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US:
Cuban Government Becoming More Rigid
By DAVID GOLLUST
State Department
VOA News
The U.S. State Department's top official for Latin America said Cuba's
government has become more hard-line since the ailing Fidel Castro
transferred power to his brother Raul in late July. Assistant Secretary
of State Thomas Shannon says U.S. officials see no reformer in the
current Cuban political lineup.
Raul Castro made an overture for dialogue with the United States in
a speech December 2 at a rally marking his brother's 80th birthday.
But the State Department's top diplomat for Latin America says if
anything, the communist government in Havana has become more rigid
and orthodox since the transfer of power, and the Raul Castro gesture
is not being viewed here as a real opportunity for change.
In a talk with reporters, Assistant Secretary of State for Western
Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon gave a bleak assessment of prospects
for early change in U.S.-Cuban relations.
He said there is no doubt that responsibility for running day-to-day
affairs in Cuba has been passed to Raul Castro, the longtime defense
minister, but that there is no hint of change in the government's
approach:Image of Fidel Castro posted on Granma web site Tuesday,
Sept. 5, 2006.
"With Fidel still alive, the regime has actually become harder,
more orthodox," he said. "And it's not in a position to
signal in any meaningful way, what direction it will take post-Fidel.
So we don't feel that we've lost an important moment, because quite
frankly we don't see any significant possibility of change of any
kind until Fidel is gone."
Shannon said the United States has no independent information on the
condition of Fidel Castro, who underwent intestinal surgery in July,
but he termed it significant that the Cuban leader was not able to
make an appearance at the birthday events early this month.
He said if the past is any indicator, Raul Castro, known as a brutal
enforcer of communist rule, will not be an agent of change in Cuba
and none of the other senior figures in the hierarchy have shown any
signs of being reformers either.
Shannon said after Fidel Castro passes from the scene, Cuban leaders
will have a strategic choice to make:
"Once he goes, the successor government is going to have to chart
out some kind of path into the future," he added. "The question
is what kind of path does it chart out? Does it chart out a path that
only deepens the repression and deepens the misery? Or does it attempt
to chart out a path that is one of engagement with the world and an
opening, both political and economic. But there are no clear signals
about what that path is going to be."
Shannon said the Bush administration is comfortable with the terms
of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act from Congress, which forbids U.S. recognition
of any transitional Cuban government that includes Raul Castro.
© VOA News
Editor's Note.- Fidel Castro has
been in power since January 1st, 1959, when he took control of Cuba
after a popular revolution that defeated Fulgencio Batista, who had
been the Cuba' strong man for six years, nine months and 21 days.
Months after the revolution, Castro suspended all fundamental freedoms
and confiscated all private properties. On February, 1960 Castro signed
a first treaty with the Soviet Union during the Cold War, the first
step of a 30-years alliance. The Cuban revolution became a Communist
regime with a totalitarian control of the society as owner of all
industries and service facilities, including the mass media. The Cuban
democratic opposition says more than 10,000 people have been killed
by Cuban security forces and firing squads, and almost 100,000 have
been sentenced up to 30 years in prison for political reasons in the
past 48 years. Castro is believed to be the world longest-serving
dictador in our times.
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