US should do more to woo Cuba, Castro says
HAVANA - President Raul Castro yesterday dismissed US President Obama's policy changes toward Cuba as "achieving only the minimum," and said that it is up to the United States - not his country - to do more to improve relations.
The State Department shot back that the onus is on Cuba to show that it is serious about meaningful negotiations.
Castro took a hard line on making even tiny political reforms to appease Washington, telling an international gathering of government ministers, "it is not Cuba who has to make gestures."
The Obama administration has allowed unlimited travel and money transfers for Americans with family in Cuba and has eased restrictions on telecommunications between the two countries. But top US officials have also insisted they would like to see some Cuban reforms before truly exploring normalizing diplomatic relations, which Washington broke off in 1961.
Castro previously said he would be willing to discuss with the United States such sticky subjects as human rights, freedom of the press, and political prisoners in Cuba. Obama reacted favorably to such sentiments, but Raul Castro's ailing brother, Fidel, appeared less comfortable with them and accused the US president of "misinterpreting" his brother's words.
Raul Castro's comments yesterday on unilateral concessions to meet US expectations echoed the words of Fidel Castro, who has written in public essays that Obama's policy changes do not go far enough because Washington's 47-year-old trade embargo is still in place.
The younger Castro said that the US steps are "fine, positive but only achieve the minimum. The embargo remains intact."
"There is not political or moral pretext that justifies this policy," Raul Castro said of the embargo. "Cuba has not imposed any such sanction against the United States or its citizens."
