Castro declares a new war against the U.S.
MARK FINEMAN
Los Angeles Times
MANZANILLO, Cuba -- With more than 300,000 people gathered Saturday
in a
sweltering downtown plaza here, Cuban President Fidel Castro
and his ruling
inner circle delivered the nation's first official reply to the
return of castaway Elián
González: a defiant declaration of yet another ideological
battle against the United
States.
The new official targets: U.S. immigration and trade policies toward the island.
``We don't care who becomes the next U.S. president,'' Castro
said in a
statement read to the rally. ``None of the aspirants inspire
confidence in us. It's
useless for them to try to win a few voters by investing unnecessary
time in
declarations and promises against Cuba. . . . Four decades of
underestimation
and humiliating failure should be enough'' for Washington to
realize that ``Cuba
was, is and will continue to be free forever.''
Cuba's gray-bearded leader, who made Elián's return from
the United States a
personal, paternal and national crusade, did not outline a specific
strategy. But in
the two-page letter, he said neither Elián's return nor
the results of the U.S.
elections in November will ease tensions between two nations
that have been
enemies for 40 years.
Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque announced that the mass Elián
rallies that
have been held in a different city around the country each Saturday
since
December would continue indefinitely, along with round-table
discussions among
senior government members and Communist Party faithful broadcast
live every
weekday afternoon. Instead of Elián, the focus will be
on U.S. trade and
immigration policies.
Castro did not attend the rally. He was on Havana's seafront,
400 miles away,
overseeing an in-your-face army graduation ceremony in front
of the U.S.
diplomatic mission that was televised soon after coverage of
the Manzanillo
gathering ended.
Even Castro's younger brother, Raúl, the 73-year-old leader's
official successor
and defense minister, joined in this opening offensive.
During a rare, 15-minute meeting with the foreign media as the
masses filed out of
the plaza here toward home, the younger Castro declared: ``Now
begins the
second stage, which also will be triumphant.''
Citing the 1966 U.S. legislation that was Cuba's principal target
of the day, Raúl
Castro said flatly: ``The Cuban Adjustment Act has to end. Because
Cuba will not
change.''
Jovial, self-assured and clad in a dress uniform heavy with medals,
Raúl Castro,
who is 69 and chief of the Cuban army, added with a shrug: ``What
other solution
do we have? What other solution do the Americans have? Invade
us? I would not
like to see that, because we would pay a terrible price. And
they would pay as
terrible a price as us.''
The Cold War-era congressional act presumes that all Cubans who
leave this
Communist-run island for the U.S. are political refugees. Together
with the
38-year-old U.S. economic embargo, it was meant to help bring
down Castro's
government.
But the law has become the cornerstone of the Clinton administration's
so-called
wet foot/dry foot immigration policy, which permits Cubans --
and only Cubans --
who reach America's shores to remain, while those intercepted
at sea are sent
home.
Cuba asserts -- and many U.S. law enforcement officials agree
-- that the law and
the policy are fueling a multimillion-dollar, Miami-based human
smuggling trade
that left more than 60 Cubans dead last year alone in the treacherous
straits that
separate Florida from Cuba, just 90 miles away.
The renewed militancy of the Cuban leadership may also affect
ongoing efforts in
Washington to ease the U.S. embargo on Cuba and permit U.S. sales
of food and
medicine to the island. A struggle is going on among Republican
factions -- some
of which favor relaxing the sanctions -- and GOP congressional
leaders who
object to the change in policy.
Democrats and the White House have complained that the Republican
proposals
do not go far enough and hinder the administration's pursuit
of foreign policy
objectives.
Washington Post and Associated Press dispatches supplement this report.