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NEWS
Top US
official says US won't change policy toward Cuba
by Antonio Rodriguez
Wed Feb 21, 2:50 PM ET
WASHINGTON (AFP) - A top US administration official insisted Washington
had no intention of changing its policy toward communist Cuba, whose
centerpiece is a 45-year-old, unilateral trade embargo.
"We believe passionately that our policy is correct," said Commerce
Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, who co-chairs the official Commission for
Assistance to a Free Cuba.
"It is naive to suggest that lifting US economic sanctions would weaken
the regime and force change," he said in a speech in which he sharply
denounced Cuba's communist government.
Speaking at a conference organized by the Council of the Americas
think-tank, Gutierrez said the Cuban government is the one that needed
to implement reforms.
"This is not about US policy, this is not about the US having to change.
We need to clarify that the change that needs to take place is in Cuba,"
said Gutierrez, the most senior Cuban-American official in the George W.
Bush administration.
Several lawmakers have urged Washington to ease the trade and economic
sanctions that officially aim at promoting democratic reform in Cuba.
But Gutierrez made it clear the US administration did not believe the
handover of power from President Fidel Castro to his younger brother
Raul had led to any significant changes in Cuba.
Fidel Castro, 80, announced on July 31 that he had undergone intestinal
surgery and "provisionally" handed power to his 75-year-old brother,
Cuba's defense minister and longtime number two.
Cuban officials have said the president's recovery is going well, but
have given few details of his exact medical condition. It remains
unclear whether Fidel Castro eventually would eventually resume his
functions.
As acting president, Raul Castro twice called for dialogue with the
United States, but Washington, which dismissed him as "Castro light" and
insisted Cuba must first adopt democratic reforms.
"We are doing everything we can to get the message out that it would be
a tragic mistake to recognize a successor regime in Cuba," said
Gutierrez.
He denounced what he called "the exploitation and brutal repression" of
Cubans, whom he called as "the last plantation workers in Latin America.
"We should compare the situation for average Cubans with the situation
for the average of North Koreans," Gutierrez said.
"To compare the changes that have taken place in China over 27 years to
the conditions in Cuba, I think is the wrong comparison. I would compare
Cuba and put Cuba in the same league as North Korea. But not China," he
said.
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