|
|
| U.S.-CUBA RELATIONS
Will the Pope's visit affect how two countries deal with each other? January 28, 1998 |
|---|
Questions asked
in this forum:
What will happen if Castro opens Cuba up to the West? Why has the U.S. abandoned the policy of engagement in our own backyard? How does the U.S. hope to overcome the bitterness between the two countries? Is there any way to allow medicine into Cuba without changing the political goals of the embargo?
NewsHour Backgrounders
November 24, 1997:
The life and times of Cuban-American exile Jorge Mas Canosa.
October 16, 1997:
Thirty-five years later, the Cuban Missile Crisis is viewed as one of the "hottest" moments of the Cold War.
July 11, 1997:
The fight over the Helms-Burton Act and the embargo on Cuba.
March 5, 1997:
Sec. of State Warren Christopher discusses U.S. foreign policy regarding Cuba
Browse The NewsHour's Latin America Index.
Outside Link
The VaticanMike Muraca of Chicago, IL, asks: As expected, the pope spoke out against both U.S. economic sanctions and the President Castro's undemocratic government, but will his visit amount to any significant change in either U.S. policy or political and religious freedoms within Cuba?
Cuban Ambassador Fernando Remirec answers:
You're right when you say the Pope spoke out against the blockade like he's done on other occasions, but he never made any reference to any antidemocratic system in Cuba, as you said in your question. The Pope's visit to Cuba was, unquestionably, a landmark event. The welcome given to the Holy Father by the Cuban people, and the very presence of our President at the Revolution Square Holy Mass, is proof of the significance of this visit.
The government will continue to tighten bonds with the Church, seeing the religious as an another force in the economic, social and political development of the Revolution. As a matter of fact, Cuba is not the one prohibiting trade with the U.S., Cuba is not prohibiting its citizens to travel to the U.S., Cuba is not the one occupying part of the territory of another country, Cuba is not punishing third parties for trading with another nation. On the contrary, our Law of Investment welcomes all companies of the world interested to do business with Cuba, including U.S. companies.
As our President said in his farewell address to John Paul II:
"it is cruelly unjust that your pastoral trip could be associated to the mean hope of destroying the noble goals and the independence of a small country, blocked and dragged into a real economic warfare for almost 40 years now. [...] Cuba today is facing the mightiest power of History, like a new David, thousands of times smaller but with the same biblical sling, fighting for survival against a gigantic Goliath of the nuclear era, bent upon impeding our development and submit us by hunger and illnesses."
Riordan Roett, director of Latin American studies at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, answers:
I do not see any impact on current U.S. policy following the Pope's visit. That policy, dominated by the embargo, is driven by obscurantist domestic politics by an ideological minority. Will it have any impact on freedom in Cuba? Only marginally. If there is greater room for the Roman Catholic Church to maneuver in Cuban society, it will be a plus. If it strengthens Cardinal Otega, the Archbishop of Havana, as an interlocutor between society and the government it is a plus. And if it positions the Roman Catholic Church to play a key role in the inevitable transition that will follow Castro's death it is a plus.
Congressman Lincoln Diaz-Balart, (R-Florida), answers:
The Pope's visit will doubtless contribute to a spiritual reawakening in Cuba which will serve the nation well in its future.
Castro has made clear, however, that no political reform should be expected while he is in power. Even as the Pope celebrated mass, dissenting voices were silenced. Dozens of people who shouted slogans distasteful to the regime's agents, or who held up pro-democracy signs, were arrested.
Our policy is clear and is codified in law: There will be no lifting of the embargo or normalization of relations until there is a Cuban government that agrees to hold free and fair elections. The Cuban people do not deserve to be the only people in this hemisphere oppressed by a dictatorship, and we will continue to stand with them.
The PBS NewsHour is Funded in part by: Additional Foundation and Corporate Sponsors
Program
Support
From:
Copyright © 1996- MacNeil/Lehrer Productions. All Rights Reserved. Support the kind of journalism done by the NewsHour...Become a member of your local PBS station.
