The Cuban President, Fidel Castro, is reportedly delighted with Jimmy Carter's plans to visit the communist-run island next month and plans to permit the former US president to say whatever he wants to huge numbers of people, a visiting US senator said in Havana today.
Carter, who is scheduled to visit Cuba from May 12 to 17, will be the most high-profile US figure to set foot on the Caribbean island in the four decades of hostility between the two governments since Castro's 1959 revolution.
Senator Barbara Boxer, a California Democrat and member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said after meeting Castro in Havana that he seemed extremely delighted with the planned visit.
He says he is going to give permission to President Carter to speak to huge numbers of people and say whatever he wants to say, she told a Havana news conference. President Castro feels under the Carter administration there was progress, and I think he is quite excited about his coming to Cuba, Boxer said.
During his 1977-1981 presidency, Carter promoted a rapprochement with Cuba, but the effort stalled. Washington maintains a four-decade-old economic embargo on Cuba, although there has been growing resistance to it in some U.S. business and political circles.
Carter, a critic of the US sanctions, said last week his visit could help improve relations between the two countries, although he did not expect it to change the Cuban government or its policies. Under U.S. travel restrictions, he had to obtain permission for the trip from the U.S. government.
Carter's office said the former president planned to raise the issue of human rights with Castro during the visit.
Boxer, who opposes the embargo and travel ban, was speaking at the end of a four-day visit as head of a delegation of businessmen and artists.
She was the fourth senator and 30th member of the US Congress to meet with Castro this year as the 75-year-old Cuban leader pushes for an easing of restrictions on Cuba. Castro has also met numerous US businessmen in recent months.
A member of Boxer's delegation said it was the third time this year he had sat in on a meeting between Castro and US lawmakers.
"The drill was the same. They call you to the Revolution Palace in the evening. First, you have cocktails and chat, then a formal meeting, and after that is over, you have dinner until early the next morning," he said.
"Castro is ingratiating and attentive. It is a charm offensive. He gives long answers to every question, but he is a good politician and manages to look you in the eye as he gives them," said the delegation member, who asked not to identified.
Boxer said that speaking with dissidents in Cuba left her more convinced than ever the embargo should be lifted.
Even the dissidents want the embargo and ban on travel to end, Boxer said, adding she discussed human rights and democracy issues with senior Cuban officials, but not with Castro.