Cuban leader grants ex-president 'free access'

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) --Long-time American adversary and Cuban President
Fidel Castro welcomed former U.S. President Jimmy Carter to Havana with open
arms and an open mind Sunday, saying Carter could speak with anyone, "even if
they do not share our struggles."

"You will have free access to any place that you may wish to see, and we will not
feel offended for any contact that you may wish to establish," Castro said soon after
Carter's plane touched down in Havana late Sunday morning.

Carter's five-day visit marks the first time an American president -- sitting or former
-- has come to the Caribbean island since Calvin Coolidge in January 1928.

After leaving Jose Marti Airport, the 77-year-old human rights advocate toured the
Old Havana section of the Cuban capital.

He and his wife, Rosalynn, later met with Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez
Roque and planned to attend a state dinner with Castro Sunday night. Later in the
week, Carter will meet with other officials and opposition leaders.

Relations between the two nations deteriorated when communist revolutionaries led
by Castro overthrew the U.S.-backed government in 1959.

In more than four decades since, tensions have been ignited by numerous incidents
and personalities, from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the Mariel boatlift to the Elian
Gonzalez saga.

Carter's visit, approved if not explicitly supported by the Bush administration, comes
at yet another tenuous period in U.S.-Cuban relations.

U.S. farmers and businesses have joined Castro in asking Washington to end the
41-year-old embargo against Cuba, which Congress relaxed in recent years by
allowing trade in food and medicine.

The White House, however, has criticized Cuba's human rights record and accused
the country of producing and marketing biological weapons to nations the United
States says sponsors of terrorism.

Castro, 75, alluded to the latter accusation, made by a senior Bush administration
official last week, in his welcoming speech Sunday.

The Cuban leader granted Carter "full access [to] prestigious scientific research
centers ... accused of producing biological weapons."

Carter's term an anomaly in U.S.-Cuban relations

Even with their warm words Sunday, on the face of it Castro and Carter are an odd
couple.

Since leaving the White House in 1981, Carter has dedicated himself to safeguarding
human rights, resolving conflicts and enhancing democracies worldwide.

U.S. administrations have long vilified Castro as an insular, authoritarian ruler who
preserves his power at the expense of his people.

Bernardo Benes, who carried out secret diplomatic missions for Washington in Cuba
between 1977 and 1986, said that Castro frequently expressed his sincere respect
for Carter's "moral and religious values."

Relations between Washington and Havana improved early in the Carter
administration, starting with the creation of a U.S. Interests Section in Havana in
1977, the first official U.S. representation in the Cuban capital since diplomatic ties
were cut 16 years earlier.

Carter hammered out deals allowing Cuban-Americans to visit Cuba once a year and
expediting the return of American citizens and dual nationals from Cuba to the United
States.

Castro, in what Benes called a goodwill gesture to Carter, released 3,600 political
prisoners from Cuban jails in 1978.

But U.S.-Cuban relations suffered a setback two years later when more than
100,000 Cubans boarded a chaotic flotilla of boats in Mariel, Cuba, and headed to
Florida with Castro's blessing -- catching the U.S. Coast Guard and Carter by
surprise.

While acknowledging the rivalry between Cuba and the United States, Castro singled
out Carter for his initiatives to lessen tensions and improve relations.

"In the four years of your tenure as president, you had the courage to make efforts
to change the course of those relations," Castro told Carter in his welcome,
according to The Associated Press. "That is why those of us who were witnesses to
that attitude see you with respect."

'President Carter represents the future'

Inside Cuba, the run-up to Carter's visit was marked by several human rights
gestures from Havana.

The Cuban government freed from prison Vladimiro Roca Antunez, one of Cuba's
best-known political dissidents.

And Friday, Projecto Varela, an illegal but tolerated Christian liberation movement,
sent 11,020 petitions to the National Assembly calling for a national referendum on
free speech, free assembly, political prisoners, private business ownership and
democratic elections.

The Cuban Constitution requires the National Assembly to consider legislative
proposals presented by a petition with the names of at least 10,000 registered voters.

While few expect the reforms to be enacted, Project Varela's ability to collect the
signatures was a notable development.

Ricardo Alarcon, president of the Cuban assembly, expressed hopes that Carter's
visit could drastically improve U.S.-Cuban relations.

"President Carter represents the future, a day when there will be a mutual respect
and a good neighbor policy between the U.S. and Cuba, a future with a policy based
on certain moral and ethical values," Alarcon said.