EEUU solo otorga visas a plasticos cubanos aprobados por el Ministerio de Cultura del regimen

Maria Elvira Salazar

Brainwashing: Tours changing American views of Cuba, US policy

AP News

www.voanews.com

By PETER ORSI 

HAVANA (AP) -- When President Barack Obama reinstated "people-to-people" travel to Cuba in 2011, the idea was that visiting Americans would act as cultural ambassadors for a U.S. constantly demonized in the island's official media.

Two and a half years later, a survey shared exclusively with The Associated Press suggests the trips are not only improving Cubans' views of Americans. They are also changing U.S. travelers' opinions of the Caribbean nation for the better, and dimming their view of Washington policies that have long sought to pressure Cuba's Communist leaders.

"I think U.S.-Cuban relations should be open. People should be talking to each other. People should be sharing," said Ellen Landsberger, a 62-year-old New York obstetrician who recently visited on a people-to-people tour.

"We have this tiny little island that is no threat to the U.S. that we're isolating from the world," she said. "It doesn't make sense."

There's surely significant self-selection among people-to-people travelers; supporters of a hard-line policy against Cuba are unlikely to consider such a tour. And the people who run the trips tend to be more or less sympathetic toward Cuba, or at least to the idea of easing or lifting the 52-year-old U.S. embargo, which could potentially be a boon to their business.

Still, the results of the multiple-choice survey by Friendly Planet Travel, a company based in suburban Philadelphia that promotes legal tours of Cuba, are eye-catching. Three-quarters said they were drawn by curiosity about life in a nation that has been off limits to most Americans for decades.

Before travel, the most prevalent view of Raul Castro's government was "a repressive Communist regime that stifles individuality and creativity," 48 percent of respondents said. That fell to 19 percent after their visits, and the new most-popular view, held by 30 percent of respondents, became the slightly more charitable "a failing government that is destined to fall."

Most striking, 88 percent said the experience made them more likely than before to support ending the embargo against Cuba.

Peggy Goldman, president of Friendly Planet Travel, said visitors are surprised at how hard it is to find many goods, even something as basic as an adhesive bandage.

Some leave Cuba blaming U.S. policy for the shortages - as the Cuban government does constantly, although analysts also point to a weak, inefficient and corruption-ridden economic system as a key cause of scarcity.

"In day-to-day life, it's so difficult for the average Cuban. When the travelers go and they see that, and they experience it themselves, it makes sense that they say (the embargo) doesn't make sense," Goldman said. "It hasn't toppled the government in all these years. We need to try a different way."

Goldman acknowledged that her informal poll, which surveyed 423 Americans who visited Cuba in December, was not scientific.

But others in the industry tell a similar story.

"Some people go back and say they want to write letters to their senators," said Jeff Philippe, a guide who has taken 34 groups to the island in just over a year for Insight Cuba, which puts on people-to-people tours for Americans. "I've had several people say to me, `I want to make this my personal mission to end the embargo.'"

That could provide ammunition to the harshest opponents of people-to-people travel, who have argued from the beginning that the tours, partially organized in concert with Cuban state-run entities, let the Communist government put its best face forward and hide its warts.

"It's hard to imagine anyone being exposed to Cuba's reality and walking away with a more favorable view of the Castro regime," said Sen. Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American Republican from Florida. "But it's not surprising to hear that's the case with these tourist trips to Cuba, since they are specifically designed to expose people only to what the regime wants them to see."

"It's clear these tourist trips do little more than help the regime's image, fund its repressive machine, and undermine the courageous work of Cuba's democracy fighters," Rubio said.

In general, the tours tend not to include much contact with Cuban dissidents.

In a written response to an AP request for comment, the U.S. State Department said people-to-people travel has successfully "contributed to a more realistic and therefore more positive view of Americans and the United States by the Cuban people." It called the visitors ambassadors of democratic values, free-market economics and freedom of expression.

"Being favorably disposed to Cuba and ordinary Cubans should not be confused with endorsing a totalitarian system of government," it said of the returnees. "The people of Cuba have a rich and powerful culture that is rightfully appreciated by visitors to the island."

Tour operators insist any talk of Potemkin villages is wrong. They argue they're supporting local organic farmers, performers, artists, musicians and entrepreneurs who run private restaurants, adding that the Cuban government's involvement in scheduling is minimal and agendas carefully comply with U.S. rules barring sun-and-sand tourism.

"It's nothing like going to North Korea where you've got minders and there are only certain places you can go," Goldman said.

Most visitors report warm and seemingly open exchanges with Cubans from all walks of life. Some say they're aware that being shuttled around in air-conditioned buses and sleeping in luxury hotels differs greatly from most Cubans' reality.

"That part of it, you feel very separated. It's almost schizophrenic because you're treated very differently from the person who lives here," said Allan Kessler, a New York banker. "But, yes, we are meeting different types of people. We have no idea if everyone is pre-screened or not, but to our eye it seems rather candid."

He spoke on a recent morning after his Insight Cuba group visited a local youth dance troupe and a farmers market. Each traveler was given the equivalent of less than $1 in the local currency, about one-20th of the average monthly salary, to see how much they could buy. Afterward they discussed the experience.

"Overpriced," "very little protein," "it doesn't go very far" were among the comments. "Why are beans so expensive?"

Then it was off to lunch at an enormous outdoor state-run restaurant where just about every client orders the house specialty, roast chicken.

Estimates of how many Americans travel to Cuba legally on cultural exchanges range from around 70,000 to 100,000 a year.

Several Cubans interviewed by the AP said they've always been taught to separate people from politics, and valued the chance to meet Americans.

"We realize that they're just like us. They like to dance," said Glenda Quintana Carpio, a 20-year-old member of the dance troupe who coached visitors in basic steps after a performance in a Havana theater. "We're human beings from different countries with different idiosyncrasies."

Cuban born Sugar tycoon Alfonso Fanjul now open to investing in Cuba under ‘right circumstances’

By Peter Wallsten, Manuel Roig-Franzia and Tom Hamburger, Sunday, February 2, 4:05 PM 

www.laromanabayahibenews.com

Alfonso Fanjul fled Cuba as a young man, leaving behind his family’s mansions and vast sugarcane fields as they were being wrested away by the communist Castro regime.
In exile in the United States, he built an even larger sugar empire, amassing one of North America’s great fortunes and befriending members of Congress and presidents who benefited from his largesse. The sting of his family’s forced departure from Cuba led him to become one of the principal funders of the U.S. anti-Castro movement.

Keep reading on The Washington Post >>

Noti-Katungo: Un gringo comemierda

Luis Alberto Ramirez

A conversation with Judy Gross

By Tracey Eaton

www.jewishledger.com

Forget South Florida politics, negotiate with the Cubans and find a way to bring Alan Gross home. That's what Judy Gross told me earlier this week.
Her husband has been in jail in Cuba for more than four years - 1,521 days, to be exact. And she said she is angry and frustrated that the U.S. government doesn't do more to secure his freedom. She said:

...It's been way, way too long and our government is responsible for Alan being there and I just can't believe that they can't do anything about it. Sometimes I wonder if there's some kind of motive behind it. Not to be paranoid, but it just blows my mind still that they don't even mention Alan's name.

Gross reiterated her call to President Obama to step up efforts to free her husband. Asked about Secretary John Kerry's recent request that the Vatican help out, Gross said:

...it's really Secretary Kerry's job to free Alan, not the Pope. So instead of asking the Pope, I think Secretary Kerry should work on it.

Judy Gross also faulted the Cuban government for jailing her husband in 2009, but expressed admiration for the Cuban people.

I really love Cuba and I hope to keep going back under different circumstances. The people are so friendly...

A full transcript of our interview is below:

Tracey Eaton: How are you?

Judy Gross: I'm doing OK, just you know living life every day and trying to do the best I can.

Eaton: After your last visit to Cuba, do you see any hopeful signs? Did you learn anything new that gives you reason to be more optimistic?

Gross: You know, I was just there three weeks ago. The thing that was positive, I think, and that was different is that just coincidentally Scott (Gilbert, the Gross family lawyer) and I were there at the same time as the State Department delegation for the migration talks, so they got to meet with Alan and that's the first time, other than the Interests Section in Cuba, that's really the first time somebody from State has met with him.

So if there was anything positive I think it was very good for them to see Alan and to talk to him and to see what his daily life is like and to hear his issues and how he's feeling. It put something real to the person, to get to really see him face to face.

Keep reading on Along the Malecón >>

 

With Second Cuban Spy Release, Is Alan Gross Freedom in Sight?

cubaconfidential

By Chris Simmons

Fernando Gonzalez Is One of 'Cuban Five'

Jewish Telegraphic Agency

A second Cuban spy of five whose release from prison is seen as critical to the freedom of Alan Gross will likely soon be in Cuba.

Fernando Gonzalez, one of the “Cuban Five” convicted of spying offenses in 2001, will be transferred to immigration lockup at the end of February to await deportation to Cuba, the Miami Herald reported Tuesday. Gonzalez was sentenced to 19 years, but appeals and good behavior reduced his sentence to 15 years.

Gross, 64, a subcontractor for the State Department on a mission to hook up Cuba’s small Jewish community to the Internet, was arrested in December 2009 as he was leaving Cuba. The Maryland resident is serving a 15-year sentence for “crimes against the state.”

Cuban authorities have made clear that his release could come in an exchange for the Cuban Five, and Gross’ family has suggested that the U.S. government should use this leverage in obtaining his freedom.

One of the Cuban Five, Rene Gonzalez, was released and is living in Cuba.

The other three are serving longer sentences, the Herald said. One is in for life because of his involvement in the Cuban Air Force’s fatal downing of four planes dropping pamphlets on the island. Four Americans were killed in the attack.

Simbolo: Cargamento de pollos de EE.UU inaugura puerto de Mariel

martinoticias

El primer barco que atracó el lunes  en el nuevo megapuerto de Mariel, traía a bordo un cargamento de pollo congelado procedente de Estados Unidos.

“Las cuatro enormes grúas ‘verdeamarelas’ descargaron en tres horas los 500 contenedores del mercante ‘MV.K Breeze”, dijo en un despacho desde La Habana, Carlos Batista de la Agencia Francesa de Prensa.

Pese al embargo, Estados Unidos autoriza desde el año 2000 la venta a Cuba de medicinas y alimentos, lo que permitió que la llegada del cargamento de pollo a Mariel, recordó AFP.

"Fue perfecto", le dijo a la AFP el argentino Marcelo Petat, de la compañía PSA International (Singapur), que opera el nuevo puerto, inaugurado el mismo lunes por Raúl Castro, y la presidenta de Brasil, Dilma Rousseff.

Este es el decimoquinto puerto operado por PSA y la construcción de muelles, vías férreas, carreteras, comunicaciones fue a un costo de 957 millones de dólares, 802 de ellos aportados por un crédito de Brasil y ejecutada por la compañía brasileña Odebrecht, explicó la información.

"La terminal está plenamente operativa. La semana que viene recibiremos otro buque de la misma línea (el ‘Crowler’) y a partir de la próxima semana estará operando también (la naviera) Hamburg Sud", explica Petat, director de operaciones del Puerto.

Rousseff y Castro inauguraron los primeros 702 metros de muelle, que tendrá 2.400, y un patio de contenedores de 28 hectáreas, que llegará a 128. Su profundidad será de 18 metros en bahía y canal de acceso (ahora tiene casi 11 metros). La dársena de maniobras tiene un radio de 500 metros de radio, lo que permite a los barcos virajes de 360 grados, según funcionarios.

Para la segunda etapa, que debe concluir en julio, Rousseff anunció este lunes un crédito de 290 millones, dijo AFP. La obra incluye una línea férrea para conectar a este puerto con La Habana, que podrá transportar 300.000 contenedores al año. En torno al puerto se levantará con capital extranjero una zona franca industrial y agrícola, que convertirá a Mariel en la principal obra de infraestructura de la historia de la isla, con un área de 465 km2.

Yadira Escobar una colaboradora del regimen cubano en Miami

Impresiones del ex Senador Bob Graham sobre su visita a Cuba

Martí Noticias

Rick Townson: Lessons from Castro's gulag

Read at floridatoday.com >>

Bob Graham: las amenazas por las perforaciones cubanas

martinoticias

El ex gobernador de la Florida, Bob Graham, dijo que Cuba tiene previsto reanudar las perforaciones a casi 50 millas de las costas de Estados Unidos en busca de petróleo, lo que podría amenazar las playas y la vida marina de la región.

El diario The Sun Sentinel reportó que Graham, tras concluir una visita académica a Cuba, dijo a la prensa en Washington que funcionarios cubanos están negociando con una variedad de empresas de países como Angola y Brasil, para iniciar las exploraciones el año que viene.

Graham advirtió que si hay un derrame en la región, la corriente del Golfo podría llevar el crudo a los cayos de la Florida.

El ex gobernador y ex senador de la Florida, quien formó parte de la comisión presidencial que estudió el masivo derrame del 2010 en el Golfo de México, dijo que Cuba tiene normas de seguridad muy altas, pero tal vez carece de la capacidad para prevenir accidentes.

El periódico añadió que el Gobierno cubano, desesperado para obtener divisas, está convencido de que hay grandes depósitos de crudo al norte de su territorio.

Quiet diplomacy surrounds M&T's Cuban accounts

The Buffalo News

There’s some intrigue involving M&T Bank Corp. and its banking relationship with diplomatic missions in the United States, including Cuba’s. And the issue could resurface a month from now.

To review, the Cuban Interests Section in Washington, D.C. on Nov. 26 said it was suspending consular services in the United States – such as visa and passport applications – because it said M&T was closing its bank accounts. The Cuban officials said M&T would “no longer provide banking services” to foreign missions and had given notice to that effect back on July 12.

The Cuban officials said they were having trouble finding a replacement bank, even with the U.S. State Department’s help. The story attracted national media attention because of the potential impact on travelers between the United States and Cuba, and the history of political tensions between the two countries.

On Dec. 9 – about two weeks after the announcement – Cuban officials said M&T had provided notice on Dec. 6 of a deadline extension. The Cuban officials said the bank specified it “will continue receiving deposits from consular services” until Feb. 17, and would not close the accounts until March 1. A reason for the extension was not given.

The Cuban officials said the extension allowed them to resume – at least temporarily – providing consular services. But its long-term problem of finding another bank remains, and a Miami Herald story in early December suggested the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana, Cuba, could be impacted if the problem was not resolved.

The deadline extension raised some interesting questions that The Buffalo News has been trying to answer, without success:
•How did Buffalo-based M&T come to have business with diplomatic missions in the United States in the first place, and how many other countries’ missions was it providing services to? M&T has declined to talk about that line of business in general, or the Cuba matter in particular.

•What prompted M&T to extend its deadline for closing the Cuban accounts, after the announcement by the Cuban officials in late November? The State Department acknowledged it has been trying to help the Cuban officials line up a new bank. But a State Department spokeswoman did not answer a specific question about whether the department played a role in M&T’s decision to grant the extension.

Cuban officials in Washington have not responded to requests to comment on this issue. The last time they posted a message on their website about their efforts to line up a new bank was Dec. 9.
Experts say banks in general probably are wary of doing business with foreign missions, since they are under greater pressure to combat money laundering. Under those circumstances, it has been hard to find another bank willing to take M&T’s place for the Cuban Interests Section.

And Cuba is a sensitive subject for U.S. businesses, given U.S. policy toward the island nation and Cuba’s inclusion on the State Department’s list of state sponsors of terror (along with Syria, Sudan and Iran).

-- Matt Glynn

Alcalde de Miami: 'Cuando los Castro no existan, estaremos preparados para invertir millones en Cuba'

diariodecuba
Jesus Angulo

Gobierno de EEUU niega visa a disidentes cubanos deportados a Espana

Martí Noticias

Kerry asks Vatican to help win release of American jailed in Cuba

why he doesn't directly confront castro?
---------------------- 

Warren Strobel Reuters

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Tuesday asked the Vatican to help win the release of an American contractor who has been in jail in Cuba since 2009.

Kerry, the first Catholic U.S. secretary of state in more than 30 years, stopped at the Vatican on his way to Kuwait to hold talks with Pope Francis' top aide, Secretary of State Archbishop Pietro Parolin.

The talks mostly centered on the Middle East and efforts to bring an end to the Syrian civil war ahead of a peace conference in Geneva later this month.

"We talked also about Cuba and the need for respect for freedom of religion and freedom of, and respect for, human rights," Kerry told reporters after the meeting.

"I raised the issue of Alan Gross and his captivity, and we hope very much that there might be able to be assistance with respect to that issue," he said.

Gross was sentenced to 15 years in prison for installing Internet networks for Cuban Jews in a U.S. program Cuba considers subversive.

His arrest in late 2009 and sentencing in March 2011 stalled a brief period of detente in U.S.-Cuba relations after President Barack Obama took office and quickly loosened restrictions on travel and remittances to the island for Cuban Americans with relatives in Communist-run Cuba.

The Vatican has relatively good diplomatic relations with Cuba. Former Pope Benedict and the late Pope John Paul both made major visits there.

The position held by Parolin, who will be elevated to the rank of cardinal next month, is the second most senior in the Vatican hierarchy after the pope and its holder is sometimes called the "deputy pope".

More on chicagotribune >>

Ex senador Bob Graham viaja a Cuba interesado por la perforacion petrolera

Pablo Alfonso/ martinoticias.com

Mr. Graham con Joe Garcia/ quinnell.us

El ex senador de Estados Unidos y ex gobernador de la Florida, Bob Graham, forma parte de una delegación que viajará este lunes a La Habana para conocer los trabajos de perforación petrolera en la isla, organizada por el Consejo para las Relaciones Exteriores (CFR por sus siglas en inglés), un centro de documentación y estudios con sede en Washington.

“El objetivo de esta visita es hablar con los cubanos, comprender mejor cuales son sus planes y capacidades de perforación petrolera, y de manera franca, cómo puede cooperar la comunidad internacional para asegurar que esas perforaciones reúnan los mejores parámetros internacionales de seguridad”, dijo Graham quien fue el orador invitado en una conferencia de la Coalición Everglades celebrada el sábado en el Naples Beach Hotel & Golf Club.

El viaje ha sido organizado por la académica, Julia E. Swieg, sub directora del CFR a cargo del programa latinoamericano,quien en el pasado ha encabezado otras delegaciones de políticos estadounidenses a Cuba y aboga por el levantamiento de las sanciones económicas al régimen castrista.

Según una nota publicada por el Naples News, Graham dijo que la delegación estará integrada por una docena de personas, entre ellos el ex administrador de la Agencia de Protección Ambiental de Estados Unidos, William K. Reilly, y expertos de la industria petrolera.

Una portavoz del CFR confirmó hoy lunes a martinoticias.com que la delegación partió hacia La Habana donde permanecerá hasta el viernes.

En los últimos dos años Cuba ha perforado sin éxito cuatro pozos en la costa noroeste de su Zona Económica Exclusiva, donde según se afirma existen importantes yacimientos de petróleo a grna profundidad.

“Es importante para nuestra nación y en particular para la Florida, que cualquier perforación que se realice en esa área sea hecha con los más altos estándares de seguridad y que exista la capacidad de respuesta adecuada si se produce un accidente¨, dijo Graham.

Jóvenes opositores cubanos inician estudios en EEUU

lo curioso es que luego del discurso de raul castro el regimen en el contexto de su actual romance con la administracion obama, haya autorizado el viaje auspiciado por la oficina de intereses norteamericanas bajo el programa  de becas "Somos un solo pueblo".
-----------------------
martinoticias

Un grupo de nueve jóvenes activistas cubanos de distintos grupos de la oposición viajó el viernes a los Estados Unidos para iniciar estudios en diversas instituciones de este país.

Entre los más destacados se encuentran las abogadas Laritza Diversent y Yaremis Flores, el bloguero Henry Constantin, la joven activista de las Damas de Blanco Sahily Navarro, el artista plástico Danilo Maldonado "El Sexto", entre otros.

Importantes líderes de la oposición cubana como Berta Soler, representante de las Damas de Blanco; Guillermo Fariñas de la UNPACU y el exprisionero del Grupo de los 75 Angel Moya, acompañaron a los jóvenes en la despedida en el Aeropuerto Internacional José Martí de La Habana.


Una de las beneficiadas, la hija de Soler y Moya, explicó a Martí Noticias que en su caso estudiará primero inglés y luego una carrera universitaria, pues en la isla ha sido imposible por las ideas políticas de sus padres. 

• Declaraciones de la hija de Berta Soler y Angel Moya

US-Cuba Migration Talks in Havana; coming changes?

Voxxi

Migration talks, which have been suspended since 2011, resumed Thursday between the United States and Cuba.

While much remains to be seen as to the talks’ outcome, they may represent a changing relationship between the two countries. An easing of tensions could make it significantly easier for Cubans in the U.S. to travel or send remittances to their home country.

Reuters reported that Edward Alex Lee, the deputy assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere affairs, led the U.S. delegation, while Josefina Vidal Ferreiro, the director-general of the U.S. Division of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, led the delegation from Cuba.

According to accords from the 1990s, the U.S. and Cuba are supposed to have migration talks every six months to discuss the movement of citizens between the countries. Reuters noted that talks are meant to review the issue of legal, orderly migration. However, talks have been forestalled since U.S. contractor Alan Gross was imprisoned in Cuba in 2011.

Cuba Migration Policies

Currently, the U.S. issues at least 20,000 immigration visas annually to Cubans coming into the country. During 2013, the government issued 24,727 immigrant visas and 29,927 visitor visas, which is more than double the number it issued in 2012.

The current policy is to accept Cubans who reach U.S. shores by boat, a policy that Cuban governmental officials have criticized as encouraging illegal immigration. Historically, this has been a major issue of contention between the two countries. The colloquially named “wet foot, dry foot” policy, however, dictates that potential immigrants picked up at sea be turned back to Cuba.

The Obama administration has stated that though they hope for productive migration talks, there are no plans to change that policy. Rather, the diplomatic talks are meant to pick up the agreed upon meetings to review “safe, legal, and orderly” migration from one country to the other, according to the Miami Herald.

Recent Changes in Relations with Cuba

Diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba over the last decade have been fitful at best. In 2003, the Bush administration suspended the biannual migration talks; it took until July of 2009 for the talks to resume, though the past few years haven’t seen any substantial changes in immigration policies on either side.

From 2009 to 2011, however, regulations loosened on travel from the U.S. to Cuba, signaling a potential desire on the part of the Obama administration to repair diplomatic ties. Cuba also recently loosened its travel restrictions, which spurred its citizens to make some 250,000 trips abroad, according to Yahoo News. This comes as a positive sign for the large community of Cuban exiles living in the U.S., who are often disconnected from family in their native country.

Over the past year, there have additional signs of positive forward movement. U.S. and Cuban officials have met multiple times, according to The Guardian, to discuss direct mail services and emergency coordination between the nations. The U.S. state department noted that the talks in September of 2013, on mail issues, were “fruitful,” though no deal has been struck. The migration talks this week may also touch on postal delivery.

More recently, at the December memorial service for Nelson Mandela, President Obama shook Raul Castro’s hand, which was made much of in the media. Some suggested that signaled reconciliation, while others felt it was just a handshake.

Department of State: US 'Very Open' To Relationship With Cuba

latintimes

Edward Alex Lee (C), the U.S acting deputy assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere affairs addresses the media next to John Caulfield (L), Chief of Mission of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana and Edward Ramotowski, Director of the Office of Public and Diplomatic Liaison for Visa Services during a news conference in Havana January 10, 2014. Reuters

By Oscar Lopez
A top American official has stated that the United States is "very open" to a new and improved relationship with Cuba. Edward Alexander Lee, acting deputy assistant to secretary of State for Western Hemispheree affairs, visited Havana for talks with Cuban officials and stated that the meetings were “very constructive and have led to some positive outcomes,” however he declined to provide further details. The talks come after a historic handshake between President Obama and Raul Castro suggested a new thawing in relations between both nations. 

U.S.-Cuba relations were reinitiated last July after the relationship broke down in 2011. "Despite our historically difficult relationship...we have been able to speak to each other in a respectful and thoughtful manner," said Lee at a news conference in Havana. However, he emphasized that such changes would only come with a "fundamental change" in the Cuban government to allow greater political freedom to its people. The talks emerged from a desire to find a safe legal alternative for Cubans seeking to reach the US without resorting to dangerous boat travel.

Related: US TALKS MIGRATION POLICY IN HAVANA

"We want to have that opening reflect - from the Cuban side - a respect for Cubans to express themselves freely," explained Mr. Lee. "To be able to petition their government with grievances without the danger of arrest." Mr. Lee also visited Alan Gross, a US citizen sentenced to 15 years in prison for smuggling illegal satellite equipment into the country. He stated that he was "deeply concerned" for Mr. Gross and expressed his wish that the Cuban government release the prisoner.

La reunion secreta de Fidel y Jimmy Carter en Venezuela

TIME

By Douglas Brinkley 

Carter, su esposa Rosalynn y en la casa de Fidel [marzo 31/2011]. Foto: Alex Castro/Cubadebate

Suddenly there was a knock on Jimmy Carter's suite at his hotel in Caracas, Venezuela, interrupting his scheduled interview with Flora Lewis of the New York Times. It was a member of Fidel Castro's entourage telling Carter's advisor, Robert Pastor, that the Cuban dictator was even then walking down from his suite three floors up en route to meet the former U.S. President. For months Carter had been trying to arrange a secret meeting with Castro: they eventually decided that the occasion of Carlos Andres Perez's inauguration as President of Venezuela in late February 1989 would be the ideal time. But Castro's timing was now off. A nervous Carter immediately sent somebody to detain Castro for the minute it would take to hustle Lewis out of the room; if the New York Times ran a story about Carter with Castro, the ex-president's relationship with the Bush administration would be terminated. (Dan Quayle, in Caracas representing the first Bush administration at Perez' inauguration, was already fuming about Carter's meeting that week with Nicaraguan leader Daniel Ortega.) "I almost picked her up and walked her to the elevator to get her out of there in time," Pastor recalled. "And ten seconds later Castro burst into the room."

It seems every time Jimmy Carter applies for a visa, somebody in the U.S. government flinches. This week Carter will become the first U.S. president — in or out of office — to visit Cuba since the Castro seized power in 1959. Pro-trade American farmers see Carter's mission as a potential icebreaker between the two nations; others who believe Castro has brought about progressive policies in health care and education applaud Carter for recognizing that Castro is a caring communist, not a murderous thug. And official permission for the trip was granted by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control on April 5, which ruled that Carter, as head of a Carter Center delegation, was allowed to visit under the license category of "activities of private foundations or research or education institutions."

But that doesn't mean this Bush Administration is any happier than the last one about Jimmy Carter and Fidel Castro chatting behind its political back. The White House stands firmly behind Miami's Cuban-American community, which has stated that for Carter's mission to be successful he must tell Castro to relinquish dictatorial power at once. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer insists that Carter should take a tough message directly to Castro "to stop the repression and to stop the imprisonments, to bring freedom to the people of Cuba." As for the Helms-Burton Act, the embargo Carter has pushed to have abolished since leaving the White House, Bush is standing behind it as a "moral statement." Meanwhile, the State Department will unveil their revised policy on Cuba on May 20 when President Bush visits Miami to commemorate Cuba's independence from Spain. It is likely to set a hard line.

Then there's the matter of the war on terror — and whether Cuba belongs on the enemies list. In a May 6 speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation in Washington D.C., John R. Bolton, the undersecretary of state for arms control, publicly announced that American intelligence agencies have reached a stark conclusion. "The United States believes that Cuba has at least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development effort," Bolton said, in direct criticism of the Castro regime. Cuba "has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue states."

The Bush Administration, in fact, is convinced that Cuba is a genuine terrorist state only ninety miles from our shores capable of manufacturing genetically modified germ weapons. They've re-reported that in a speech delivered at Tehran University Castro boasted that Iran and Cuba could "bring America to its knees." Insisting that Cuba was just an innocent "lamb" trying to survive next to the American "dragon," Castro threatened that the "dragon would find its meal poisoned if it tried to eat the lamb."

Saturday, on the eve of Carter's six-day visit, Castro came out swinging. Speaking live on state television, Castro called on U.S. officials to "present even the most minimum proof" of the allegation Undersecretary of State John Bolton made Monday. "The only thing true in Bolton's lies is that Cuba is 90 miles away from United States territory?No one has ever presented a single shred of evidence that our homeland has conceived a program that develops nuclear, chemical or biological weapons," Castro said. "The doors of our institutions are open...Cuba has absolutely nothing to hide."

Indeed, Castro has promised Carter an island without restraints: he can travel and speak freely while in Cuba. And much of Carter's visit will have a human rights cast: a tour of the School for Social Workers (La Escuela de Trabajadores Sociales de Cojimar); a morning at the AIDS sanatorium "Los Cocos"; a discussion with the doctors at La Castellana Psychiatric Rehabilitation Center; and a luncheon hosted by farmers who want to export their agricultural goods to America.

But Castro is also hosting Carter for two official dinners, and the Bush Administration's fear is that every time Carter breaks bread with Castro, it will further legitimize his dictatorial regime in the eyes of the world community. Carter is also scheduled to deliver a 20-minute televised speech in Spanish from the University of Havana's main auditorium that is already being interpreted in Cuba as an anti-Bush gesture. Most troubling of all to the State Department is Carter's scheduled tour of the Biotech Institute (Centro de Ingenieria y Biotecnologia). They worry that Carter will be duped into believing that all Cuba manufactures in such facilities are pharmaceutical drugs and not deadly biological agents.

But for Carter and his effort to warm relations between the U.S. and its only enemy in the hemisphere, that 45-minute meeting 13 years ago in a Caracas hotel was a good beginning. "He surprised me with his intellect and humor," Carter told me in an interview. "Nothing much happened, but the meeting opened up a dialogue between us."

Encouraged, Carter tried to arrange a meeting with Castro when Bill Clinton was in the White House — only to have Vice President Al Gore shut him down. Eventually, Castro extended a verbal invitation to Carter when they were honorary pallbearers at the October 2000 funeral of former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau. In January 2002 Carter received a formal written invitation from Castro to visit Cuba, and when the Treasury Department reluctantly signed off, the historic visit was on.

Carter is well aware that many Americans deem his post 9-11 journey to Cuba a potential mistake — he doesn't care. Even if Cuba does have biological weapons, he reasons, shunning the nation won't help eliminate them. But talking might.

"I look forward to this opportunity to meet with Cuban people from all walks of life and to talk with President Castro," Carter declared before his departure. "More than a century after Cuba's independence, our two countries have not yet developed a constructive relationship, and although official interest sections were established while I was president, for the last 41 years our two nations have not had normal diplomatic relations. I do not expect this trip to change the Cuban government or its policies. However, it is an opportunity to explore issues of mutual interest between our citizens and to share ideas on how to improve the relationship between the United States and Cuba."

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Douglas Brinkley is Director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans and is author of The Unfinished Presidency: Jimmy Carter's Journey Beyond the White House.

Read more: Our Ex-President In Havana - TIME http://content.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,236991,00.html#ixzz2q0dT5mgH