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Cuba
From AP at Excite: Oct 10, 2003 8:01 AM (ET)
Bush Seeks Ideas for Cuba Regime Change By GEORGE GEDDA
WASHINGTON (AP) - Eager to please a key Florida constituency, President Bush is asking top aides to produce recommendations for achieving a transition to democracy in Cuba after 44 years of communist rule. A small group of advisers, including Secretary of State Colin Powell, is being asked to provide advice on hastening what the administration calls the "inevitable democratic transition in Cuba." Administration officials said Thursday night that Bush planned to spell out his ideas in a Rose Garden ceremony Friday morning. "The president will talk about ways in which we can keep up the pressure on the Castro regime," said one official, asking not to be identified.
Scores of Bush supporters from Congress, the Miami community of Cuban exiles and other anti-Castro groups were to be briefed in advance of the official announcement. The administration has been signaling for weeks that new steps concerning Cuba were being planned. ...
From Reuters: Fri October 10, 2003 12:09 PM ET
Bush Unveils Measures to Weaken Cuba's Castro
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Bush vowed on Friday to try to weaken Cuban leader Fidel Castro's power, and said the United States would crack down on travel to the country and make it easier for dissidents to flee. "Clearly, the Castro regime will not change by its own choice," Bush told a gathering at the White House Rose Garden. "But Cuba must change." ...
In May 2002, Bush said he would be willing to ease American sanctions on the communist-run country if the government took steps toward democracy such as offering "free and fair elections" and if it worked toward opening its economy to free-market changes. "The dictator has responded with defiance and contempt and a new round of brutal oppression," Bush said. ...
A comment from The Hindu on Frontline (India): November 22 - December 05, 2003
The Bush plan for Cuba By SHARMINI PERIES in Toronto
President Bush's recently unveiled plan to bring down the Fidel Castro government in Cuba bears close resemblance to the one for Iraq and is designed with the 2004 Presidential election in focus.
FOREGROUNDING the 2004 United States election campaign, President George W. Bush announced on October 10 before a gathering of anti-Castro Cuban-American constituents at a ceremony in the White House's Rose Garden that the U.S. administration was planning to bring down President Fidel Castro's Cuban government. In the statement, Bush officially directed his Secretary of State Colin Powell and Cuban-born Housing Secretary Mel Martinez to chair a panel that would "plan for the happy days when Castro's regime is no more... The transition to democracy and freedom will present many challenges to the Cuban people and to America, and we will be prepared." ...
From AP at The San Francisco Chronicle: Saturday, January 3, 2004 06:40 PST
U.S. expels Cuban diplomat, accusing him of associating with criminal elements
By GEORGE GEDDA, Associated Press Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The State Department has expelled a Cuban diplomat, accusing him of associating with criminal elements, U.S. officials said. The expulsion of Roberto Socorro Garcia, a third secretary at the Cuban mission in Washington, was carried out last month without announcement. ... about 20 Cuban diplomats have been expelled since late 2002 ...
President Bush said in October that the United States would tighten enforcement of its economic embargo on Cuba and provide a haven to more fleeing Cubans while planning for the day when Castro's rule comes to an end. ... Bush said the United States also would step up enforcement of existing restrictions against the communist government, such as the ban on American tourism, and would increase inspections of people and shipments going to and from Cuba.
From Reuters at Wired News: Monday, January 12, 2004 9:45 p.m. ET
Bush Attacks Cuba and Other Latin America Rivals By Kieran Murray
MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) - President Bush told Latin Americans on Monday they had a "God-given right" to freedom in a sharp attack on Cuba's Fidel Castro and other rivals in a region where anti-U.S. sentiment is rising. ... "Through our democratic example, we must continue to stand with the brave people of Cuba, who for nearly half a century have endured the tyrannies and repression," Bush said at the summit's inaugural ceremony. "Dictatorship has no place in the Americas. We must all work for a rapid, peaceful transition to democracy in Cuba," he said. In recent years leftist leaders have been elected in Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela. All three countries have established friendly ties with Castro, who has held power for 45 years despite U.S. efforts to oust and isolate him. Washington's support for sometimes brutal governments in Latin America during the Cold War left many distrustful of U.S. leadership and anti-American sentiment surged last year with the war against Iraq.
Bush hopes to win back some friends and isolate his rivals at this summit in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey. He also delivered a tough message to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who has resisted opposition demands for a referendum on his rule, and Haiti's President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, whose rule has been rocked by violent protests and allegations of government repression. ...
From Reuters at Lycos News: Friday, January 30, 2004 4:47 p.m. ET
Castro: 'I Will Die Fighting' if U.S. Invades Cuba By Anthony Boadle
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuban President Fidel Castro vowed on Friday to die fighting "with a gun in my hand" if the United States invaded Cuba to overthrow his communist government. "I don't care how I die, but for sure, if they invade us, I will die fighting," the 77-year-old leader said at a meeting of anti-free trade activists from across the hemisphere. ... Earlier this month, Bush Administration officials accused Cuba of joining forces with Venezuela's leftist government to destabilize democratic governments in Latin America. President Bush last year named a commission to speed up a post-Castro transition to democratic rule in Cuba, aggravating fears in Havana that Cuba could be the next on Bush's list for a regime change after Iraq. ...
From the U.S. Newswire: 2/20/04 7:09:00 PM
DeLay: Evil Will Not Stand in Baghdad, or Havana; Honors Victims of Communism in Memorial Cubano Address
MIAMI, Feb. 20 /U.S. Newswire/ -- House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-Texas) today delivered an impassioned speech denouncing Fidel Castro's terrorist regime and honoring thousands of victims of communist violence and oppression at el Memorial Cubano in Miami, Fla. "Humanity has known it by many names -- Nazism, fascism, Communism, terrorism. But it is one and the same evil, inhuman ideology -- no matter what language it speaks, or what uniform it wears," DeLay said. "The war on terror is a war against evil, and it is therefore a war against Fidel Castro," DeLay said. "Freedom and terrorism cannot coexist, and evil will not stand. And if it will not stand in Baghdad, Kabul, Tehran, or Ramallah, then it will not stand in Havana." ... "If the war on terror is going to be won, it must be won in this hemisphere first, and if it is going to be won in this hemisphere, then Castro must go," DeLay said. "As long as George W. Bush is in the White House and I am the Majority Leader in the House, the United States will never lift the embargo while Castro remains in power." ...
From The Daily Telegraph (Australia): April 1, 2004
Cuba 'bioterror threat to US' From correspondents in Washington
A TOP Bush administration diplomat has renewed and refined charges that Cuba is a "terrorist and (biological weapons) threat to the United States" amid the ongoing US war on terror, and as the US presidential election looms. John Bolton, undersecretary of state for arms control and international security, told Congress in written testimony yesterday that the island "remains a terrorist and (biological weapons) threat to the United States". "I believe the case for the existence of a developmental Cuba (biological weapons research and development) effort is strong," Bolton said. Bolton's charge came as part of a 25-page written statement on the development and spread of nuclear, chemical and biological arms, despite the fact the Bush administration gently backed away from the same allegations after Bolton made them in May 2002 and did not offer evidence. ...
From Reuters UK: Thu 1 April, 2004 03:17
Cuba rejects U.S. bioweapons charge
HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba has rejected a renewed accusation by a senior U.S. official that it is developing biological weapons and said the charges were an attempt to seek a pretext to invade the communist-run island. ...
From Reuters: Thu May 6, 2004 02:47 PM ET
Bush pledges tougher policy toward Cuba's Castro By Caren Bohan
WASHINGTON, May 6 (Reuters) - President George W. Bush on Thursday pledged steps to try to hasten the end of Cuban President Fidel Castro's rule, such as stepping up anti-Castro propaganda and helping dissidents, as he played to Cuban-American voters in Florida. Among the actions Bush advocated were efforts to boost access by Cubans to anti-Castro broadcasts by the United States and a crackdown on dollars flowing to Havana intended for the relatives of Cuban Americans. ...
From AFP at IHT: Wednesday, May 12, 2004
Cuba announces plans to counter embargo
From AFP at SpaceWar: May 12, 2004
Cuba steps up military preparations fearing US invasion near
TEGUCIGALPA (AFP) Cuba has stepped up military preparations fearing an invasion by the United States "is closer than ever," Cuba's ambassador to Honduras Alberto Gonzalez said Wednesday. ...
At the Centre for Research on Globalisation: 16 May 2004
Speech of Fidel Castro regarding Bush's "War on Terrorism"
From The BBC: Wednesday, 27 October, 2004, 04:52 GMT 05:52 UK
Cuba move triggers war of words
The US and Cuba have launched into another bitter war of words following Cuba's decision to ban transactions in dollars on the island. ...
From Granma International: October 28, 2004
179 countries vote against the blockade at the UN
Havana - For the 13th consecutive time, the UN General Assembly has passed a resolution calling for an end to the US blockade of Cuba. The voting on the resolution was 179 countries in favor and four against (The United States, Israel, the Marshall Islands and Palau), while Micronesia abstained. ...
From AFP at SpaceWar: Dec 14, 2004
Cuba hails wargame warning to US
HAVANA (AFP) - Cuba pressed on Tuesday with its biggest military exercises in almost 20 years, with 400,000 reservists joining regular forces and millions of civilians in wargames which the authorities say are to deter a US invasion. About 100,000 Cuban regular troops are also taking part in the "Bastion 2004" exercises which started Monday, officials said. ...
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