[Marxism] AFP: US pursues Cuba's isolation despite exit of nemesis Castro

[Walter Lippmann]

(A better, more rounded report than much of what's been sent so far.)
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US pursues Cuba's isolation despite exit of nemesis Castro

by Lachlan Carmichael
1 hour, 45 minutes ago

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080219/pl_afp/cubacastrous_080219195118 

The United States stuck Tuesday to its policy of isolating Cuba
despite the exit of its old nemesis Fidel Castro, saying it was
waiting to see whether Havana was now on the road to democracy.

The ailing 81-year-old Castro may have marked an anti-climactic end
to an era that began in the Cold War by quietly resigning as
president, but he has left a deep thorn in Washington's side that may
prove hard to remove.

Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte indicated as much when,
asked by reporters if Washington planned to lift nearly a half
century of economic sanctions, he said: "I don't imagine that
happening anytime soon."

London-based Amnesty International on Tuesday urged Washington to end
the embargo which it said only hurts the Cuban people.

And unlike European allies, Washington still refused to open in a
dialogue with Cuba, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told
reporters. "I would say these are tactical differences and we have
the same strategic objectives."

President George W. Bush reiterated a policy aimed at isolating
Washington's southern neighbor when he said during a trip to Africa
Tuesday that the change in leadership ought to begin "a democratic
transition."

Bush said the "first step" was for Havana to release political
prisoners, and urged the international community to help build
democratic institutions in Cuba.

"And we're going to help," the US president said in Rwanda.

A commission on Cuba that Bush created in 2003 to help defeat the
Castro regime has recommended a series of steps to speed up the
emergence of democracy, including funding for dissidents and support
for an eventual transition government committed to holding free
elections.

"Eventually this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections.
And I mean free, and I mean fair -- not these kinds of staged
elections that the Castro brothers tried to foist off as being true
democracy," Bush said.

Following up in Washington, McCormack said "quite clearly a
transition is under way... I don't know exactly what course they are
on. We remain hopeful that that course is one toward a democratic
Cuba."

But democratic change is not guaranteed, he admitted.

Defiant of Washington since seizing power in 1959, Castro has not
only survived the trade embargo, assassination plots and a US-backed
invasion bid but has worked hard to ensure his Marxist legacy
endures.

Castro did not say who he thought should be his successor as
president, although most mentioned it his 76-year-old brother Raul
Castro, whom the State Department dismisses as "Fidel light."

The elder Castro's reference to a "middle generation" suggests that
younger leaders such as loyal 56-year-old Vice President Carlos Lage
should not be ruled out.

Tom Casey, the deputy State Department spokesman, also expected
little change for now.

"I think the general analysis is that Raul Castro is Fidel light,
that he is only a continuation of the Castro regime, of the
dictatorship, Casey added.

Brian Latell, who was the top Central Intelligence Agency analyst for
Castro for decades, said Tuesday was the "the end of an era" marked
by a larger-than-life figure who stood up to a succession of US
presidents.

Latell told CBS television that he thought Raul Castro, whom he
describes as more practical and flexible than his older brother,
might embark on grassroots economic reforms, but "not political
reforms."

That falls short of what analysts say is a US policy that essentially
amounts to "regime change."

The State Department said the United States launched an embargo on
Cuba in October 1960 after ties deteriorated rapidly with Havana
expropriating US properties and moving toward the adoption of a
one-party communist system.

A full economic embargo took force in 1962.

The embargo was bolstered in 1996 by the Helms-Burton Act and then in
2004 by Bush's move to restrict remittances and visits to the island.

Copyright C 2008 Agence France Presse.


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WALTER LIPPMANN, CubaNews
Los Angeles, California
http://www.walterlippmann.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/
"Cuba - Un Paraiso bajo el bloqueo"
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