Raul Castro: US Must Return Guantanamo For Normal Relations
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SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (CBSMiami/AP) — Cuban President Raul Castro made some major demands of the United States on Wednesday.
Castro is demanding that the United States return the U.S. base at Guantanamo Bay, lift the half-century trade embargo on Cuba and compensate his country for damages before the two nations re-establish normal relations.
Castro told a summit of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States that Cuba and the U.S. are working toward full diplomatic relations but "if these problems aren't resolved, this diplomatic rapprochement wouldn't make any sense."
Castro and U.S. President Barack Obama announced on Dec. 17 that they would move toward renewing full diplomatic relations by reopening embassies in each other's countries. The two governments held negotiations in Havana last week to discuss both the reopening of embassies and the broader agenda of re-establishing normal relations.
READ: U.S. Announces New Cuba Trade, Travel Rules
"Since the very beginning, since the next day after President Obama's announcement, Raul Castro said, 'We are not moving an inch on our policies, on our form of government.' They're not going to give in," said Ileana Fuentes, a human rights activist and cultural consultant for the Cuban Museum.
Despite Castro's demands, Fuentes believes U.S. diplomats will come up with an agreement that works for the United States, but she admits it may take a very long time before anything really changes.
"I am willing to give the benefit of the doubt to an effort that will widen some cracks in this regime that, of course, is just about to fall on its face," Fuentes said.
Click here to watch Lauren Pastrana's report.
Obama has loosened the trade embargo with a range of measures designed to increase economic ties with Cuba and increase the number of Cubans who don't depend on the communist state for their livelihoods.
The Obama administration says removing barriers to U.S. travel, remittances and exports to Cuba is a tactical change that supports the United States' unaltered goal of reforming Cuba's single-party political system and centrally planned economy.
Cuba has said it welcomes the measures but has no intention of changing its system. Without establishing specific conditions, Castro's government has increasingly linked the negotiations with the U.S. to a set of longstanding demands that include an end to U.S. support for Cuban dissidents and Cuba's removal from the U.S. list of state sponsors of terrorism.
READ: Fidel Castro Breaks Silence On U.S.-Cuba Relations
On Wednesday, Castro emphasized an even broader list of Cuban demands, saying that while diplomatic ties may be re-established, normal relations with the U.S. depend on a series of concessions that appear highly unlikely in the near future.
"The reestablishment of diplomatic relations is the start of a process of normalizing bilateral relations, but this will not be possible while the blockade still exists, while they don't give back the territory illegally occupied by the Guanatanamo naval base," Castro said.
He demanded that the U.S. end the transmission of anti-Castro radio and television broadcasts and deliver "just compensation to our people for the human and economic damage that they're suffered."
The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Castro's remarks.
READ: U.S. Cubans Split Over Change In U.S. Policy
Local leader, Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) responded to Castro's request with a statement saying, "According to the legally binding agreement between the U.S. and Cuba regarding Guantanamo: 'so long as the United States of America shall not abandon the said naval station of Guantanamo or the two Governments shall not agree to a modification of its present limits, the station shall continue to have the territorial area that it now has."
"Naval Station Guantanamo Bay is strategically important for U.S. national security, and as our own military personnel have said, also plays a key role as a logistical hub in support of a variety of U.S. priority efforts in the region. The President must not allow this strategic asset to be extorted from the U.S. by the Castro brothers at any cost."
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