSNews.com - (CNSNews.com) - No American president - past or present -
has visited Cuba since Fidel Castro assumed power in 1959, but former President
Jimmy Carter is now considering an invitation from Castro to visit the island
nation.
"President Carter received an invitation from Fidel Castro late last
week to visit Cuba and it (the invitation) is under consideration," Carter
spokesperson Deanna Congileo said Tuesday.
Congileo did not know when Carter would respond to the invitation and didn't
know when Castro would want the former president to make a visit.
Dennis Hays, the executive director of the Cuban-American National
Foundation, believes Carter's visit to Cuba could serve a purpose.
"It depends on what the reaction of the former president is. What we
would hope is that should this come to pass that the president would use his
good offices as he has done in so many places, to highlight the situation with
respect to the abuses of human rights in Cuba," said Hays.
"I think he could play a very important role using his great
credibility to bring attention of the world to those who languish in Cuban
prisons," Hays added.
Congileo also said the invitation "stems from the Atlanta-based Carter
Center's 'Americas program' and is part of an effort to create dialogue between
leaders of the Cuban-American exile community and the Castro government."
Hays said such a program is news to him.
"I never heard of that. It's news to me that the Carter Center has
taken such a project and if they in fact want to do that, I think what they
should do is establish the fact that like every other country in the hemisphere,
Cuba needs to have a democratic system of government. Then there would be
something to talk about," Hays said.
But John Suarez, a spokesman for the Center For A Free Cuba thinks if Carter
does travel to Cuba he should ask Castro, "why the International Red Cross
was able to speedily go to Guantanamo to inspect the al Qaeda prisoners but have
not been able to meet with Cuban political prisoners since 1989."
Suarez thinks Carter should inquire about Oscar Elias Biscet, a Cuban
medical doctor who remains jailed because of his opposition to the Castro
regime.
"He (Biscet) has been in prison for more than two years for simply
speaking his mind and holding a press conference," said Suarez.
The State Department did not return phone calls seeking comment. | 
