[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 38, Number 21 (Monday, May 27, 2002)]
[Pages 852-854]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks Announcing the Initiative for a New Cuba

May 20, 2002

    Bienvenidos. Welcome to the White House for the 100th anniversary of 
Cuban independence. Today we honor the ties of friendship and family and 
faith that unite the Cuban people and the people of the United States. 
We honor the contributions that Cuban Americans have made to all aspects 
of our national life. And today I am issuing a proposal and a challenge 
that can put Cuba on the path to liberty.
    I appreciate our Secretary of State being here. He and I take this 
issue very seriously. He loves freedom as much as I love freedom. I want 
to thank Mel Martinez, a graduate of Pedro Pan, for being here. Mr. 
Secretary, you're doing a great job. Welcome.
    I appreciate members of the diplomatic corps who are here. Thank you 
all for coming; I'm honored to have you here.
    I want to thank Senator George Allen from the Commonwealth of 
Virginia. I want to thank Congressman Dan Burton; Mr. Chairman. And of 
course, two great Members of the United States Congress, people who have 
got a lot to offer, a lot of sound advice: Ileana Ros-Lehtinen and 
Lincoln Diaz-Balart. Thank you all for coming.
    Cuba's independence one century ago today was the inspiration of 
great thinkers such as Felix Varela. It was the result of determination 
and talent on the part of a great statesman such as Jose Marti and great 
soldiers such as Antonio Maceo and Maximo Gomez. Most of all, Cuba's 
independence was the product of the great courage and sacrifice of the 
Cuban people.
    Today, and every day for the past 43 years, that legacy of courage 
has been insulted by a tyrant who uses brutal methods to enforce a 
bankrupt vision. That legacy has been debased by a relic from another 
era who has turned a beautiful island into a prison.
    In a career of oppression, Mr. Castro has imported nuclear-armed 
ballistic missiles, and he has exported his military forces to encourage 
civil war abroad. He is a dictator who jails and tortures and exiles his 
political opponents. We know this. The Cuban people know this, and the 
world knows this. After all, just a month ago the United Nations 
Commission on Human Rights, in a resolution proposed by the nations of 
Latin America, called upon Cuba's Government to finally--to finally--
begin respecting the human rights of its people.
    Through all their pains and deprivation, the Cuban people's 
aspirations for freedom are undiminished. We see this today in Havana, 
where more than 11,000 brave citizens have petitioned their Government 
for a referendum on basic freedoms. If that referendum is allowed, it 
can be a prelude, a beginning for real change in Cuba.
    The United States has no designs on Cuban sovereignty. It's not a 
part of our strategy or a part of our vision. In fact, the United States 
has been a strong and consistent supporter of freedom for the Cuban 
people. And it is important for those who love freedom on that beautiful 
island to know that our support for them will never waver.
    Today I'm announcing an Initiative for a New Cuba that offers Cuba's 
Government a way forward towards democracy and hope and better relations 
with the United States.
    Cuba's scheduled to hold elections to its National Assembly in 2003. 
Let me read Article 71 of the Cuban Constitution. It says,

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``The National Assembly is composed of deputies elected by free, direct, 
and secret vote.'' That's what the constitution says. Yet since 1959, no 
election in Cuba has come close to meeting these standards. In most 
elections, there has been one candidate, Castro's candidate. All 
elections in Castro's Cuba have been a fraud. The voices of the Cuban 
people have been suppressed, and their votes have been meaningless. 
That's the truth. Es la verdad.
    In the 2003 National Assembly elections in Cuba, Cuba has the 
opportunity to offer Cuban voters the substance of democracy, not its 
hollow, empty forms. Opposition parties should have the freedom to 
organize, assemble, and speak, with equal access to all airwaves. All 
political prisoners must be released and allowed to participate in the 
election process. Human rights organizations should be free to visit 
Cuba to ensure that the conditions for free elections are being created. 
And the 2003 elections should be monitored by objective outside 
observers. These are the minimum steps necessary to make sure that next 
year's elections are the true expression of the will of the Cuban 
people.
    I also challenge Cuba's Government to ease its stranglehold, to 
change its stranglehold on private economic activity. Political and 
economic freedoms go hand in hand, and if Cuba opens its political 
system, fundamental questions about its backward economic system will 
come into sharper focus.
    If the Cuban Government truly wants to advance the cause of workers, 
of Cuban workers, surely it will permit trade unions to exist outside of 
Government control. If Cuba wants to create more good-paying jobs, 
private employers have to be able to negotiate with and pay workers of 
their own choosing, without the Government telling who they can hire and 
who they must fire.
    If Cuba wants to attract badly needed investment from abroad, 
property rights must be respected. If the Government wants to improve 
the daily lives of its people, goods and services produced in Cuba 
should be made available to all Cuban citizens. Workers employed by 
foreign companies should be paid directly by their employers, instead of 
having the Government seize their hard-currency wages and pass on a 
pittance in the form of pesos. And the signs at hotels reading 
``Solamente Turistas'' should finally be taken down.
    Without major steps by Cuba to open up its political system and its 
economic system, trade with Cuba will not help the Cuban people. It's 
important for Americans to understand: Without political reform, without 
economic reform, trade with Cuba will merely enrich Fidel Castro and his 
cronies. Well-intentioned ideas about trade will merely prop up this 
dictator, enrich his cronies, and enhance the totalitarian regime. It 
will not help the Cuban people. With real political and economic reform, 
trade can benefit the Cuban people and allow them to share in the 
progress of our times.
    If Cuba's Government takes all the necessary steps to ensure that 
the 2003 elections are certifiably free and fair--certifiably free and 
fair--and if Cuba also begins to adopt meaningful market-based reforms, 
then and only then I will work with the United States Congress to ease 
the ban on trade and travel between our two countries.
    Meaningful reform on Cuba's part will be answered with a meaningful 
American response. The goal of the United States policy toward Cuba is 
not a permanent embargo on Cuba's economy. The goal is freedom for 
Cuba's people.
    Today's initiative invites the Cuban Government to trust and respect 
Cuban citizens. And I urge other democracies, in this hemisphere and 
beyond, to use their influence on Cuba's Government to allow free and 
fair National Assembly elections and to push for real and meaningful and 
verifiable reform.
    Full normalization of relations with Cuba--diplomatic recognition, 
open trade, and a robust aid program--will only be possible when Cuba 
has a new government that is fully democratic, when the rule of law is 
respected, and when the human rights of all Cubans are fully protected.
    Yet, under the Initiative for a New Cuba, the United States 
recognizes that freedom sometimes grows step by step, and we'll 
encourage those steps. The current of history runs strongly toward 
freedom. Our plan is to accelerate freedom's progress in Cuba in every 
way possible, just as the United States

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and our democratic friends and allies did successfully in places like 
Poland or in South Africa. Even as we seek to end tyranny, we will work 
to make life better for people living under and resisting Castro's rule.
    Today I'm announcing a series of actions that will directly benefit 
the Cuban people and give them greater control of their economic and 
political destiny. My administration will ease restrictions on 
humanitarian assistance by legitimate U.S. religious and other 
nongovernmental organizations that directly serve the needs of the Cuban 
people and will help build Cuban civil society. And the United States 
will provide such groups with direct assistance that can be used for 
humanitarian and entrepreneurial activities. Our Government will offer 
scholarships in the United States for Cuban students and professionals 
who try to build independent civil institutions in Cuba and scholarships 
for family members of political prisoners. We are willing to negotiate 
direct mail service between the United States and Cuba. My 
administration will also continue to look for ways to modernize Radio 
and TV Marti, because even the strongest walls of oppression cannot 
stand when the floodgates of information and knowledge are opened.
    And in the months ahead, my administration will continue to work 
with leaders all around our country, leaders who love freedom for Cuba, 
to implement new ways to empower individuals to enhance the chance for 
freedom.
    The United States will continue to enforce economic sanctions on 
Cuba and the ban on travel to Cuba until Cuba's Government proves that 
it is committed to real reform. We will continue to prohibit U.S. 
financing for Cuban purchases of U.S. agricultural goods, because this 
would just be a foreign aid program in disguise, which would benefit the 
current regime.
    Today's initiative offers Cuba's Government a different path leading 
to a different future, a future of greater democracy and prosperity and 
respect. With real reform in Cuba, our countries can begin chipping away 
at four decades of distrust and division. And the choice rests with Mr. 
Castro.
    Today, there is only one nation in our hemisphere that is not a 
democracy--only one. There is only one national leader whose position of 
power owes more to bullets than ballots. Fidel Castro has a chance to 
escape this lonely and stagnant isolation. If he accepts our offer, he 
can bring help to his people and hope to our relations. If Mr. Castro 
refuses our offer, he will be protecting his cronies at the expense of 
his people. And eventually, despite all his tools of oppression, Fidel 
Castro will need to answer to his people.
    Jose Marti said, ``Barriers of ideas are stronger than barricades of 
stone.'' For the benefit of Cuba's people, it is time for Mr. Castro to 
cast aside old and failed ideas and to start to think differently about 
the future. Today could mark a new dawn in a long friendship between our 
people, but only if the Castro regime sees the light.
    Cuba's independence was achieved a century ago. It was hijacked 
nearly half a century ago. Yet, the independent spirit of the Cuban 
people has never faltered, and it has never been stronger than it is 
today. The United States is proud to stand with all Cubans and all Cuban 
Americans who love freedom. And we will continue to stand with you until 
liberty returns to the land you love so well.
    Viva Cuba Libre.

Note: The President spoke at 10:15 a.m. in the East Room at the White 
House. In his remarks, he referred to President Fidel Castro of Cuba. He 
also referred to Operation Pedro Pan, a 1960s immigration program in 
which thousands of Cuban children were sent to the United States by 
their parents. The Office of the Press Secretary also released a Spanish 
language transcript of these remarks.