U.S.: Democracy could end embargo

Posted on Thu, Aug. 24, 2006

U.S.: Democracy could end embargo

Washington offered Cuba a chance to lift the economic embargo -- but
only if it moves toward democracy.
BY LESLEY CLARK
lclark@MiamiHerald.com

WASHINGTON - Just days after Cuba's acting president, Raúl Castro, gave
a blistering attack on the United States but at the same time hinted
he's willing to negotiate, the State Department offered a response: Free
your prisoners and elect your leaders. Only then will we lift the trade
embargo.

Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon held a news conference about
U.S. Cuba policy Wednesday for the foreign press, in which he reiterated
Washington's terms for lifting the United States' decades-old trade
embargo against Cuba.

Shannon said the administration would work with Congress to lift the
embargo ''and begin a deeper engagement with the Cuban state'' if the
government frees its more than 300 political prisoners, respects human
rights, allows independent political parties and creates ``a pathway
towards elections.''

They are the same terms Cuba has rejected for years.

''From our point of view, the offer's still on the table,'' Shannon
said. ``And we believe that if the Cuban government were to begin a
political opening and a transition to democracy, we could be in a
position, following the offer made in 2002, to begin to look at ways to
deepen our own relationship with Cuba.''

U.N. VOTES

Cuba's communist government says the U.S. trade embargo costs the island
nation nearly $1.8 billion a year. Cuba raises the issue at every
international forum, boasting that the U.N. General Asssembly has
resoundly voted against the embargo 14 years straight.

Raúl Castro suggested in an interview in Friday's Communist Party daily
Granma that he is willing to talk. But he blasted Bush administration
policy as an attempt to intervene in Cuba.

'From over there, as if they were the rulers of the planet, they are
saying that there must be a transition to a social regime of their
liking and that they `would take note of those who oppose that,' '' Raúl
Castro said.

`FIDEL LITE'

His Granma interview was dismissed by the State Department last week as
the words of ''Fidel Lite'' and Shannon Wednesday showed little interest
in engaging the temporary Cuban leader.

Although the 2002 offer was rejected at the time by Cuba, Shannon has
twice brought up the proposal since Cuban President Fidel Castro
temporarily turned over power to his younger brother.

Raúl Castro said last week Cuba has ''always been disposed to normalize
relations,'' but that it would be possible ``only when the United States
decides to negotiate with seriousness and is willing to treat us with a
spirit of equality, reciprocity and the fullest mutual respect.''

CHANGE FROM WITHIN

Shannon repeated the administration's belief that change must come from
within the island, but he suggested the administration has yet to be
encouraged by what it's hearing.

''Political openings and democratizations can take a variety of forms,
and we'd be very interested in hearing from the Cubans themselves about
how they would . . . envision that happening, if they envision it at
all,'' Shannon said. ``The initial comments that we have received don't
seem to indicate a whole lot of interest, but we're listening.''

Acknowledging the Cuban government remains hard to read, Shannon said
the U.S. believes the country is undergoing a ''slow-motion transfer of
power'' and that the elder Castro is unlikely to return to full speed.

Miami Herald staff writer Frances Robles contributed to this report from
Miami.

http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/news/special_packages/fidel_castro/15347687.htm