Word: cuba
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...Jake Colvin, director of the Washington-based USA*Engage, which supports dismantling the embargo, insists the resignation "brings a new urgency for President Bush to show that America is open to a different relationship with Cuba. If we do not, the U.S. risks alienating another generation of Cubans and pushing the Cuban government farther into the arms of countries like Venezuela and China...
...stands to tower over diminished fidelistas like Alarcon and Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque. Perez, 42, once considered a leader of the youthful fidelista hardliners known as los Taliban, has seen his stature particularly reduced under Raul - to the point that he was compelled late last year to endorse Cuba's acceptance of an international human rights accord, something Fidel had criticized as a violation of the island's sovereignty but which Raul had decided was necessary to begin thawing relations with the U.S. and the European Union. (Lest anyone think the move means greater respect for human rights...
Raul has called on Cubans in the past year to engage in more open debate - and he has made overtures to Washington, which maintains a 46-year-old trade embargo against Cuba. But he still has a reputation from his earlier years as Fidel's political enforcer, and few expect him to pursue any meaningful political reforms now or even when Fidel eventually dies. Instead, he is widely expected to push China-style economic liberalization, the kind of pragmatic programs, like opening to foreign tourism investment, that he has orchestrated in small, subtle increments to help Cuba survive post-Cold...
...that, however, won't do much to appease the Bush Administration. While on his trip to Africa today, President Bush reiterated his stance that as long as either Castro brother is running Cuba, the U.S. won't consider opening trade or diplomatic relations with the island. While Bush acknowledged that Fidel's resignation could be a step toward a "democratic transition" in Cuba, he insisted that Washington will have to see "free and fair elections" in Cuba before the U.S. softens its stance, "not those staged elections the Castro brothers try to pass off as free and fair." Havana seemed...
Raul's ascension, however, is sure to amplify the U.S. debate over whether to begin engaging Cuba more deeply in order to be better positioned to help a democratic transition once the Castros are gone. (A new U.S. Administration could mean a change in American policy toward the island.) Meanwhile, Fidel's resignation is both a boon and a bitter pill to Cuban exiles in Miami, who are relieved to see him out of power but unhappy that he, and not they, got to choose the timing of his exit, and that his regime will linger on in large part...