Cuban official: No negotiating politics with US
By ROB GILLIES
Associated Press Writer
KINGSTON, Ontario -- A top Cuban official on Thursday said Cuba is
willing to discuss everything with the Obama administration, but it
won't give up its form of government in talks to improve relations.
The comments by the director of Cuba's Foreign Ministry's North American
Department echoed the sentiments of President Raul Castro, who has said
repeatedly that officials would be willing to sit down for direct talks
with U.S. leaders as long as his country's sovereignty is not threatened.
President Barack Obama has suggested it may be time for a new beginning
with Cuba, and the White House authorized unlimited travel and money
transfer for Americans with relatives in Cuba. But his administration
has said it would like Cuba to respond by making small political and
social changes to its single-party communist system.
Castro has bristled at that suggestion.
"Cuba cannot be asked to give up its form of government as a condition
to establish normal relations with the United States. That position is a
nonstarter. It will lead us no where," the Cuban official, Josefina
Vidal, said at the start of a Cuban academic conference in Canada. "In
doing so, the United States would make the same mistake that previous
governments have done."
She said dialogue should occur without preconditions.
The conference is examining the significance of the 50th anniversary of
the Cuba revolution. Cuban Parliament President Ricardo Alarcon is
scheduled to give a speech Saturday.
The U.S. has long sought what it considers real change from Cuba in the
areas of human rights, free speech, free markets and democracy.
Last month, President Raul Castro said Cuba was willing to discuss
"everything" with the U.S., leading to hopes that a door was opening to
a new relationship.
But former president Fidel Castro insists that Cuba should make no
concessions in return for better U.S. ties.
"Cuba is ready is to discuss everything but not to negotiate its
sovereignty or its political or social system," Vidal repeated.
Raul Castro's daughter, Mariela, said the United States must not ignore
Cuba's difficult past.
"Just like Obama cannot ignore his experiences as a black man in the
United States, Cuba cannot forget its history as a country that's been
blocked under the embargo for all of these years," she said in an
interview. "You can never ignore your biography - neither your personal
biography or your biography as a country."
The Obama administration has said it has no plans to lift the embargo
which bans nearly all trade with Cuba. The island's government blames
those sanctions for frequent shortages of food, medicine, farming and
transportation machinery and other basics.
"The day the blockade is over and we have normal communication between
our two countries, we will be free in Cuba to devote all our efforts and
resources just to the development of our nation and not to think about
ways to avoid the pressures and the obstacles the U.S. blockade
signifies in Cuba," Vidal said.
Robert Pastor, a professor of international relations at American
University and former President Jimmy Carter's national security adviser
for Latin America, said that day will come, but not soon.
"I hope before too long we can have a conference like this in
Washington," Pastor said in a speech. "But don't book your tickets quite
yet."
Associated Press Writer Will Weissert in Havana contributed to this report.
Cuban official: No negotiating politics with US - World AP -
MiamiHerald.com (8 May 2009)
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