Word: cubans
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...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...
...lately there has been a seismic shift in his thinking that could accelerate the anti-embargo movement in Washington and open the doors to hundreds of thousands of American visitors to 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...
...didn't explode when Washington dumped hundreds of al-Qaeda prisoners at the U.S. naval base on Cuba's Guantanamo Bay this year? And why didn't he burn like a lighted Cohiba last week when visiting ex-President Jimmy Carter lectured about human rights on live Cuban TV and urged Castro to respect a referendum bid by dissidents seeking more freedoms? Because he knew Carter would make an equally strong call for the U.S. to lift the embargo...
Nevertheless, Carter’s recent proclamation that he does not believe Cuba is collaborating with terrorist states in potentially dangerous research is not helpful; he should avoid jumping to unsubstantiated conclusions, as there is no way for him to know what Cuban scientists are doing behind the scenes...
...leading political dissident Vladimiro Roca on May 5. The outlook for democracy in Cuba and for improved relations with the U.S. is hopeful. Ending a 40-year trade and travel embargo that has outlived its usefulness would be an important way to relieve one more burden on the Cuban people...