Foto/Reuters
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Trip Report by Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter
to Cuba, March 28-30, 2011
April 1, 2011
At the invitation of President Raul Castro, Rosalynn and I visited Havana on behalf of The Carter Center, accompanied by John Hardman, Jennifer McCoy, Robert Pastor, Melissa Montgomery, John Moores, and Diane Rosenberg.
The goals of our trip were to:
- become acquainted with President Raul Castro and to ascertain his immediate and long-term goals for Cuba. The Party Congress will convene in April (on the 50th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs) and Cubans will adopt plans for economic and social reforms;
- explore ideas on how United States-Cuba relations might be improved;
- visit with key players in government and independent sectors; and
- learn as much as possible about the cases of the Cuban Five prisoners in the U.S. and Alan Gross in Cuba.
...
Our first briefing was at the U.S. Interest Section, where I also spoke to the assembled staff (in Spanish and English). We were surprised at the size of the staff - 50 Americans and 270 Cubans. There seems to be minimal direct contact between American diplomats and top Cuban officials.
We next had a delightful visit with leaders of the Cuban Jewish community. Although there is no rabbi in Cuba, the 1,500 Cuban Jews have a lively religious and social agenda. They say they have complete freedom to worship and adequate internet communication with the outside world, and that they had no substantive contact with Alan Gross.
Our next meeting was with Cardinal Jaime Ortega, who explained the procedure by which the Cuban government permitted the release of the remaining 52 of the original 75 political prisoners incarcerated since March 2003 plus an additional 74 others over the last six months. Twelve of them were permitted to remain in Cuba and the others were exiled to Spain. The Cardinal also gave us a briefing on the status of the various religious groups in Cuba.
...
Wednesday morning we met with a group of active dissidents, bloggers, and others and then hosted 10 of the 12 recently released political prisoners and their wives, who reported that they were still insisting that those exiled to Spain be permitted to return to Cuba. They complained about their difficulty in getting renewed ID cards and drivers' licenses.
...
In all, I believe the basic goals of The Carter Center were realized during the visit.
Some notes about the visit: Raul, Fidel, and other leaders are thoroughly familiar with our political system and the special pressures from a fading but still powerful minority of Cuban-Americans. They know that Helms-Burton cannot be repealed, and are experts on what authority the president has.
Both privately and publicly I continued to call for the end of our economic blockade against the Cuban people, the lifting of all travel, trade, and financial restraints, the release of Alan Gross and the Cuban Five, and end to U.S. policy that Cuba promotes terrorism, for freedom of speech, assembly, and travel in Cuba, and the establishment of full relations between our two countries. At the airport, Raul told the press, "I agree with everything that President Carter said." (read full report)
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