Cuban-Born US Senator Hopeful About Cuba's Future, Urges Patience

Cuban-Born US Senator Hopeful About Cuba's Future, Urges Patience
By Lisa Ferdinando
Miami
16 August 2006

A Cuban-born U.S. senator has expressed optimism about the future of his
homeland, but urged patience for political change. Senator Mel Martinez
spoke at an event in Coral Gables, near Miami, on Tuesday, more than two
weeks after the announcement that Cuban President Fidel Castro underwent
surgery for intestinal bleeding and transferred power to his younger
brother, Defense Minister Raul Castro.

Mel Martinez
Mel Martinez
Senator Martinez, a Florida Republican who fled Cuba as a teenager,
describes the current situation in Cuba as a moment of great change and
opportunity.

"What we're hoping is that there will be wise and future-thinking
leadership that's going to think more about the people of Cuba and less
about how they control power; that's going to think more about how they
give people an opportunity for a better life, rather then 'how do we
maintain what we got' in terms of the power structure that they have
established," said Mel Martinez.

He says political change on the island will take time.

Martinez left Cuba in the early 1960s at age 15 as part of Operation
Pedro Pan in which Cuban minors were allowed to leave the island without
their parents for resettlement in the United States.

The legislator dismissed recently released photos of Mr. Castro and
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez as a show, and accused Mr. Chavez of
interfering in Cuba's affairs.

"The Cuban people are very nationalistic people and they don't
appreciate others interfering in what is a very Cuban process," he said.
"Hugo Chavez should concentrate on his country, leave Cuba alone. He
doesn't play a role in the future of Cuba. That should be a decision
made by the Cuban people."

State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters in Washington
that the Chavez-Castro alliance does not reflect too well on the
Venezuelan leader.

"I know President Chavez has made it a point to try to develop a very
close relationship with Fidel Castro," said Sean McCormack. "That is his
decision. I'm not sure that that's something that really burnishes his
democratic credentials, but that's his decision to make."

Mr. Chavez traveled to Cuba to visit Fidel Castro on Sunday, the Cuban
leader's 80th birthday. The two were seen in some of the first images
that were released of Mr. Castro since he transferred power to his brother.

Michael Shifter with the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington says that
although the relationship of Cuba and Venezuela is unsettling to the
United States, Mr. Castro may have helped constrain Mr. Chavez.

"Should Castro leave the scene, I think that Chavez then becomes even
more of a wildcard than he is already in regional, global politics,"
said Michael Shifter. "Ironically, Castro has been sort of a moderating
force on Chavez because he's somebody who's been around for a long time."

He also says the United States should rethink its strategy toward Cuba,
and consider ways to establish contacts with whatever government comes
into place after Fidel Castro.

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