Fidel says Obama “misinterpreted” conciliatory remarks by Raul on U.S.-Cuba relations.
HAVANA – Fidel Castro wrote in an essay published yesterday that President Obama had “misinterpreted” his brother Raul’s seeming conciliatory remarks regarding the United States, and he bristled at the suggestion that Cuba should free political prisoners or cut taxes on dollars that Cuban Americans send to the island.
His comments put into doubt the true meaning of his brother’s statements and raised questions about Cuba’s position on detente with the United States.
Although he surrendered the presidency to Raul in February 2008, Fidel Castro retains enormous influence and remains head of Cuba’s Communist Party.
Raul Castro touched off speculation last week that the United States and Cuba could be headed toward a thaw after nearly a half-century of chilly relations. He said his government would be willing to sit down with its U.S. counterparts and discuss “everything, everything, everything,” including human rights, freedom of the press and expression, and political prisoners.
Obama responded at the Summit of the Americas by saying Washington was seeking a new beginning with Cuba. But as he prepared to leave the summit Sunday, Obama also called on Cuba to release political prisoners and reduce taxes on remittances from the United States.
That appeared to enrage Fidel Castro, 82, who wrote that Obama “without a doubt misinterpreted Raul’s declarations.”
“When the president of Cuba said he was ready to discuss any topic with the U.S. president, he meant he was not afraid of addressing any issue,” Fidel Castro wrote.
“That shows his courage and confidence in the principles of the revolution,” he wrote.
The former president appeared to be throwing a dose of cold water on growing expectations for improved bilateral relations, suggesting Obama had no right to dare suggest that Cuba make even small concessions.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton offered a different perspective while discussing Cuba policy yesterday with the House Foreign Affairs Committee. She said that while Fidel Castro had “contradicted” his brother’s statements about Cuba’s willingness to discuss a whole range of issues, that showed “there is beginning to be a debate” in Cuba about how to move forward with U.S. relations.
Raul Castro, 77, has not clarified the confusion and is unlikely to, out of respect for his older brother.
Clinton said the Obama administration needs to be ready to engage with Cuba, even though its government is “very difficult to move.”
The different tones, if not policy positions, that the Castro brothers have clearly adopted could mean there is a division in Cuba’s collective communist leadership over whether detente is moving too fast. Or the leaders could be trying to create an appearance of friction that keeps Cuba in the news and may become a bargaining chip in any negotiations.
“It’s a game of political strategy,” said Elizardo Sanchez, the island’s leading rights activist and head of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation.
Fidel Castro, in his essay, defended Cuba’s right to levy a 10 percent fee on every U.S. dollar sent to relatives on the island by Cuban Americans, saying that if the money arriving from abroad “is in dollars, all the more reason we should do it because it is the currency of the country that blockades us.”
All top Cuban leaders routinely call the 47-year-old trade embargo against their country a blockade.
“Not all Cubans have family members overseas that send remittances,” Fidel Castro wrote. He said Cuba used the revenue from fees on exchanging dollars to provide free health care, education and subsidized food to its population.
Fidel Castro has previously expressed admiration for Obama, but he blasted the new U.S. president in the essay for showing signs of “superficiality” and called on him to wait no longer before lifting the U.S. trade embargo against Cuba.
“We are living in a new era. Changes are unavoidable,” he wrote. “Leaders just pass through; peoples prevail.”
Still, some Cubans were irritated yesterday by his insistence that Obama misinterpreted Raul Castro’s sentiments.
Wilfredo O’Farril, 59, a construction worker, said: “I’m not afraid to say it. We are a people without a future.” Fidel Castro “first says one thing, then says another. We’ve been this way for 50 years.” By: Will Weissert (AP)
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Source : Mixed signals from Fidel Castros?
