| Jimmy Carter went to visit Fidel Castro Yesterday, former US President Jimmy Carter arrived in Havana for a six-day private visit. This event can rightfully claim historical status - after all, the last US president to visit Cuba of his own free will was Calvin Coolidge, and this happened back in 1928. After Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, visits to the “island of freedom” by Americans of this rank became unthinkable. It is not surprising that many compare the significance of the current visit with the Pope's trip to Cuba in 1998.
Castro conveyed an invitation to Carter to visit the island back in 2000, but only on April 5 of this year the US Treasury Department (it is this department that monitors compliance with the embargo, which prohibits, among other things, Americans from visiting Cuba), issued a license allowing the ex-president, his wife and entourage to travel persons to Havana. According to eyewitnesses, the Cuban leader appreciates Carter for his “moral and religious values.” As president, Jimmy Carter had already tried to unfreeze relations between the two countries - in 1977, the US Interests Department was opened in Havana (a kind of embassy that compensated for the lack of diplomatic relations that had been severed back in 1961). In response, Cuba released 3,600 political prisoners. But after the United States refused to grant them entry visas, Fidel opened the border, and in 1980, more than 100,000 Cubans flocked to Florida through the port of Mariel. At the same time, Cuba sent a limited contingent to Angola, which put an end to the barely emerging thaw in relations between Havana and Washington.
During his visit to Havana, Carter will meet with both the country's leadership and dissidents opposing Castro. “Carter can publicly criticize whatever he wants,” Fidel promised. Carter's speech at the University of Havana will be broadcast live. The only condition put forward by Cuba on the eve of the visit was that there should be no Cubans in Carter's delegation or among the journalists accompanying him. However, the guest does not expect miracles. "I don't think the trip will change the Cuban government or its policies, but it is an opportunity to exchange ideas on how to improve relations," he said.
The Bush administration is taking steps to neutralize the propaganda effect beneficial to Havana from the visit of the complacent Carter. While the former US president is scheduled to have two dinners with Castro, a week later the current president will have dinner with anti-Castro activists in Miami to raise donations for his brother Jeb Bush's re-election campaign as governor of Florida. On the eve of the trip, Assistant Secretary of State John Bolton associated Cuba with the countries of the “axis of evil” and accused it of developing biological weapons, saying that Havana is “at least making efforts in this direction.” He threatened retaliation and complained that the Cuban threat to US security had been underestimated - a government report in 1998 concluded that Cuba did not pose a military threat to the US. The State Department included Cuba in its list of sponsors of global terrorism, and last year accused Havana of preparing a cyberterrorist attack on the computer networks of the US Department of Defense.
Cuba calls these accusations "madness." It is noteworthy that previously it was Havana that accused the United States of using biological control methods (including harmful butterflies) to destroy Cuban agricultural crops. Playing the role of "good investigator", Jimmy Carter will visit the famous Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in Cuba, while Assistant Secretary of State for Inter-American Affairs Otto Reich insists on the release of CIA documents on Cuba's involvement in biological weapons research. In response to Bolton's recognition of Cuba's leadership in the field of biotechnology on the continent and the export of medicines to many countries, Castro thanked the American official for the advertisement.
In addition to reviving the Cuban topic within the White House administration, the ex-president’s private visit activated the current opposition forces on the island itself. The authorities have released human rights activist Vladimiro Roca from prison ahead of schedule, a decorated military pilot, the son of one of Fidel’s comrades from among the founders of socialist Cuba. According to him, “there is more tolerance for dissent at the moment.” In addition, just before Carter's arrival, activists of the Christian Liberation Movement, acting within the framework of the so-called “Varela Project” (change through constitutional means), submitted 11,020 signatures to parliament for a referendum on amending the country’s constitution regarding the one-party system. To the surprise of many, the white boxes with signatures were accepted by the authorities for consideration without incident. Andrey ZLOBIN |
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