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In Their Own Words: The World Reacts to President Carter's Historic Trip

In Their Own Words: The World Reacts to President Carter's Historic Trip
Excerpts from News Articles, Editorials, and Television Coverage

"Last week former President Jimmy Carter, in an act of considerable courage, stood before Fidel Castro, the Cuban people and the world and declared that it was time for a change in U.S.-Cuba relations. To get beyond the 'destructive state of belligerence' of the past 42 years, Carter argued that both Cuba and the United States would have to make concessions if a new relationship were to be possible. Carter did not pull any punches for Castro. On live television, he told the Cuban people that it was time for them to have, and exercise, the same political rights enjoyed by others throughout the Western Hemisphere and the world….

Newsday (New York, NY), May 22, 2002.
By Terry L. McCoy, Professor of Latin American Studies and Political Science at the University of Florida.




"Jimmy Carter('s)…ability to make high principle the foundation of a pragmatic approach to foreign policy will give him a lasting place in the ranks of American statesmen."

The Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2002: Commentary by Walter Russell Mead.




Senator Barbara Boxer of California…and senators Christopher Dodd of Connecticut and Byron Dorgan of North Dakota praised the recent historic trip to Havana by former President Jimmy Carter, supporting his recommendation that the embargoes be lifted. Referring to Carter's visit, Dodd said, it "demonstrated that an honest and respectable discussion of differences between the United States and Cuba is possible."

CNN, May 20, 2002.

"Carter's speech achieved one quick result: it alerted the Cuban people, watching him on television, of an effort underway to bring democratic reform to their country. 'The single most important thing he did was mention the Varela Project,' said an official of the Cuban American National Foundation.

The San Francisco Chronicle, May 19, 2002; By Chris Matthews.

"He showed that you can do more in four days of dialogue than you could do in 40 years of restrictions in terms of taking steps to improve the situation in Cuba," said Brian Alexander, a spokesman for the Cuba Policy Foundation.

"The speech seemed to take the air out of the room. Cuban dictator Fidel Castro had invited Jimmy Carter to visit his Communist island and vowed Carter could say anything he wanted. That's exactly what the one-time Georgia peanut farmer and former president did.

You could have heard a pin drop. It was an unprecedented moment in the past 43 years of Cuban history: Fidel Castro sat-with his mouth shut-as another world statesman criticized the revolution and the nation that Castro has built and has stamped so indelibly with his own intellect and personality.

It was a dramatic, even seismic event in Cuba…"

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, May 19, 2002; By Mike Williams and Moni Basu.

"Carter's trip sends a potent symbolic message to Cubans and-perhaps more significant for Americans-to the U.S. government and Congress. Its long-term consequences could be far-reaching, perhaps leading to a breakup of the absurd Cold War barriers that continue to impede the flow of trade, travel and ideas between the United States and Cuba."

Newsday (New York, NY), May 20,2002; By Adrian Peracchio, Newsday
Editorial Board.

"In the same way the Pope's trip (in 1998) left a legacy behind in terms of more space for the church, this trip produced a certain amount of goodwill," said Larry Birns, director of the Council on Hemispheric Affairs.

Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, said Carter managed to do "what no Cuban has been able to do in 43 years and that is speak about democracy, human rights and civil liberty. That is an accomplishment that will have repercussions in Cuba."

The Miami Herald, May 20, 2002; By Nancy San Martin.

"Mr. Carter was not afraid to say things as they are," said Alejandra, who only reluctantly provided even her first name. (She) said young people like her are hungry for more. "We want a good job, we want a business, we want to be able to go to the United States and then come back to our own country."

She hopes Carter has planted a seed for change. "Mr. James Carter has done something important-something I think will allow me someday to give you my whole name."

Associated Press, May 18, 2002; By Anita Snow.

"Something has changed: The Cuban people have met hope," said Oswaldo Paya, coordinator of the Varela Project, a grass-roots democracy effort that Carter praised in a speech to the Cuban people Tuesday night. The project has become a symbol of opposition to the 43-year-rule of President Fidel Castro.

The Washington Post, May 17, 2002; By Kevin Sullivan.

"We've been overwhelmed by the positive impact of his visit," said Vladimiro Roca, who was released from prison just two weeks ago after serving five years for his opposition to Fidel Castro's government.

"I believe that after this visit, nothing will be the same for us. (Now) the people know there are opinions other than those of the government," he said.

The Atlanta Journal and Constitution, May 17, 2002; By Mike Williams.

The speech reminds us that not since Harry Truman has a Democratic president left such an enduring impact on American foreign policy…every American administration since (President Carter's) has made human rights a central element of its diplomacy.

The Wall Street Journal, May 16, 2002; By Walter Russell Mead.

The most helpful thing Carter did may have been to meet with Cuban dissidents, a term that was up to now an oxymoron. Heretofore people pleading publicly for democracy and reform of Cuba's Soviet-style misrule would have been clapped in jail…But the members of the Varela Project proudly showed Carter a petition bearing 11,000 names of people who want a new day, and pointed out to him that the Cuban constitution allows citizens to petition the government if 10,000 signers can be found. Castro let it all happen.

The Washington Post, May 16,2002; Editorial by Mary McGrory.

"The real issue is the system in Cuba," said Vicki Huddleston, the top U.S. diplomat in Havana. "Carter was immensely courageous, clear and eloquent about that."

The Washington Post, May 16, 2002; By Kevin Sullivan.

Considering how hard the United States and Cuba have worked to torment one another over the last four decades, it was startling the other day to see Jimmy Carter in short sleeves and a baseball cap tossing the ceremonial first pitch at a game in Havana. Mr. Carter's visit to Cuba this week doesn't mean relations with Havana are about to come out of the ice age, but his trip has shown why it makes far more sense to engage in an open dialogue with Mr. Castro and his nation than to shun them as ideological lepers.

The New York Times, May 16, 2002; Editorial.

At the State Department, spokeswoman Lynn Cassel said Carter's speech-which was broadcast live on Cuban television and radio-eloquently and correctly focused on the lack of human rights, fundamental freedoms and democracy on the island and the steps that need to be made to bring Cuba into a democratic world."

Agence France Presse, May 16, 2002.

"It was an extraordinary moment, not just because of what Jimmy Carter had to say, but because of how and where he said it. With President Fidel Castro sitting in the front row, Carter addressed the Cuban people in Spanish, his words broadcast live all over Cuba. He has come, he said, as a friend to share his vision of the future."

CNN Daybreak, May 15, 2002; Lucia Newman, CNN Havana Bureau Chief.

Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle said after a meeting with (President) Bush on Wednesday that the United States and Cuba "must tear down the barriers that do exist." He praised Carter for visiting Cuba.

Associated Press, May 15, 2002; By Carolyn Skorneck.

"Carter's words have surpassed all the expectations of the human rights and pro-democracy movement," veteran dissident activist Elizardo Sanchez told Reuters.

Reuters, May 15, 2002; By Anthony Boadle.

The headquarters of Cuba's blossoming democracy movement is a shabby bungalow in a poor neighborhood between Havana's monumental Plaza de la Revolucion and the main baseball stadium.

Until Jimmy Carter arrived and immediately summoned the Solidarity-style movement's leader to a breakfast meeting at his hotel this week, the house had been under strict surveillance.

"We are undergoing something in Cuba that has never happened before. Only in Poland did a popular worker's movement take hold," Oswaldo Paya, the coordinator of the grassroots challenge to Cuba's one-party state, said.

The Times (London), May 15, 2002; By James Bone.

(President Carter's) comments bolstered human rights activists on the island, and were cautiously welcomed by other Cubans.

"It was a breath of fresh air because it was from a man used to dialogue talking to a people used to monologues," Jose Pratts Soreol, a Cuban writer and intellectual, said in a telephone interview from his home. "He made the distinction between social achievements and individual rights. I agree that individual rights only enrich our social achievements. That is the vacuum we need to fill."

"It was an unprecedented speech that will go down in Cuban history," said Elizardo Sanchez, the island's leading human rights advocate who met with Mr. Carter on Monday morning. "Now the statesmen and other leaders in Havana and Washington must take seriously what this man proposed in such a good-faith manner."

The New York Times, May 15, 2002; By David Gonzalez.

"I appreciate President Carter's focus on human rights. I think that's important in Cuba, in a place where there (are) no human rights," (President George W.) Bush said during a joint appearance with visiting Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

Agence France Presse, May 15, 2002; By Olivier Knox.

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