THE PAPAL IMPACT
February 4, 1998

During the his historic trip to Cuba, Pope John Paul II criticized the government policies of both the U.S. and Fidel Castro's regime. In the wake of the pope's visit, the Cuban government has moved to release several political prisoners. Ricardo Alarcon, the number two man in Cuba, discusses the impact the visit has had on his country.

 

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The Elian Gonzalez case.     Cuban government site State Department	JIM LEHRER: Now, a Newsmaker interview with Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, often mentioned as a successor Fidel Castro. Charles Krause talked with him last week in Havana, shortly after the pope's visit. CHARLES KRAUSE: Mr. Alarcon, thank you for joining us. RICARDO ALARCON, President, National Assembly: Thank you. CHARLES KRAUSE: Was the pope's visit a success from your government's point of view? RICARDO ALARCON: I am sure that it was successful for Cuba but also for the Vatican and for the Catholic Church. CHARLES KRAUSE: Would you anticipate that the Catholic Church will have more room to operate in Cuba as a result of this trip? RICARDO ALARCON: Without any doubt, because first of all, they received the biggest attention possible, the--our bishops and our priests had the opportunity of being seen by the rest of the population with none other than such a personality like the pope to spread their message to mainly Cubans who are not Catholics. The pope also brought a very important message for them, for Catholics. He urged them to be more involved in the civilian life of the country, in the economic, in the social, political spheres, and I welcome that. CHARLES KRAUSE: On that very point, he talked about inalienable rights of the individual; he talked about human rights. He talked about a more pluralistic, a more democratic society, opening the society politically to more political parties, some of the things that he talked about. Will any of that result from this visit? RICARDO ALARCON: Well, I don't think that His Holiness specifically mentioned political parties or some of those specific manners of organizing some democratic societies. He then said that his doctrine was not a new political or social or economic program. It was, rather, a moral, spiritual content that he tried to put on every political, economic, and social system. And that's fine. That's his role as the leader of a very important spiritual movement. What I think should be expected is that we will continue trying to improve our own system that is not based on political, electoral machineries, which you know in other countries are referred to as political parties, but a system that tries to get involved as much as possible as many individuals as possible, including Catholics, and in this sense, I believe that his message, his teachings in Cuba, will certainly contribute to an effort that from our side, from the parliament side or from the political side, we're precisely to do, to develop more and more. CHARLES KRAUSE: As you know, in Miami, among the Cubans in exile, there were some who were hoping that somehow this trip by the pope who went to Central Europe, and the Communist regimes there sort of fell afterwards--some of them were hoping that your government was going to fall apart as a result of this trip. Do you sense any impact internally in terms of what it may mean for the future of your government? RICARDO ALARCON: Well, certainly, it was not the apocalypse that happened with the Holiness visit. We anticipated that. I can tell you that I was interviewed by many journalists before the arrival of the pope and the question was always asked: Aren't you afraid, isn't he going to change Cuba, as he allegedly did in Eastern Europe--I don't think so--and my answer was always that we were not afraid at all, that we were very interested, eager, to receive him, and I think that the developments confirm our convictions. I think that our society today is stronger than a week before; that Cubans are more united, that the pope's visit served as a rallying point for Christians, for believers, and non-believers alike. He was greeted everywhere by Cubans of every persuasion, and it was a demonstration of the civic and civilized attitudes for everybody, from the Church--our Church--to the last citizen of this country, including His Holiness, I have to say, and we have no problem with that. Today we are more united than before, and we are stronger and also with the encouragement of his message and his friendship that contradicts completely this reality, the forecast that some people in a rather precipitous way were making before.
	U.S. political climate
	CHARLES KRAUSE: The pope also was critical of the U.S. embargo of your country. Do you think that this trip and his statements about the embargo will change the political climate in the United States? RICARDO ALARCON: I cannot say that will be the consequences. I would like to hope that his message, particularly his appeal for an ending of the embargo would have some response that would be listened to and in the same manner that we take every other comments that he made--I think he is a person that deserves to be listened. His views have to be considered, and perhaps his visit will contribute--not to change immediately--not drastically adopt a particular attitude by the U.S. authorities, but let's hope that it will contribute to promote a necessary reassessment of a policy that His Holiness has said is unjust and morally unacceptable. I think that those are two concepts that should have persons of goodwill, whatever their political persuasions, think a little bit about. CHARLES KRAUSE: And you, during the course of the pope's trip here, there were several American congressmen here who you met with. Do you sense that there is anything underway now that might result in some lifting of part of the embargo, or a reassessment of the overall policy? RICARDO ALARCON: That's a very good question. We received five congressmen. The five of them had a critical position regarding the U.S. embargo, but we also received three advisers of Senator [Jesse] Helms and Congressman [Ben] Gilman. And I think that in itself is something very interesting. It is the first time that we have together people from such a diverse reflecting of the American political spectrum and the first time that these gentlemen from the Helms office, which are obviously a little bit apart from what Cuba needs now, but to receive them and to be able to talk to them, as I did personally yesterday afternoon, was in itself a very interesting experience for me, because I have to tell you that at least we were able to talk in a civilized, very proper, very businesslike manner. I don't mean that we wouldn't like a change of their minds. I wish they would learn something here that may inspire them to take a new look at the situation in Cuba. It is the first time for them to visit this country. They didn't know Cuba before. They were rather involved in activities not very friendly to Cuba. Let's hope that by improving their knowledge of the Cuban reality, by getting more acquainted with how Cuba feels and thinks, that may be a contribution to some sort of reduction of tensions between the two countries and the amelioration of the relations. CHARLES KRAUSE: Ricardo Alarcon, thank you very much for joining us. RICARDO ALARCON: You're welcome, sir.