Carter, Castro to seek common ground (hardly a stretch)

HAVANA - One is a former Georgia peanut farmer who rose to the U.S. presidency. The other is a dogged revolutionary who snatched power in Cuba in 1959 and has held it ever since.

On Sunday, the two will meet. Former President Jimmy Carter will be the first American president - in or out of office - to visit Cuba in more than six decades, and when he shakes hands with Fidel Castro it will mark a clash of ideals.

Mr. Carter made human rights the cornerstone of his 1977-81 presidency. Mr. Castro, on the other hand, has been described by his critics as the "greatest human rights violator in the hemisphere."

But although the two leaders may be at odds over human rights, they have much in common. They oppose the American ban on trade with Cuba. They see themselves as defenders of the poor. They've worked to wipe out disease in the developing world. And they're both tireless - indeed, some call them workaholics.

Among Mr. Carter's plans during his six-day stay are two dinners with Mr. Castro, a walking tour of Old Havana, and trips to a medical school, an agricultural cooperative, a biotech institute, an AIDS clinic and a psychiatric ward.

Mr. Carter, 77, also will do something no current or former U.S. politician has done since at least 1959: He will address Cubans live on national television.

Vicki Huddleston, the top American diplomat in Havana, said she hopes Mr. Carter tells Cubans about the Varela Project, a petition drive aimed at bringing democracy to the country.

Cuban officials dismiss the project and say it has no support. But others call it the most important opposition campaign they've seen in more than 40 years.

"Already it is a success because over 10,000 Cuban citizens have risked their futures by signing a petition that calls for free speech ... private enterprise, release of political prisoners and an opening to democracy," Ms. Huddleston said.

"Unfortunately the government has already begun to try to discredit the project by falsely claiming its organizers are paid by the U.S. government. This is untrue. Project Varela is a homegrown project born of frustration with the present and hope for the future."

A security guard watches as Cuban activists, left to right, Oswaldo Paya, Andres Regis Iglesias, and Antonio Villa Sanchez, arrive to deliver more than 11,200 signatures to Cuba's National Assembly on Friday, May 10, 2002, in Havana. Known as Project Varela, the signature-gathering campaign is seen as the biggest homegrown, nonviolent campaign to force reforms in the government established by Fidel Castro 43 years ago. The petitions propose a referendum that would ask voters if they favor civil liberties like free speech, an amnesty for political prisoners, the right to start their own businesses. Spanish on box reads "Project Varela." (AP Photo/Jose Goitia)

While in Cuba, Mr. Carter is expected to meet with members of the political opposition, including Osvaldo Payá, head of the Varela Project; Vladimiro Roca, a human rights activist just released from jail - some say as a gift to Mr. Carter; and Elizardo Sánchez, director of the nongovernmental Cuban Commission of Human Rights and National Reconciliation.

However, in announcing his trip, Mr. Carter said he does not expect his visit to change the Cuban government.

"It is an opportunity to explore issues of mutual interest ... and to share ideas on how to improve the relationship between the United States and Cuba," he said.

Jennifer McCoy, director of the Americas Program at the Carter Center in Atlanta, said Mr. Carter "is looking forward to a full discussion" of the human rights situation in Cuba. But he "has no intention of entering into negotiations with the government of Cuba."

Mr. Carter and wife Rosalynn founded the Carter Center in 1982, and since then the nonprofit operation has pushed for better government, housing and medical care in more than 65 countries.

The former president travels to Cuba at a time of greater than usual tension between the United States and Cuba.

U.S. officials a week ago said they were concerned that Cuba was developing germ weapons and sharing its technology with "other rogue nations."

Cuban officials vehemently denied the charge and recently accused the State Department's new chief of hemispheric affairs, Otto Reich, of being an "unscrupulous and cynical ... liar."

Mr. Castro's supporters say they want to mend fences with the United States and believe that Mr. Carter can help in that cause.

It was Mr. Carter who pushed for normalization of diplomatic relations between the two countries in the 1970s. His administration began by relaxing laws preventing Americans from traveling to the island.

But negotiations between the countries fizzled after Mr. Castro allowed 125,000 Cubans to leave the island in what became known as the Mariel boatlift, named for the Cuban port city. Among the Cubans were criminals and mentally ill people, the State Department said, although Mr. Carter welcomed the refugees.

Mr. Carter lost his re-election bid - some say Mariel certainly hurt him - and President Ronald Reagan quickly clamped down on Cuba, tightening economic sanctions.

Still, Mr. Carter has continued to oppose sanctions against the country, and that has given him a certain bond with Mr. Castro.

The Cuban president formally invited Mr. Carter to travel to Cuba in October 2000 when the two attended the funeral for Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

Jorge Mas Santos, a Cuban-American leader in Miami, said he worries that Mr. Carter's trip will hurt the Cubans more than it will help them.

But Mr. Mas, chairman of the board of the anti-Castro Cuban American National Foundation, went to Atlanta this month and told Mr. Carter that he's willing to make a concession: He would support an immediate lifting of the embargo if Cuba frees all political prisoners, allows a free flow of information in and out of the island and holds free and fair elections by multiple political parties within 12 months.

Mr. Castro, 75, has said he will not negotiate any conditions for an end to the trade ban and resents U.S. efforts to interfere in Cuba's affairs.

The Cuban president also has denied violating basic rights and says his country's low infant mortality rate, free schooling and free medical care prove that his government has expanded, not restricted, freedom on the island.

Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said he believes that Cuba is not free but that Mr. Carter may be able to help bring change to the island.

"Jimmy Carter is the guy in America who put human rights on the map," he said. "I hope that he won't let his legacy be tarnished" by not pushing the issue with Mr. Castro.

A former senior State Department official with expertise in Latin America said he believes that Mr. Castro will get the best of the former Georgia governor.

"Of course Castro will use Jimmy. He is the master," the official said. "Jimmy Carter never had the rural slyness and urban malice of Fidel."

Fighting fear in Cuba Miami Herald-[Excerpt] And what a document the petitioners signed. A widely supported petition is the only legal method by which to generate citizen-sponsored legislative change, according to Cuba's constitution. The petition asks the National Assembly to consider laws guaranteeing economic, social and political freedoms. Among those are free speech, free markets and assembly; free and fair elections and freedom for political prisoners.

In short, the project -- named for a celebrated 19th Century Cuban priest who advocated basic freedoms -- aims to jump-start a transition to a democratic society. Much credit is due, not only to those who signed, but also to the courageous Cuban dissidents who conceived and led the massive effort, notably Oswaldo Payá, head of the Christian Liberation Movement. Commendably, Elizardo Sánchez, of the Cuban Commission on Human Rights, Gustavo Arcos, of the Cuban Human Rights Committee, and Héctor Palacios, of the Democratic Solidarity Party also supported the Varela Project early on.

Mr. Páya recently described how volunteers seeking signatures persisted despite thrashings, detentions and threats. They've had to hide the sheets to prevent Cuban security agents from destroying them. The lengths to which these activists have gone and the astounding numbers of Cubans who joined them, show how ripe Cuba is for change. Moreover, the 15,000 signatures of support for Varela Project that were collected in Miami shows the goodwill of many Cuban exiles.

Rather than accept a dictator's eventual death as the only path toward freedom, Cubans are practicing the art of the possible on the island. Whether or not the regime acts on the Varela petition, the effort is a boost to Cuba's nascent civil society and has begun to dispel hopelessness and fear. Cubans on the island, with support from the diaspora, can and will lead way to freedom. Be not afraid [End Excerpt]

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Anti-Castro Forces Mount Petition Drive [Excerpts] "The Varela Project is the blooming of the Cuban human rights movement," Huddleston said. "Project Varela is the voice of over 10,000 Cubans using nonviolent and legal means to make their lives better through gaining a voice in how they are governed." For Idelfonso Brooks, 59, a retired Cuban naval officer, working against the government he once supported has resulted in harassment from the state security police. Brooks, a member of Paya's Christian Liberation Movement who collected signatures for the project, said his problems started in February 2001, when police left a citation on his front door, summoning him for questioning. He said when he arrived, police chastised him for being involved with Paya and the Varela Project. He said they asked how a man who had spent almost 30 years in the navy, then more than a decade working in another government department, could "turn [his] back on the revolution."

On New Year's Day, he received another summons. This time, he said, police stood him against a wall in the station, and screamed and cursed at him. He said they called him and Paya homosexuals. They called him a liar and a traitor. They scribbled "criminal" on a piece of paper and made him wear it on his chest. They threw him into a cell and kept him in custody for nearly seven hours. "They said they were going to hurt my son and my granddaughter, who live in Miami," said Brooks, a small man whose severe vision problems forced him to retire early.

"If I had any doubt about what I was doing in this movement, I didn't anymore," Brooks said, bursting into deep, uncontrollable sobs. "I never in my whole life thought that the revolution I dedicated my life to could do something like this," he said. "I feel so guilty. We Cubans have hurt so many other Cubans. After 43 years [of Castro], I have only suffering and I see no future. But maybe if this project works we will have reconciliation. All this hate must end." ……..

Paya said one more strategic obstacle looms: The National Assembly is now saying that all 10,000 signers must appear before a notary public to notarize their signatures. Paya said he had a strategy for dealing with that, but would not reveal it until the signatures arrive at the assembly. Asked if he were dreaming to think that he could outmaneuver Castro, Paya smiled. "If you don't have dreams, you can't get results," he said. [End Excerpts]

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Cuban Activists Deliver Petitions Demanding Referendum on Reforms [Excerpt] The petitions propose a referendum that would ask voters if they favor civil liberties like free speech, an amnesty for political prisoners, the right to start their own businesses. Cuba's constitution says the National Assembly should schedule a national referendum if it receives the verified signatures of 10,000 legal voters.

There was no immediate response from Castro's government to the move. Asked by reporters in April about the campaign, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said he doubted it will succeed and he accused its organizers of being on the U.S. government payroll. Campaign coordinator Oswaldo Paya of the Christian Liberation Movement and two other men, identified as Antonio Villa Sanchez and Andres Regis Iglesias, entered the offices of the National Assembly shortly before 11 a.m. with two white boxes filled with the petitions. The words "Citizen Petition" could be seen on the side of the boxes.

Paya, who says the project has received no money from any government or group outside Cuba, has said state security agents have harassed the petition drive, particularly as the campaign was near its goal. He said agents had confiscated several thousand signatures, but volunteers had gone out and collected more. Carter, who arrives Sunday at Castro's invitation, plans to meet with Cuban activists to discuss human rights and religious matters next Thursday, his staff has said. A visit with the organizers of Project Varela is considered likely. [End Excerpt]

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