WASHINGTON (AP) — The Bush administration is ruling out any changes
in its Cuba policy — including lifting a five-decade trade embargo —
after Fidel Castro's resignation, deriding his brother and heir
apparent, Raul, as "dictator lite."
Despite having openly wished
for Castro's demise and the end of his rule for years, U.S. officials
said Tuesday that Castro's decision to step down on his own terms
leaves little hope for real democratic transition in communist Cuba
during Bush's final year in office, although it may open options for
his successor in the White House.
Led by President Bush, a chorus
of officials expressed hope that Castro's departure would spark
fundamental changes for the Cuban people. But they also said they
doubted that would happen under Raul Castro and said there was little
chance the nearly 50-year-old U.S. embargo on Cuba would be lifted.
"They're
the ones who suffered under Fidel Castro," Bush told a news conference
in Rwanda. "They're the ones who were put in prison because of their
beliefs. They're the ones who have been denied their right to live in a
free society. So I view this as a period of transition and it should be
the beginning of the democratic transition in Cuba."
"Eventually,
this transition ought to lead to free and fair elections — and I mean
free, and I mean fair — not these kind of staged elections that the
Castro brothers try to foist off as true democracy," Bush said. "The
United States will help the people of Cuba realize the blessings of
liberty."
Even as U.S. lawmakers suggested Castro's retirement
should set off a review of U.S. policy, senior State Department
officials in Washington said there would be no lifting of the embargo,
which has been the centerpiece of American policy toward Cuba since it
was first imposed in 1960 and strengthened in 1962.
"I can't imagine that happening any time soon," said Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte.
The
ailing Castro, 81, who has called the embargo "criminal" and claims its
impact has run into the tens of billions of dollars, announced earlier
Tuesday he would not accept another term in office when parliament
meets to elect a new president this weekend.
Castro outlasted
nine U.S. presidents who, with some minor policy adjustments, have
steadily ramped up pressure on Cuba. At least two Secretaries of State,
Madeleine Albright and Colin Powell, said publicly while in office that
they hoped "the actuarial tables" would catch up with the aging Cuban
leader who was a persistent thorn in Washington's side.
Long-standing
U.S. irritation with Castro was evident on Tuesday with officials
stressing they were not optimistic for any kind of quick change under
Raul Castro, to whom Fidel ceded power temporarily in July 2006.
"The
changing of the guard is not significant of and by itself," deputy
State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters, repeatedly
referring to Raul Castro as "dictator lite" or "Fidel lite."
"It
will be significant if in fact it leads to greater openness and freedom
for the Cuban people and ultimately to a democratic transition," he
said. But he cautioned that "the general analysis is that Raul Castro
is 'Fidel lite.' He is simply a continuation of the Castro regime, of
the dictatorship."
Jumping into the fray, the top three U.S.
presidential candidates all said Washington should look for ways to
encourage democratic reforms in Cuba, steps that could lead to
normalizing U.S. relations with Cuba later on.
Democrats Hillary
Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama and Republican John McCain called for the
release of Cuban political prisoners and said the United States should
look for ways to encourage democratic reforms in Cuba.
"The
United States must pursue an active policy that does everything
possible to advance the cause of freedom, democracy and opportunity in
Cuba," Clinton said.
Obama said the U.S. must be prepared to take
steps to normalize relations with Cuba and to ease the embargo if
Cuba's new leaders "begins opening Cuba to meaningful democratic
change."
McCain underscored that "freedom for the Cuban people is not yet at hand."
In
Congress, more than 100 lawmakers from both sides of the aisle signed a
letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice urging a "tough-minded
review" of current U.S. policy toward Cuba, which they said had left
the United States "without influence at this critical moment" on the
island.
"After fifty years, it is time for us to think and act anew," they said.
Separately,
Rep. Howard L. Berman, D-Calif., the acting chairman of the House
Foreign Affairs Committee, said he would call hearings on the
development that "may provide an opportunity for the United States to
inject creativity and fresh ideas into that policy to better achieve
our common goal of bringing freedom to the people of Cuba."
Meanwhile,
Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Miami-area Republican who was born in
Havana, said Castro's resignation was irrelevant because his regime had
already "done great harm to the suffering Cuban people." She urged the
administration to look into indicting both Castros for Cuba's 1996
shoot-down of a humanitarian relief plane.
Sen. Robert Menendez,
D-N.J., who is of Cuban descent, said Castro's resignation "is not the
cause for celebration that some would believe. This does not represent
the replacement of totalitarianism with democracy. Instead, it is the
replacement of one dictator with another."
Cuban leaders have
often expressed willingness to deal with the United States — but only
on Cuban terms — conditions that look nothing like the U.S. demands
laid down to lift the embargo in the Helms-Burton Act of 1996.
The
law grants U.S. presidents broad leeway over how to enforce the embargo
but the embargo rules themselves will stand as long as either Raul or
Fidel are in power, according to Helms-Burton.
Still, Raul Castro
has repeatedly offered to improve relations with Washington, even if
the Bush administration shows no sign of taking him up on it. He has
hinted he favors greater, if still limited economic freedom. And he's
already allowed more, if limited, public criticism of the government.
Since
taking the provisional presidency, he has extradited three U.S.
fugitives, reduced the number of Cuban political prisoners by more than
20 percent and refrained from imposing the death penalty in two
military mutinies where firing squads seemed likely. He also said Cuban
forces would recapture any terror suspects who escape from the
Guantanamo prison.
