U.S. Has Plan to Aid Post-Castro Cuba

U.S. Has Plan to Aid Post-Castro Cuba
By GEORGE GEDDA , 08.01.2006, 12:45 PM

The Bush administration said Tuesday it is monitoring the health crisis
of Cuban leader Fidel Castro, as officials restated their goal of
helping to ensure a democratic transition on the island.

Three weeks before the official announcement in Havana of Castro's
deteriorating health, a U.S. presidential commission called for an $80
million program to bolster non-governmental groups in Cuba for the
purpose of hastening an end to the country's communist system.

The report also proposed "assistance in preparing the Cuban military
forces to adjust to an appropriate role in a democracy." It provided no
details on this point.

Cuba's National Information Agency called the report a "new plan of
aggression" that violated the island's national sovereignty.

"We can't speculate on Castro's health, but we continue to work for the
day of Cuba's freedom," White House spokesman Peter Watkins said Tuesday. .

The official announcement in Havana said Castro, who will be 80 in two
weeks, underwent intestinal surgery and temporarily turned over power to
his brother Raul. He turned 75 two months ago.

On Monday, before Castro's illness was announced, President Bush was in
Miami and spoke of the island's future.

"If Fidel Castro were to move on because of natural causes, we've got a
plan in place to help the people of Cuba understand there's a better way
than the system in which they've been living under," he told WAQI-AM
Radio Mambi, a Spanish-language radio station. "No one knows when Fidel
Castro will move on. In my judgment, that's the work of the Almighty."

At the time the 95-page commission report was released, Bush said, "We
are actively working for change in Cuba, not simply waiting for change."

The United States and Cuba have been unbending adversaries since Castro
entered into an alliance with the Soviet Union and converted his country
into a Marxist-Leninist state in the early 1960s.

Hostilities reached a peak during that period, marked by the failed Bay
of Pigs invasion and the Cuban missile crisis.

There have been no high-level political contacts between the two
countries since 1982. The collapse of European communism almost two
decades ago was a severe blow to Castro, both politically and economically.

Lately, his fortunes have improved somewhat with the emergence of
left-of-center and leftist government in Latin America, most notably in
Venezuela, where President Hugo Chavez has used his oil wealth to back
policies long espoused by Castro.

For years, successive administrations have tailored their Cuba policies
with an eye toward winning support from the vote-rich Cuban-American
community in South Florida, which is predominantly anti-Castro. The U.S.
trade embargo has been the centerpiece of American policy toward Cuba
for more than 40 years.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., a member of the House International
Relations Committee who has long opposed Castro, said even a temporary
relinquishment of power by Castro is "a great day for the Cuban people
and for their brothers and sisters in exile."

"Fidel Castro has only brought ruin and misery to Cuba, so if he is
incapacitated, even for a short period of time, it is a marvelous moment
for the millions of Cubans who live under his iron-fisted rule and
oppressive state machinery," she said. "I hope this is the beginning of
the end for his despised regime."

Sen. Mel Martinez, R-Fla., who like Ros-Lehtinen was born in Cuba,
joined with her in saying they expect U.S. action for now will be
limited to transmitting radio messages of hope to the Cuban people and
preventing an influx of illegal immigrants from the island.

Martinez said he is confident the Navy and Coast Guard have the
necessary resources to prevent refugees from trying to flood U.S. borders.

He also said he would not support lifting the U.S. embargo on Cuba until
reform was under way. Instead, the United States should lend its ear to
political dissidents and pressure outside forces, such as Venezuela, to
limit support of the communist regime, the senator said.

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