CUBA: US bipartisan delegation meets with Cuban Minister of Foreign Affairs in Havana

The largest delegation from the US Congress to visit Cuba since 1959 continued a three-day visit on Saturday (December 16). The bipartisan group privately met with Cuban Foreign Relations Minister, Felipe Perez Roque, hoping to apply some changes in the measures kept by their country against the Caribbean island. The ten congressmen arrived in Havana on Friday (December 15) seeking to open a dialogue with the communist government of acting President Raul Castro despite White House opposition to such contacts. The stepping aside of ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has not appeared in public for four months, has set the stage for ending political hostility dating from the start of the Cold War, they said. The six Democrats and four Republicans hope to meet with Raul Castro, who took over July 31 after his brother underwent emergency surgery for an undisclosed illness. Raul Castro two weeks ago said he was open to negotiations with Washington to settle the long-standing dispute that emerged after the Castro seized power in a 1959 revolution and turned Cuba into a Soviet ally. The Bush administration, which opposes a "dynastic succession" from one Castro brother to the other, has rejected talks in the absence of democratic reform to Cuba's one-party state. The State Department opposed the trip, delegation members said. The visiting legislators said momentum was gathering in Washington for a new chapter in ties with Cuba and changes in U.S. policy are likely next year under a Democrat-controlled Congress. Assistant Secretary of State Tom Shannon, the top U.S. diplomat for Latin America, on Wednesday (December 13) criticized a greater crackdown on dissent since the younger Castro took over. Massachusetts Democrat Delahunt declined to comment on whether the delegation will meet with Cuban dissidents who are seeking democratic changes. The visitors are co-chairmen of the Cuba Working Group in the House of Representatives that plans to work to relax a ban on travel and a cap on family remittances to Cuba next year. They favor engagement and trade with Cuba rather than sanctions as the best U.S. policy to foster change on the island. Delegation members said their requested meeting with Raul Castro has not been confirmed.

ITN Source | December 17, 2006

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