UPDATE — 12:20 P.M. — President Bush said that he is skeptical of Cuban dictator Raul Castro's intent to reform the communist island, but said a shift in U.S. policy will serve as a trial balloon.
"If Raul is serious about his so-called reforms, he will allow these phones to reach the Cuban people," Mr. Bush said, during remarks in the East Room this morning to a crowd that included relatives of Cuban dissidents currently imprisoned by the Castro government.
Mr. Bush said that the U.S. policy change will test Castro's intent to allow Cubans to own cell phones, computers and dvd players.
"The world is watching the Cuban regime. If it follows its recent public gestures by opening up access to information, and implementing meaningful economic reform, respecting political freedom and human rights, then it can credibly say it has delivered the beginnings of change," Mr. Bush said.
But the president said he doubted that Castro truly intends to democratize his country.
"Experience tells us this regime has no intention of taking these steps. Instead, its recent gestures appear to be nothing more than a cruel joke perpetrated on a long-suffering people," Mr. Bush said.
"America refuses to be deceived, and so do the Cuban people," he said.
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President Bush will speak at the White House at 10:20 and will announce a change in U.S. policy toward Cuba: Americans will be allowed to send cell phones to family members in Cuba.
"We are modifying our regulations," said Dan Fisk, senior director for western hemisphere affairs at the National Security Council.
"Americans will be allowed to send a phone and support an account," Fisk told reporters at the White House just now.
Fisk said that it is their "understanding that cell phones from the United States work there," and that the policy change is a way to test Cuban dictator Raul Castro.
"We're saying, 'You're allowing Cubans to have access to cell phones. Fine, we're going to allow Americans to send mobile phones,'" Fisk said.
The Bush administration wants to see if Castro will allow the phones into his country and also allow Cubans to speak freely with one another using the phones.
— Jon Ward, White House correspondent, The Washington Times
Comments (5)
Then I hope that a cell phone tower can be placed on GITMO to facilitate this communication.
Posted by j2 | May 21, 2008 11:02 AM
Bravo to Pres. Bush!
Let's hope there will be a new Cuban revolution that actually frees the Island from the chains of Communist tyranny.
Posted by Joe Quinn | May 22, 2008 7:41 PM
The only sound Cubans will get on their US phones is the fast beep...
Posted by Dr. O | May 23, 2008 10:59 AM
I am an Australian farmer in the state of New South Wales.
In the days pre 1980 when the US managed the world grain trade we in Australia were able to produce and export wheat with very little government assistance.
After European subsidisation became the dominant factor in the grains market our terms of trade declined. The US applied the Export Enhancement Program of subsidies to protect its farmers. The Marxist (by Australian standards) Hawke government refused to defend its farmers.
Our own lobby, having learned something silly at university and too dopey to see through it, supported this government inaction. As a result agriculture generally in Australia has been in decline ever since.
Over the intervening period the US, Australia and others have lobbied Europe to no avail to modify its policy of heavy subsidisation, which stems from living memories of the famine which Europe experienced during and after the second world war.
The subsidisation of ethanol from corn seems strange at first when apparently ethanol from corn costs twice as much as from cane sugar. Why did they do it? This needs considering.
I see a number of very big side benefits for everybody.
1. The resulting price rise will bring an earlier increase in grain production, which should head off an even greater price rise and greater shortages down the track, 2. The surge in grain prices should enable the removal of direct subsidies on grain production, bringing the price and the real cost of production into line, 3. the removal of direct subsidisation of grain could mean that the cost to the US government of subsidies on ethanol is no more than it was on grain.
And the much lower cost of ethanol from cane sugar will bring, no matter what the political philosophies may be, a dramatic change in US relations with Cuba.
Posted by Ted O'Brien | May 24, 2008 8:45 PM
There is one unintended benefit of the US-sponsored trade embargo on Cuba. Cuba's coastline remains one of the last remaining wildlife sanctuaries in the Caribbean, having preserved entire ecosystems relatively untouched. This is in marked contrast to ecological disasters in much of the former Soviet bloc elsewhere. It would be a shame if, when trade is eventually liberalized, these pristine natural areas are bulldozed under for yet more tourist resorts. That's no reason for preserving communist Cuba, but it should be a consideration at least when the yoke is finally lifted.
Posted by George Robertson | May 25, 2008 5:48 PM