Many islanders unsure what to make of ex-president's speech

By TRACEY EATON and ALFREDO CORCHADO / The Dallas Morning News

BARRERAS, Cuba – Elena Lopez, a kindly, 70-something grandmother, doesn't much like politics. She knows about charcoal, the natural stuff, made from wood.
She sells 3-foot-high sacks of it for two bucks each.

But now her neighbors are talking politics, and they're talking about some gray-haired guy named Jimmy Carter, a former American president who appeared
suddenly on TV screens across the island Tuesday night.

It was an extraordinary event. A worldly figure besides Cuban President Fidel Castro took to the airwaves. Live and uncensored. And he spoke about something
more than the latest recipe for rice and beans.

He talked about democracy, human rights, free speech.

So what did Ms. Lopez think about it?

"It makes me a bit uncomfortable," she admits.

Many Cubans, especially those of older generations, say they're not quite ready for someone to contradict, to challenge, to defy their beloved leader of 43 years.

But talk to some others in Barreras and their reaction is immediate:

"Carter said some things that needed to be said," said a young seamstress who requested anonymity.

In halting but understandable Spanish, the former Georgia governor told Cubans that something's not quite right about their system of government.

People have a right to select their own leaders, he said. They have a right to express themselves freely. They have the right to work, to form labor unions, to create their own businesses.

And some say it was fitting that his voice be heard in the town of Barreras, which means "barriers." It's called that, locals say, because it was long at the end of the
road, on the wrong side of the railroad tracks.

But that peanut farmer named Jimmy got through.

And some U.S. officials are already calling his address historic.

"It was an incredible speech," said Vicki Huddleston, the top American diplomat in Havana. "He came to Havana and told the
government the way things are and how the world expects Cuba to meet the common standards of democracy and human rights."

Richard Nuccio, a former White House official and now a Cuba expert at Salve Regina University, predicted that Mr. Carter's visit
will "have very lasting impressions."

"President Carter's speech will go down in history as the most important given in Cuba since the pope's 1998 visit," he said.

Some Castro loyalists, while not exactly fuming, were annoyed by Mr. Carter's speech.

Said one government official: "We listened to him with respect because he's a visitor. But we don't agree with all his ideas. We're
not going to change our social system because someone comes and says to change it."

During his televised speech Tuesday night, Mr. Carter talked about the Varela Project, a topic that has been virtually taboo in Cuba. It is a petition drive aimed at
bringing sweeping democratic reforms to the country. Just days ago, organizers said they had surpassed 10,000 signatures – the minimum required for submission to
the national assembly.

"Is it a coincidence that the signatures came out right before Carter's visit?" the official asked. He said he thinks that Mr. Carter, Washington and others might have
something up their sleeve.

Granma, the newspaper of Cuba's Communist Party, did not mention any of the criticisms of the Cuban government that Mr. Carter cited in his speech.

Still, some Castro foes saw the speech as an opening.

"People at least hear that there is support for freedom," said Mariela Ferretti, a spokeswoman for the Cuban American National Foundation, a powerful anti-Castro
lobbying group in Miami. "There is such a thing as universal rights."

Tracey Eaton reported from Havana and Alfredo Corchado from Washington.