Seeming mixed signals from Cuba's Castro brothers

Posted on Wednesday, 04.22.09
Seeming mixed signals from Cuba's Castro brothers
By WILL WEISSERT
Associated Press Writer

HAVANA -- Raul Castro seems ready to discuss improving relations with
Washington. Brother Fidel is clearly uncomfortable with the idea.

Do the mixed messages from Cuba's current and former presidents reflect
the communist leadership's resistance to moving too quickly? Or are they
a ploy for leverage ahead of any talks?

As the White House ponders its next move, the question of who calls the
shots in Cuba is less clear than ever.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton described the delicate situation
in comments to Congress on Wednesday, saying the Obama administration
needs to be ready to engage with Cuba, even though its government "is
one that is very difficult to move."

Noting Fidel "contradicted" his brother in an essay published earlier in
the day, she said, "I think you can see there is beginning to be a debate."

Some Cuban dissidents put a more negative spin on the brothers' messages.

"Raul Castro says one thing and Fidel comes out in subsequent days and
says the opposite," said Miriam Leiva, founder of a Havana-based support
group for the wives and mothers of Cuban political prisoners. "It's no
way to run a government."

Fidel, 82, clearly sought to diminish expectations of a thaw in
Cuba-U.S. relations with his column, which asserted that President
Barack Obama "misinterpreted" Raul's seemingly conciliatory statements
last week.

At issue was Raul's declaration that his government is ready to discuss
"everything, everything, everything" with U.S. negotiators, including
human rights and freedom of the press in Cuba and the 205 dissidents its
government is accused of jailing.

Obama responded warmly at the Summit of the Americas, saying perhaps the
U.S. is ready for a new beginning with Cuba. But he also said that as a
sign of good will, Cuban authorities should release political prisoners
and reduce a 10 percent tax on the U.S. dollars that Cuban-Americans
send to support relatives on the island.

That angered Fidel, who called Obama's analysis of Cuban policy
"superficial" and said the U.S. leader had no right to suggest even
small concessions.

Obama "without a doubt misinterpreted Raul's declarations," Fidel wrote,
without explaining exactly what he supposedly misunderstood.

Fidel defended the government's right to tax dollars received by Cubans,
a levy that he says is spent on social needs like food, medicine and
other goods.

Fidel did not directly contradict Raul, and he defended his brother's
comments, saying they showed "courage and confidence."

Still, the Castro brothers have certainly adopted different tones, if
not policy positions. That could mean there is a division within Cuba's
collective communist leadership over whether detente is moving too fast.
Or the leaders could be trying to create an appearance of friction that
keeps Cuba in the news and may become a bargaining chip in any
negotiations with the U.S.

"It's a game of political strategy," said Elizardo Sanchez, the island's
leading rights activist and head of the Cuban Commission for Human
Rights and National Reconciliation.

Sanchez praised Obama's decision to lift U.S. restrictions on money and
travel to Cuba by people with family on the island. "Now is the time for
pragmatic steps like those the United States has taken because the Cuban
government has done nothing," he said.

Fidel posted another column on a state-run Web site Wednesday night,
suggesting that Washington is attempting to foist its political system
on Cuba - but not directly broaching the subject of bilateral negotiations.

Referring to Obama, he wrote that Cuba "has not asked for the capitalist
democracy in which you grew up and in which you sincerely believe, as is
your full right."

"We are not trying to export our political system to the United States,"
Castro said.

Fidel has been publishing his "reflections" nearly every day, and it
seems likely that he will weigh in again on his brother's sentiments
toward Washington, Obama and better relations with the U.S. But Raul
probably won't respond. The 77-year-old has been president since Fidel
formally stepped down due to illness last year, but he does not write
commentaries and rarely even gives speeches or addresses the news media.

This raises questions about who is really in charge.

"Here, Fidel has always made the final decisions," Leiva said. "He is
provoking and impeding, creating a confrontation between the two
countries because that's what Cuba uses to justify its repressive policies."

Leiva's husband, Oscar Espinosa Chepe, was a state-trained economist who
became a dissident and was among 75 political opposition leaders
arrested in 2003 and convicted on charges of conspiring with Washington
to undermine the communist system. He has since been freed on medical
parole, one of 21 prisoners from the group now out of prison.

Raul suggested last year that Cuba would be willing to free more
political prisoners in a swap for five Cuban spies imprisoned in the
United States. So in some ways it didn't break new ground for him to
offer last week to trade "all" such prisoners and send them and their
families to America in exchange for the five Cubans convicted of espionage.

Even Fidel defended the idea in the first of his essays, writing that
"no one should feel astonished that Raul spoke about pardoning those who
were convicted in March 2003 and about sending them all to the United
States, should that country be willing to release the five Cuban
anti-terrorism heroes."

Still, some Cubans were irritated by Fidel's insistence that Obama
misinterpreted the Cuban president's sentiments.

"These are contradictions that go against the people. They go against
working people, suffering people," said Wilfredo O'Farril, a 59-year-old
construction worker.

"I'm not afraid to say it. We are a people without a future," he said,
adding that Fidel "first says one thing, then says another."

"We've been this way for 50 years."

Seeming mixed signals from Cuba's Castro brothers - World AP -
MiamiHerald.com (1 May 2009)

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/world/AP/v-fullstory/story/1012703.html