01 December 1997
TRENDS: U.S. CUBA POLICY: DOES IT 'STRENGTHEN' CASTRO?
A review of foreign comment over the past two months showed that an overwhelming majority of observers continued to oppose Fidel Castro's regime and to hold that current U.S. policy toward that island nation is "hypocritical" and serves only to "strengthen" Mr. Castro. Writers often argued that it was better to deal with Cuba along less confrontational lines, so as to promote that country's transition into what they hope will be a democratic post-Castro era. -- The bulk of editorial reaction on Cuba centered around two recent developments: the Nov. 5 vote at the UN calling for an end to the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba and the Seventh Ibero-American summit held early November on Venezuela's Isla Margarita. Analysts judged that the UN resolution and the Ibero-American summit's opposition to the U.S.' anti-Castro measure, Helms-Burton, highlighted the widespread sense that U.S. sanctions have not undermined the Communist regime but have brought untold misery to the Cuban people. Brussels's independent Catholic De Standaard maintained that the U.S. posture "consolidates Castro's position as protector against U.S. 'aggression'" and allows him "to shelve reforms...by focusing on the American threat." Caracas's national business Economia Hoy decried the UN vote as "a great victory for the socialist Cuban regime...served on a silver platter by the U.S. itself because of the illegality and irrationality of its Cuban policy." In independent Publico of Guadalajara, Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes insisted that Washington's approach "sadly delays" that island's democratic evolution. One Cuban daily rejoiced that both the UN action and the summit revealed that Washington has become the "lonely ranger" on the international scene when it comes to its behavior towards Havana. -- The reception accorded Chinese President Jiang Zemin during his October stay in Washington sparked another round of denunciations of what pundits viewed as the contradictory U.S. treatment of China and Cuba--two countries whose Communist, "authoritarian" regimes "violate human rights and suppress fundamental freedoms." Urging a review of U.S. Cuba policy, center-right, pro-government Correio Braziliense of Brasilia declared, "The Cold War is over and there are no reasons at all to keep barring one country in the Americas from global policy." -- Journalists concluded that Mr. Castro has failed to "deliver on his promises"--made at the 1996 Ibero-American summit--to hold "free, pluralistic" elections. His unyielding opposition to a democratic opening in Cuba, said conservative, business El Observadorof Montevideo, led to his "isolation" at Isla Margarita, since the anti-Helms-Burton stance was taken out of "solidarity" with "the Cuban people, rather than Castro's regime." Castro critics seemed increasingly aware of the deplorable state of Cuba's economy and its people's disenchantment with the "Revolucion." Madrid's liberal El Pais was one of several publications describing Cuba as "a land of informers and corruption...and of unbearable poverty for the majority." This survey is based on 35 reports from 27 countries, Oct. 10-Nov. 28. EDITOR: Mildred Sola NeelyTo Go Directly To Quotes By Region, Click Below LATIN AMERICA AND CARIBBEAN CUBA: "Cuba Is A Menace...Cuba Is A Menace..." An op-ed piece by Mario Jorge Munoz ran in Cuban Young Communists' Weekly Juventud Rebelde (11/16): "Nazi propaganda minister Goebbels believed that a lie repeated becomes a truth. His outstanding pupils in Washington have often followed this principle, especially in the last few years, with Internet and satellite television facilitating the dissemination of their messages.... [Now they say Cuba is] 'a menace' to the national security of the greatest world power, according to the provisions of the Graham Amendment, one of the several documents that most congressmen know nothing about but are, however, approved by the U.S. Congress. [The U.S. secretary of defense] 'will also have to assess the outcomes of the investigation and report to the almighty Congress about the plans of the U.S. Army to counteract any 'Cuban menace.' "The worst thing about the Graham Amendment is that it will be regarded as a categorical truth needing no verification. That is, in strategic terms, it becomes the legal instrument to justify any armed aggression against Cuba.... The Graham Amendment has brought the Cuba-U.S. conflict to quite a difficult point, especially concerning those in Congress who advocate changes in the policy towards Cuba. The message might as well be: 'Anyone who defends Cuba may be defending the nation that poses a danger to the national security of his country.' The clash is thus reminiscent of the most corrosive Cold War days." "The Lonely Ranger" L zaro Barredo Medina wrote in Cuban Communist Workers' Weekly Trabajadores (11/17): "Those who still cling to the idea of isolating Cuba to create a domestic state of opinion and seek international support to blackmail and pressure become ever more discredited. This was proved by the way the international community massively voted at the United Nations, for the sixth consecutive time, against the criminal U.S. blockade policy against Cuba. It was also demonstrated with the Yankee diplomatic failure at the recent Iberoamerican Summit in Venezuela, after the unsuccessful visits to the area by U.S. envoys who wanted Cuba not to take part in the 1997 Margarita Island meeting and not to host the 1999 gathering.... The United States will do the utmost to have other nations join its policy but, in fact, it is turning into a lonely ranger." "Cuba Never Lies" The Miami Herald's reports on bombs exploding at Havana hotels sparked this piece in Cuban Central Communist Party Granma by Nicanor Le¢n Cotayo (11/19): "The Herald findings support, to a great extent, the Cuban police version that the bombs were the result of a joint endeavor by Salvadorans and Cubans abroad, and not the deed of opposition on the island. In my opinion, they prove other things too, because the investigation was done by a newspaper never known to be a friend of the Cuban revolution. It helps to better understand who some of the Cuban enemies are, in this case a bunch of Salvadoran evildoers and Cuban-born terrorists, who for years have walked around Miami unmolested.... They just do not care if they embarrass the White House which, on the one hand, boasts of being the enemy of world terrorism while, on the other, these actions against a neighboring nation are launched from U.S. territory itself. How can they explain this to the world? How can they explain this to the countries they have themselves included in their list of nations linked to terrorism?... The last message to he drawn from the journalistic inquiry of the Miami Herald is that, as reality has proved once again: Cuba never lies." "U.S. Attempts To Divide Iberoamerica" Ernesto Montero Acuna told readers of Cuban Communist Workers' weekly Trabajadores (11/3): "Stubborn in its attempts to divide Iberoamerica--although with scarce results so far--the United States has encouraged the anti-Cuban 'game' among participants in the seventh regional summit.... With democracy and human rights as banners, their propaganda is full of promises of free trade, economic 'aid,' or fierce military alliances. But despite these double-edged goals, a 'carrot project' is the only thing the U.S. president has so far been able to present in his Latin American trips. Owing to national contradictions, President Clinton is finding strong resistance to the approval of the 'fast track.'... The Iberoamerican summits...are a regional fora in which the United States does not take part--although it has tried to--in which Cuba is fully present, something that the northern power has been unable to prevent." "U.S. Economic Sanctions Hurt U.S. Business" In an op-ed piece, Garc¡a Almeida claimed in Cuban Communist Workers' weekly Trabajadores (11/3): "The business world is outraged with the U.S. Congress. The enforcement of unilateral economic sanctions to pressure the countries Washington believes to be hostile to its policy is finding certain domestic resistance. While U.S. enterprises are excluded from the profitable market in Iran, a French firm signed a contract of more than $2 billion for the exploitation of gas deposits there.... The general belief in the U.S. entrepreneurial sector is that unilateral sanctions are generally doomed to fail.... The tendency among U.S. congresspeople to prioritize positions in favor of sanctions, so as to win votes among the most conservative sectors, is beginning to have a high political cost.... Unilateral U.S. sanctions against other governments caused damages to U.S. enterprises estimated in $19 billion dollars in 1995." "Extreme Rightists Damaging Miami" Nicanor Leon Cotayo charged in Cuban Central Communist Party Granma(10/4): "The ideological terror that the so-called Cuban-American National Foundation has imposed in Miami has gone so far that it is already affecting even the economic interests of the [Cuban] community living in this area, including its entrepreneurial world. In 1991, the foundation and other extreme-right elements of Cuban origin used both money and pressures to make Dade County pass a resolution prohibiting the participation of Cuban artists there.... Before the [Midem] gathering opened, its sponsors were warned that if Cuban enterprises and artists were to participate, they would not get the $125,000 subsidy the area's Tourist Office allots for this kind of event.... Then we may wonder: What matters more there, the narrow and dirty interests of the group led by the so-called Cuban-American National Foundation, or those of the Miami community as a whole?... "Miami is not the foundation. Many people there, including those opposed to the Cuban Revolution, disagree with the way of thinking and behaving of this extreme right-wing faction, which also resorts to terrorism in order to achieve its goals. However, thanks to the money and the atmosphere of fear it has imposed there, its voice has been heard, and its will fulfilled. In general, there is no freedom of expression among the members of the Cuban-born community based in Miami." BARBADOS: "Need For An End To U.S. Orchestrated Hostilities Against Cuba" Columnsit Rickey Singh commented in the pro-government Bridgetown Nation (11/7), "The need for an end to U.S. orchestrated hostilities against the Cuban leader and his government was tacitly recognized last weekend in Cuba by a delegation of high-ranking retired U.S. military and academics before leaving the Caribbean nation after an official visit. Retired Admiral of the U.S. Navy, Eugene Carrol, who headed the delegation, said, according to a report by the Spanish news agency EFE, that Cuba poses no military threat to the United States. He also agreed that it would be good for his country and Cuba to solve their differences over the Guantanamo naval base." BOLIVIA: "Mas Canosa Is Gone, Without Defeating Castro" An editorial in left-leaning Hoy (11/25) judged, "Mas Canosa, with his intransigent and almost fanatical position, became one of the principal promoters of the Helms-Burton law and the preferred White House adviser during the past administrations for defining strategy against the Cuban government. But that extremism was strong indicator of a lack of lucidity vis-a-vis the Fidel Castro regime because the point of view of Mas Canosa did not change even with the end of the Cold War.... Thirty years after Che's death, Mas Canosa is gone, as the socialists say, the biggest reactionary who couldn't defeat Fidel Castro." BRAZIL: "Problems With U.S. Approach To Cuba" Brasilia's center-right, pro-government Correio Braziliense ran this editorial (11/11), "Two days ago the UN passed a resolution asking the United States to lift its trade embargo on Cuba.... Countries taking part in the VII Iberian-American Heads of State Meeting announced that they would do the same.... The criticisms are not directed at the Helms Burton Act alone...but are also aimed at the certification policy, by which the United States conditions economic help to Latin American countries' anti-drug performance.... The real issue at stake is not the actual merit of the measures, but their unilateral character. None of them...were discussed. They were simply imposed.... "The recent visit by China's president to the United States...highlighted the incoherence of the anti-Cuban arguments. Cuba's exclusion is justified as a sanction against a closed regime which curbs press freedom, does not respect human rights and does not allow elections. Since these accusations also apply to China, and [the United States] does not treat it like Cuba, it follows that restrictions on Cuba have deeper (and unjustifiable) reasons behind them. It is obvious that partnership with America is essential to continental policy.... This is the message from the partner-countries [of the hemisphere], which wish for more dialogue, support and cooperation, but which also reject tutelage." "Cuba...And China" An editorial center-right, pro-government Correio Braziliense (11/4) stressed, "The visit of China's President Jiang Zemin to the United States is one of the most important contemporary diplomatic happenings.... One cannot but praise the closer relationship and see it as a positive development for the world. However, one cannot also but highlight the contrast this creates in relation to another country, surely of lesser economic and geopolitical importance and currently on the U.S.' diplomatic Index: Cuba. The arguments used by the United States to support Cuba's estrangement from the continental [community]--an authoritarian regime which violates human rights and suppresses fundamental freedoms--are all present to a more pronounced degree in China. To invoke them in relation to the one and discount them in relation to the other shows an insincere intent.... "The Cold War is over and there are no reasons at all to keep barring one country in the Americas from global policy. Even if only the narrow-minded goal of Castro's downfall is considered, a policy of inclusion is more intelligent than one of exclusion. While the latter unites the Cuban society around the dictator; the first exposes the anachronism of his ideas for all to see and paves the way for reform. Let us hope that the visit of China's president will stimulate a review of this sectarian policy of the American diplomacy." "U.S. Hypocrisy" The New York correspondent for liberal Folha de Sao Paulo contributed (10/21) this byliner, "Rarely has the hypocrisy of U.S. official pronouncements exposed itself so clearly as when comparing what is said about Cuba and China. Cuba is treated like the continent's pariah for not being a democracy. Basic human rights are not respected in Cuba, so the United States even refuses to negotiate with this country. But China, like Cuba, is a...Communist state, where human rights are no more respected than in Cuba, [but it] gets more respect and attentions from the United States.... China is an enormous potential market for U.S. products. As for Cuba, its economic importance for the United States is almost negligible. It is easy to pretend to be the champion of morality. Besides, to be tough with Cuba produces good electoral bonuses.... "Cuba is close to Miami and was a destabilizing political force in South and Central America, essential to U.S. geo-polictis. They are all understandable reasons. But would it be necessary to keep the blockade against Cuba, that admittedly, decimates the economy of that country, with terrible social consequences? If Castro's death will change the country, wouldn't it be wiser to start building better economic conditions for its successor?" DOMINICAN REPUBLIC: "Why Deport Cubans Seeking Political Asylum?" Left-of-center tabloid El Nacional's editorial pointed out (11/3), "No matter what might lie beneath, the Dominican government makes a grave diplomatic and human mistake turning back to Cuba 23 of its citizens that had applied for political asylum.... All international agreements are overtly careful treating political refugees, and governments everywhere are conspicuously zealous fulfilling them. Nobody knows why the Dominican government sets such a negative precedent...by turning back, against their will, those who said that life there [in Cuba] was unbearable.... One would think that the Dominican government has been assured by the Cuban one that there will be no retaliation.... Anyway, because of its absurdity, this is incomprehensible. It is impossible to try to involve a third country- -the United States, for example--in this astonishing decision, unheard of in a democratic regime and even in the most execrable dictatorships." "Even Trujillo Took Care About Political Refugees" An editorial in left-of-center Hoy (11/3) concluded, "The Ministry of Immigration recalls, justifiably, the right countries have to apply their immigration laws...but whenever there is a demand for political asylum, one has to be very careful.... We remember, since the days when Salnave ruled Haiti, [that the Dominican Republic] did not return petitioners for asylum back to their nation of origin. Even the dictator Rafael L. Trujillo--who lacked all kinds of scruples--was not so frivolous with such sensitive matters.... What harm could 23 Cuban refugees cause in a country that holds hundreds of thousands of illegal Haitians, to mention just one nationality, who are allowed to roam freely for obviously political reasons?" "Time To Re-Establish Relations With Cuba" Leading-circulation, establishment Listin Diario (9/10) held in a lead editorial, "Let's be realistic. Cuba is there. It's time to reestablish diplomatic relations with that fellow Caribbean nation.... Times change and globalization must be spread out in all directions. Lots of fellow Latin American countries have diplomatic ties with Cuba without that entailing any problem for the region. To ignore Cuba, or any other Caribbean nation, is an absurdity that the Dominican Republic does not have to withstand." ECUADOR: "Why Cuba Must Deliver On Its Promises" Quito's centrist, leading El Comercio (11/9) observed, "Once again Cuba is in the spotlight at a Hispanic summit of leaders. Not only because of its notorious leader, Fidel Castro, but also for his successes and failures. Once again the summit is condemning the Helms-Burton law, the U.S. weapon against the island. This time the law is decried even more strongly than in Chile in 1996. "But Cuba will not enjoy the limelight too long. There are strong claims over its lack of fulfillment of agreements signed during the Latin American summit in Santiago. Various countries, Spain and Argentina among them, especially urge Cuba and Fidel to take concrete steps to advance democracy. One such recommended step refers to free, pluralistic and respected elections pursuant to the 1996 summit declaration. Here is where the obstacles for Cuba and its leader appear. He cannot oppose the principles approved by the Hispanic countries nor yield on such a crucial point. Cuba most certainly will avoid free elections, although this will complicate its desire to host the upcoming Hispanic countries summit. "As time goes by, the dilemma toughens for this Caribbean country. While it has taken some steps, for example, to stop its support for terrorism and has initiated economic reforms while trying to insert itself more into the international community, there are still issues it has not changed--elections, for example. It will have to do something to be able to host the upcoming summit." MEXICO: "What Would Che Guevara Say?" Mexican writer Carlos Fuentes declared in independent Publico of Guadalajara (10/22), "In Cuba, the remains of Ernesto Guevara were interred, and one has to wonder how he would react, this morally intransigent man, to seeing himself converted into, on the one hand, a pet of the consumer society that he detested, and on the other, a saint of a revolution that he would have a hard time recognizing. Ernesto Guevara is the saint of a revolution which gives everything to a bureaucratic minority and denies practically everything to a population which is left in limbo by the stupid U.S. policy of blockading (Cuba), which gives Fidel a national-patriotic weapon and sadly delays the democratic evolution which can only come from within Cuba, never from outside. To its old and mortal enemies China and Vietnam, the United States grants all kinds of economic favors. To Cuba, which never killed a single Yankee soldier, it gives Helms- Burton. Even so, what would Che Guevara say about a revolutionary society that lives on tourism by day and prostitution by night, calls out 'mambisas' to the hookers and denies its own people access to the best hotels, stores and restaurants?" TRINIDAD-TOBAGO: "Cuba As Seen By CNN" The mass-appeal Sunday Express (11/12) said in a column by Raoul Pantin that discussed a recent CNN-produced documentary on Cuba shown on the local channel 6 television: "A half-hour CNN documentary on Cuba today...went out of its way, I noticed, to present a 'balanced view.' You sort of expected the usual string of American propaganda cliches but there was, surprisingly, very little of that. CNN, which has an office in Havana, was careful to show as many sides as possible to the Cuban story.... "And then there's the real story that CNN went after: Where, 38 years later, is the Cuban revolution today and what of the future? But CNN left that question largely hanging in the air.... Dissidents are ritually rounded up, and always blamed on the United States which, 38 years later, is no less a bete noire for Cuba than in 1959 when Castro stormed to power. CNN explores some of the impact on Cuba by the decades-old American economic embargo. Drugs needed by sick children, for example, are hard to come by.... CNN points out that expensive consumer durables are available, but at U.S. dollar prices, which the average Cuban can hardly afford.... That is part of the current disgruntlement. Cuba has opened up to foreign investment, especially in tourism, and has 'liberalized' some pockets of private enterprise. But it is not enough and people are not happy about it. In Havana, there are misgivings, even cynicism about the future." URUGUAY: "Cuban Isolation" According to conservative, business El Observador's editorial (11/12), "Cuban isolation (at Isla Margarita) was only altered when the U.S. embargo was discussed. A growing number of Ibero-American countries have declared themselves against the blockade, which has been on for more than three decades and was reinforced by the recent and absurd Helms-Burton bill which penalizes third countries that do business with Cuba. Actually, Ibero-American solidarity supports the Cuban people, rather than Castro's regime, which survives owing to Washington's untimely naivete." "Summit Backfired On Castro" Conservative, business El Observador remarked (11/12), "The summit backfired on President Caldera and Fidel Castro. They both wanted to play a leading role but their game ran counter to them and the final declaration approved concepts opposite to their postures. On one hand, Castro adopted a more radical style than at other summits and claimed the Cuban revolution is a real democracy. This provoked severe reactions from the other chiefs of state, leaving Cuba as isolated as usual, despite the recent attempts for approach when Castro visited Uruguay in 1995. However, the inclusion of the rejection of the embargo in the final statement was more important for Castro than ideological discrepancies." VENEZUELA: "A Victory For Cuba, Served On A U.S. Platter" National business Economia Hoy's editorial (11/7) by Samuel Moncada called the UN General Assembly's November 5 vote condemning the U.S. blockade of Cuba "a great victory for the socialist Cuban regime...served on a silver platter by the United States itself because of the illegality and irrationality of its Cuba policy.... The economic embargo of Cuba is the result of placating an influential ethnic minority in the U.S. electoral system more than it is the projection of a coherent policy of human rights in the world by the United States, which explains its irrationality. These quirks of U.S. diplomacy might be understandable, but they weaken the position of the United States when it expects rational and responsible behavior from the rest of the countries of the world." "Arresting Dissident Cubans" The incident at Isla Margarita where Venezuelan state security police (DISIP) detained eight suspected anti-Castro dissidents and later reportedly expelled them from the island prompted this editorial in influential, left-of-center El Nacional (11/5), "At least...Minister Aguiar used the word 'stupidity' to describe the outrage committed by DISIP against the Cuban dissidents...violating their democratic rights of expression, transit, and assembly, consecrated in our constitution and supposedly prevailing in Venezuela.... "(In Venezuela) there has arisen a sort of society of friends who have profited from crime through a tangle of complicity.... (There is, for example) the question of controlled delivery of drugs by which, according to the latest information, local officials receive a commission from the DEA for each delivery.... (So,) it is proper to ask whether the 21 armed DISIP officials who broke into the apartment on Margarita where the dissident Cubans were meeting, were hoping for a commission from the FBI, which confirmed that it had discovered a 'plot' to assassinate Fidel Castro at the summit. "What Minister Aguiar wanted to make clear is that, in this break-in, the officials were acting on their own. This version rings true, because acting on one's own has become accepted police policy in Venezuela." EUROPE SPAIN: "What Remains Of Socialism Beyond A Sense Of Desolation?" Liberal El Pais columnist Antonio Elorza wondered (11/28): "During the last Communist Party congress, Fidel gave prominence to his brother and collaborator, Raul, who has always taken a tough line along the Stalinist mold, and has now been elevated to the status of crown prince. "Yet there would be no one worse when the time for a transition arrives.... Today's Cuba is a land of informers and corruption, both widespread, and of unbearable poverty for the majority of the populace. The significance of this omnipresent vigilance becomes clear when we think of the exceptions. A Cuban cannot discuss politics except to praise the regime; everything is suspect yet, in the face of official corruption, silence is obligatory. In the current kingdom of sexual tourism, young Cubans of both sexes, driven by misery, publicly prostitute themselves in great numbers in the face of those obsessively guarding against suspect conversations and the slightest infraction. Perhaps it is all in pursuit of the dollar, but then, what remains of socialism beyond a sense of desolation?" "Cuban Issues In Iberoamerican Summit" Barcelona's centrist La Vanguardia said in an editorial (11/7): "The (Ibero-American) summit participants must confront the need for greater economic cooperation among themselves in the face of the challenges posed by economic globalization. In this context, it would not be surprising to find the summit's final communique reiterating rejection of measures...such as the Helms-Burton Act.... The region must also redouble its efforts at overcoming poverty, addressing external debt, consolidating or (in the case of Cuba) establishing democracy, and fighting corruption, drugs and arms trafficking. In this context, the Isla Margarita summit participants are obliged to make much more of this meeting than a mere rhetorical exercise." "Unreasonable Castro" Readers of liberal El Pais saw this editorial (10/12): "How long will the regime last, how much sacrifice will it ask? Castro and the privileged 'nomenclatura'...will try to stay as long as possible. The dictator gave a speech of almost seven hours to prove that, at 71 years old, he is in good physical and moral form...and that he will never surrender to...Yankee pressure or capitalism. For the moment, Castro looks secure and determined not to give an inch. This unreasonableness worsens an already bad situation.... With this situation, it doesn't make much sense for a country like Spain to follow a policy of pure confrontation.... The relations between Spain and Cuba...should return to a certain level of normality.... Cuba shouldn't become an obsession for Spain's foreign policy, especially if you compare it with the importance of Mexico or Argentina." GERMANY: "Socialism Is Dead" According to right-of-center Nordbayerischer Kurier of Bayreuth (10/10), "An economy in tatters, a disastrous supply situation, and political refugees are trying to find their salvation in Florida where a resistance movement, which is willing to use force, is waiting for its moment to come. It is the only remaining aim of the 'lider maximo' to delay this moment. This policy has caused unpredictable damage for the pauperized country. In Cuba itself, many Cubans are wishing for a reversal of Castro's slogan 'Socialismo o muerte'-- socialism or death--into 'Socialismo esta muerto'--socialism is dead." BELGIUM: "How Castro Uses The U.S. 'Threat'" Under the heading "Cuba Opts for the Old Style," foreign affairs writer Christophe Boval suggested in independent Catholic De Standaard(10/21): "The achievements of the revolution, for instance, in health care and education are at their last gasp because of lack of means-- partially owing to the U.S. boycott. The underground economy is flourishing. But, in speeches, that is barely mentioned. For certain Americans--influenced by the anti-Castro lobby--misery in Cuba is a fine thing. Their cynical reasoning is that, the harsher life in Cuba becomes, the greater the chance is that the regime will be swept away in a rebellion. "However, the question is whether Castro is strengthened by the U.S. blockade against Cuba. The awkward U.S. action consolidates Castro's position as protector against U.S. 'aggression.' "That makes the situation for the domestic opposition in Cuba more difficult instead of easier. Castro is in a position to shelve reforms which are inevitable....by focusing on the American threat." "Cuba Does Not Take New Roads" The headline above ushered in this piece by Latin American affairs writer Francis Van den Berghe in independent Catholic De Standaard(10/10), "A gap has developed between Cubans with money and Cubans without. It is a climate which is fertile to social inequality and corruption. The PCC Congress hopes that it will be able to control those phenomena. That is why it is emphasizing that it has to keep a tight rein. There is no doubt that Cuba's problems would be much lighter without the American boycott. Havana can find solace in the fact that (the boycott) has been denounced repeatedly by the UN. In the meantime, however, (that boycott) is becoming increasingly tighter and wider--especially when the European Union, under U.S. pressure, imposes a moratorium on European investments in Cuba." EAST ASIA AND PACIFIC INDONESIA: "Castro Economic Reforms Offer Cuba Economic Alternative" Leading, independent Kompas commented under the headline above (10/10): "Western countries have often treated Castro as an object of ridicule, a Communist fossil that must be eradicated from the earth. And the United States has failed in its attempts to topple Castro.... We view Cuba as having been treated badly by the West and the United States. We support Castro's endeavors to bring about economic reform, while hoping that Cuba will manage to overcome the difficulties it has been facing." ## For more information, please contact: U.S. Information Agency Office of Public Liaison Telephone: (202) 619-4355 12/1/97 # # #Europe East Asia and the Pacific Latin America and the Caribbean
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