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Carter
Meets With Castro, Seeks to Urge Change on Human Rights
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Carter’s visit the first of any former or in-office U.S. president to Cuba in more than four decades |
HAVANA,
Cuba, May 13 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) – Despite criticism
from the George W. Bush Administration, Jimmy Carter, the first U.S.
president in or out of office to visit Cuba under President Fidel
Castro's communist rule, arrived on the island Sunday, May 12, set to
do something the U.S. government will not: press Castro personally for
change on human rights.
"We
realize that we have differences on some of these issues, but we are
grateful for the chance to try to identify some common points" of
possible cooperation, said Carter, who on this private visit made most
of his remarks at an airport welcoming ceremony in Spanish.
Joined
by a small delegation including aides and his wife Rosalynn Carter,
the former U.S. president met late Sunday at the Palace of the
Revolution for discussions with Castro; Vice President Carlos Lage;
National Assembly speaker Ricardo Alarcon and other top Cuban cabinet
officials, to be followed by a late supper.
Carter
said at his welcoming ceremony that in talks here he would take up
issues including "peace, human rights, democracy and the
alleviation of suffering."
"Our
country will welcome you ... and modestly show you its human and
social works," Castro told Carter earlier, live on state
television, adding: "You will have free access to every place you
wish to see, and we will not feel at all offended by any contact you
may wish to make even with those who do not share our struggles."
It
was a clear reference to Carter's plans to meet Thursday with Cuban
dissidents, some of whom this week defiantly lodged an unprecedented
request at the National Assembly, backed by more than 11,000
signatures, seeking a referendum on broad political and economic
change.
The
most eagerly-anticipated event will likely be Tuesday, when the
77-year-old Carter is scheduled to meet with university students and
deliver a speech authorities have promised to broadcast live on radio
and television - a unique event in which the former U.S. leader would
be able to directly address the Cuban people at length.
Like
Castro, Carter has called for an end to the full U.S. economic
sanctions regime clamped on Havana since 1961.
But
Carter, known internationally for his defense of human rights, also
plans to address related sensitive issues with Castro, whose own
concept of human rights centers more on human dignity than
western-style personal and political liberties.
The
U.S. government, which does not maintain full diplomatic relations
with Cuba and still lists it as a state sponsor of terrorism, has
urged Carter on his private visit to press Castro hard to change.
Carter sought rapprochement during his 1976-1981 term in office.
Carter
also is scheduled to pay a visit to Cuban health care facilities,
including a psychiatric hospital and an AIDS hospice. Early Monday, he
is scheduled to tour of Cuba's top biotech facility, the Genetic
Engineering and Biotechnology Center.
Moments
after Carter's arrival Castro publicly offered him "free and
complete access" to personally inspect Cuba's scientific research
centers with experts of his choosing following last week's U.S.
government charge that Havana was producing biological weapons. It was
not immediately known if Carter would take up Castro's offer.
U.S.
Under Secretary of State for Arms Control and International Security
John Bolton, on May 6 said "the U.S. believes that Cuba has at
least a limited offensive biological warfare research and development
effort. Cuba has provided dual-use biotechnology to other rogue
states."
Castro
has called Bolton's allegations "Olympic-sized lies."
U.S.
nationals are barred from spending money in Cuba without special U.S.
government permission, creating an effective travel ban.
But
every year thousands of U.S. citizens risk potential fines and travel
to Cuba through third countries. Carter suspended the rule while in
office but it was later reinstated.
"It's
great to see a former president from my country in Cuba. I hope things
change soon," said Rebecca La Londe, a tourist from California
who opposes the sanctions and spotted Carter as he took time earlier
to soak in the sun, sights and sounds of steamy Old Havana.
Alongside
Eusebio Leon, the official historian of Havana, Carter toured the
Spanish-colonial district, a UNESCO World Heritage site, clad in a
tropical tourist outfit: white sneakers, trousers and tails-out
guayabera-style shirt.
He
smiled, waved, held hands at times with his wife, and took the chance
to greet some Cuban onlookers along the cobblestone streets lined with
"casonas" - some derelict and crumbling and many now
restored - with Andalusian-style patios, imposing entryways and
elaborate iron grillwork.
Carter,
staying nearby at the posh Hotel Santa Isabel, a remodeled old
colonial home in the same historic neighborhood, also popped in the
lobby of the Hotel Ambos Mundos, an old haunt of the late U.S. author
and Cubaphile Ernest Hemingway.
The
former U.S. president also stopped in Havana's Roman Catholic
cathedral, where he was greeted by priest Yosvany Carvajal, who called
Carter's visit "a sign of hope for the future."
The
Cuban President, 75, later showed Carter, 77, to the boxy black
limousine in which he was whisked to his hotel.
"I'm
taking you in a Soviet car that's about 100 years old, but it's the
most comfortable of all," Castro joked to Carter.
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