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Castro promises Carter open access
Compiled from Times wires HAVANA -- Former President Jimmy Carter began a five-day visit to Cuba on Sunday with a promise from President Fidel Castro that he could inspect any of the island's biotechnology research facilities. The offer, made at a welcoming ceremony, seeks to blunt allegations by the State Department last Monday that Cuba had developed a limited capacity to make biological weapons and that it had shared biotechnology with "rogue" nations. Carter, who is here with a delegation from his Carter Center, had been scheduled to visit a genetic engineering facility that is a showcase for the Cuban government. "If you are interested and if you wish," Castro said, "you may have free and complete access, together with any specialists of your choosing, to that or any other of our most prestigious scientific research centers, some of which have been recently accused, just a few days before your visit, of producing biological weapons." Carter has a science background, but in nuclear technology. He has a bachelor's degree in science from the U.S. Naval Academy, and he did graduate work in nuclear technology and nuclear physics as an officer in the Navy. "We come here as friends of the Cuban people," Carter said, delivering his arrival speech in Spanish, as he was greeted at the Havana airport by Fidel Castro, becoming the first U.S. president to visit Cuba since President Coolidge 74 years ago. Although Carter's visit is private, it is the highest-level U.S. encounter with Castro in Cuba since the bearded, cigar-chomping rebel took power in the 1959 revolution. The visit is being watched closely by all sides of the intensely emotional debate about Cuba, which has colored U.S. politics and policy since the Eisenhower administration. Carter will give a live, nationally televised speech to the Cuban people Tuesday evening, and, as if to make sure ordinary Cubans don't miss it, Carter mentioned the time and place of the address at Sunday's arrival ceremony, which was televised live. Castro, wearing a gray pinstriped suit instead of his usual military fatigues, promised Carter that he would have "free and total access to anywhere you want to go." Addressing Carter as "your excellency," Castro said Carter was welcome to meet with all Cubans, "even those who do not share our struggle," a reference to the dissident human rights and religious leaders Carter plans to meet with on Thursday. Carter's visit comes two days after human rights advocates delivered petitions signed by more than 11,000 people asking for a referendum on greater economic and political freedoms and amnesty for political prisoners. Castro then led Carter and former first lady Rosalynn Carter to a black limousine for the ride to their hotel in Old Havana, a harbor-front neighborhood of cobblestones and meticulously restored colonial buildings that Carter later toured. The armored, Soviet-era Zil limousine was a gift to Cuba from then-Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev in the mid 1970s and is used only for the most distinguished of guests. "It's about a hundred years old, but it's the most comfortable we have," Castro told Carter as they walked to the limo. Carter entered Cathedral Square to the scattered applause of tourists, who were particularly scarce on Sunday. As he walked down cobblestone streets, a few curious Cubans looked down from their balconies. A violinist played Que Sera, Sera as the entourage walked inside the Hotel Ambos Mundos, once home to author Ernest Hemingway. Elaine George, an American tourist, leaned out from the bar and shouted out. "Jimmy Carter, you are one of the best presidents," she said. George, who is from the San Francisco area, said she was here despite the American travel ban. She said perhaps Carter's visit would help change that. "I hope it means something," she said. "I hope he tears down this wall between Cuba and the United States. I'm not supposed to be here, but I am." A few Cubans smiled and waved at Carter. "I'm happy to see him here," Alfredo Chaubin said. "He is the one American president who put the least pressure on Cuba. We wish him much health." Carter's trip is seen as a delicate chess match between two old masters, gray and wrinkled from the twin weights of age and power, who have played many times before. Castro, 75, the world's longest-serving head of state, has bedeviled 10 U.S. presidents. In 1980 Castro twisted comments by Carter into a pretext for clearing out prisons and mental wards and sending 125,000 Cubans floating off to the United States. Known as the Mariel boatlift, the crisis contributed to Carter's 1980 loss to Ronald Reagan. Carter, 77, is one of the world's most experienced and respected statesmen, spending the past two decades involved in human rights issues, elections and conflict mediation in some of the world's most troubled spots. Despite the Mariel incident, many historians regard Carter's presidential experience as a progressive time in relations with Cuba. In 1977 Carter lifted travel bans, which Reagan reimposed. Carter also negotiated agreements on fishing rights and maritime boundaries and secured Castro's release of 3,600 political prisoners. The two governments opened "interest sections" -- a step short of embassies -- in each other's capitals for the first time since relations were cut by Eisenhower in 1961. Castro, citing "an ocean of prejudices, misinformation and distrust" in dealings between Havana and Washington, praised Carter on Sunday for having "the courage to make efforts to change the course of those relations." Castro rejected suggestions from his opponents that his invitation to Carter was simply "a shrewd maneuver" with a "political purpose." Rather, he said, it was "deserved recognition of your attitude as president of the United States of America toward Cuba." "Daring to try to improve relations between those two countries deserves respect," Castro said, adding that he hoped no one would "question your patriotism" for visiting Cuba. Opponents of U.S. policy toward Cuba, specifically the four-decade-old economic embargo that is widely condemned around the world, hope Carter, who has called the embargo counterproductive, will publicly call for it to be lifted. Supporters of the embargo, including President Bush, hope that Carter will focus instead on Castro's human rights record, which includes control on expression of speech and assembly, no free elections, little free enterprise and a political-prisoner population that dissidents here estimate at 250. "We are eager to see first hand your accomplishments in health, in education and in culture," Carter said. But he added that he also intended to discuss with Castro, and with representatives of religious and human rights groups, "ideals that Rosalynn and I hold dear: peace, human rights, democracy and the alleviation of human suffering." "We understand that we have differences of opinion on some of these issues," Carter said. "But we welcome the opportunity to try to identify some points in common and some areas of cooperation." In perhaps the only surprise of the day, Carter mentioned that he and his wife had visited Cuba 47 years ago and were delighted to be back. Even some of his staff members had not known that the Carters had traveled to Cuba for a weekend vacation with another couple in the late 1950s before Castro's revolution. Carter said Castro invited him to Cuba when they met in Caracas, Venezuela, 14 years ago, then again in 2000 at the funeral of former Canadian premier Pierre Trudeau. Watching Carter's trip from the sidelines will be perhaps the most staunchly anti-Castro U.S. presidential administration. While fighting a global war on terrorism on the other side of the world, Bush has kept a close eye on Cuba. He has appointed several anti-Castro Cubans to high administration positions. He has given passionate speeches in favor of the embargo, despite clear majorities in both houses of Congress calling for easing restrictions on travel and the sale of food and medicine to Cuba. Bush is scheduled to give a speech May 20 announcing a new policy against Cuba, which many analysts following the process say is likely to include stepped-up efforts to provide cash and other help to Castro's dissident opponents in Cuba. Bush is said to be angry about Carter's trip, which is also opposed by most members of the anti-Castro Cuban-American lobby in Miami, a voting bloc that was key to Bush's election in 2000 and is critical to the political fortunes of Bush's brother, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush. -- Information from the Washington Post, New York Times and Associated Press was used in this report.
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