Word: castros
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...President Jimmy Carter waded into the delicate area of U.S.-Cuba relations during the first visit by a U.S. leader since 1959. In a speech broadcast live from Havana University, Carter called for an end to the U.S. economic blockade against Cuba, but he also urged leader Fidel Castro to initiate political reforms. The former President said he had come to "extend a hand of friendship" to Cuba's people. But the White House saw things differently, saying the four-decade-old economic and travel embargo was a "vital part of America's policy...
When U.S. Congressman Jeff Flake visited Havana recently, promoting legislation to let Americans travel freely to Cuba, Fidel Castro had his top aides meet with Flake to ask whether the measure could really pass. "Yes," Flake said, "and tell Castro that if he doesn't behave, we're going to bring down the whole darn embargo...
...Everyone laughed, but it wasn't altogether a joke. The not so well-kept secret in Havana is that Castro, 75, has always been a fan of the 40-year-old U.S. trade embargo against his communist island. El bloqueo, as Cubans call the "blockade," has helped Castro deflect blame for his economic blunders. Whenever the U.S. has looked poised to end the embargo, Castro has managed to unleash an outrage that has kept it alive, as in 1996, when his air force shot down and killed four Cuban exiles from Miami flying unarmed small planes near Havana...
...Cuba each year. Sources close to the Cuban leader confide that in the past year, he has been feeling uncharacteristic pangs of regret about the island's wrecked economy and what it will say about his legacy as a 20th century populist icon. As a result, they say, Castro is finally, genuinely behind the anti-embargo push and doesn't want to botch it. "He knows this is the wave to be on now," says a high-ranking Cuban official...
...Staff cites the release of Vladimiro Roca as evidence that Castro will loosen these restrictions if free trade is opened between America and Cuba. But Roca was released only two months early from a five-year sentence, and of course the amnesty was perfectly timed for the media-frenzied visit by former president Jimmy Carter. The Staff’s naive optimism notwithstanding, the Varela referendum will not be honored or upheld by Castro. In fact, the government is already harassing many of its signatories. Castro’s recent actions are media-savvy, but they are not real steps...