Sen. Martinez says moment of transition could be near, cautions against,migration

Sen. Martinez says moment of transition could be near, cautions against
migration
BY PABLO BACHELET
pbachelet@MiamiHerald.com

WASHINGTON - Florida Sen. Mel Martinez this morning said Cuba could be
beginning a ''moment of transformation and transition'' but urged Cubans
to keep their emotions in check and avoid a mass migration to the United
States.

The Republican lawmaker, who fled Cuba when he was 15, called a mass
migration ''very dangerous'' but believes that the U.S. Coast Guard and
U.S. Navy are prepared to handle such an event, which he said could lead
to ''tremendous'' loss of life.

Slipping into Spanish when he sought to address the Cuban people, he
told reporters that ``I think people need to keep their emotions in
check, difficult as it is.''

He said Cuba was living a ``moment of uncertainty.''

''Internally the Cuban government is trying to transfer power,'' he
noted. ``My hope is that there will be an opportunity for voices of
freedom to be heard within Cuba, that this would begin a moment of
transformation and transition to a better life and better day.''

Martinez said he did not have details of Castro's health but that the
transfer of power to Raúl Castro ''would not have occurred were he not
in a very serious condition'' and there was a possibility that Castro
may be dead.

If one were to imagine how the Cuban government were to react to
Castro's death, ``this is how they would do it.''

''You would trickle it out, you would try to avoid the shock to the
Cuban people,'' he said, noting that Gen. Francisco Franco's death in
Spain in 1975 was unveiled over several days.

Martinez did not expect Raúl Castro to transition the country to a
democracy, but suggested that others within the government may want to
change course.

''But I would hope there would be others, within the hierarchy of Cuba's
government, who have, maybe, wished secretly or privately that there be
a different future for the people of Cuba, one in which repression,
oppression and tyranny was not the way,'' the lawmaker said.

The senator, who has criticized the Bush administration's policy of
allowing Cuban migrants who make it to shore to stay in the United
States while those caught at sea are sent back to Cuba, said the U.S.
government was prepared to stop a mass migration.

``I think it's a very important thing for us to be vigilant on. I think
it would be a tremendous loss of life plus a disorderly thing that at
this moment in history the United States just cannot tolerate.''

Asked if the United States was too constrained by the 1996 Helms-Burton
Act, Martinez said Congress could act on short notice to change the
legislation ``if we thought it would advance a transition in Cuba.''

Helms-Burton conditions any U.S. support to Cuba for the establishment
of a transition government in Havana on such actions as the release of
political prisoners and the calling of elections.

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