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Cuba says Helms-Burton won't make it budge
March 17, 1997
Web posted at: 7:54 p.m. EST (0054 GMT)Editor's note: On Monday, CNN opened its new Cuba bureau, the first of any U.S. journalism organization there since 1969, as it launched CNN en Espanol, a Spanish-language news network.
From Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman
HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- Almost everywhere you go in Cuba, people are holding meetings.
The government is holding the gatherings to explain the implications of the latest U.S. legislation aimed at ridding Cuba of communism once and for all.
"In a brutal and radical fashion, the Americans have shown us the real face of Cuba's enemies: independence or annexation. There's no third choice," said Cuban Culture Minister Abel Prieto.
That is the Castro government's newest message to young and old, at universities and neighborhood auditoriums, the offensive is on to rally the people behind the regime and against Washington's demands for fundamental political change in Cuba.
Or as a little boy said: "Imperialism is the only outlaw. I tell [President] Clinton to take off his diapers."
Success, or failure?
It's been one year since President Bill Clinton signed the so called Helms-Burton legislation. Its aim: to cut off all investment in Cuba in order to strangle its economy and, ultimately, any and all support for President Fidel Castro.
The legislation calls for a series of reprisals against those who do business with Cuba, including barring overseas company executives and their families from entering the United States.
But officials in Cuba claim it's been a failure.
"The law is not working. It cannot work. It will not work," said Ricardo Alarcon, president of the National Assembly. "After the law, we have continued trading with other countries, receiving foreign partners."
The law's U.S. sponsors argue otherwise.
"It's denying the Castro dictatorship of the currency that it needs, of the money that it needs to sustain its dictatorship. It has done that in very dramatic ways," said Rep. Robert Menendez, a New Jersey Democrat.
'Democracy' plan angers Castro
The truth appears to be that while the law is not working as well as Washington would like, it is hurting more than Cuba wants to admit.
The crucial sugar cane harvest, for example, will suffer from delays in financing. The ING Bank of the Netherlands withdrew direct financing to the sugar industry, apparently deferred by the Helms-Burton law.
But what is making Havana see red is Washington's recently announced transition plan for democracy in Cuba. It offers U.S. money and friendship to Cuba if it dumps communism and Castro.
Calling the United States an arrogant empire, Castro says it is Washington that should make the transition from empire to garbage bin. The former socialist countries that followed Washington's advice, Castro says, made a transition toward hell.
With its acute economic and political restrictions, few would argue that Cuba is exactly heaven. But whatever the definition, Washington's newest push to oust Castro has only hardened his resolve not to bend to pressure.
Cuba has already made its transition towards revolution, said Castro, and there will be no more, at least as long as he's around to stop it.
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