James Carter

Before concluding his three-day visit to Cuba, Jimmy Carter gave a press conference about his agenda on the island, this is a synopsis:

In his introductory statement he said that when he was in office he did all possible efforts to improve diplomatic links between the United States and Cuba. He said he lifted all Cuba-travel restrictions for US citizens and along with Fidel Castro he worked on the setting up of interest sections both in Washington and Havana.

Carter said the US commercial “embargo” on Cuba should be lifted immediately as well as the limitations on US citizens to travel to Cuba and vice versa. He said he wanted to learn about the upcoming Communist Party Congress, to be held in April and that he has been given information on the future plans for Cuba.

He told the reporters that he had met with President Raul Castro and with Fidel Castro, whom he saw enjoying good health; he also met with some groups that criticize the Cuban governme’snt and he added he hoped that some of their complaints will receive a response from the Cuban authorities in the future.

As to the case of the five Cubans incarcerated in the United States since 1998, the former US president said that their imprisonment make no sense since American courts have shared doubts about it, as have human rights organizations around the world. They have been in jail for 12 years now, he said and added he hoped that they can be released in the near future. Carter also met with two of the mothers and three of the wives of those Cubans imprisoned in the U.S.

He explained that on Wednesday morning he was able to meet with Alan Gross, a man he thinks is innocent of posing a serious threat to the Cuban people and government and that Gross was sentenced to a long prison term. He said he hoped he will soon be released too.

Carter stressed that there are many things both countries can do to improve relations and have normal links in all possible ways. And he reiterated his gratitude to Raul Castro and other government officials for having allowed him to visit and talk with them.

During the Q/A Session Carter replied to an AP question about the possibility that he could take Alan Gross back to the U.S. with him and if he considered that an exchange of Gross for the five Cuban was possible. In this regard, Carter said he had not traveled to Cuba to coordinate any kind of exchange and that the cases of Gross and the Five are different and must not be related. He considered that Gross should be released because he is innocent of a serious crime—Carter explained—and that the five Cubans should also be freed because they have already been 12 years in prison and there were many doubts about the whole legal process. In the case of Gross, Carter said an appeal would follow or a possible executive order could be given in the future to release him on humanitarian grounds. His daughter is very sick, while he has lost other family members, said Carter. But he did not expect to take Gross back home with him he said and recalled that Cuban officials had made it clear before he left the United States that Gross would not be released.

Responding to a question by Associated Press Television about a meeting with Obama after this trip to Cuba, Jimmy Carter explained that he will do so to express the opinions he gave to the press and about other confidential issues.

Referring to what each country could do to improve relations, Carter said he wished that US travel restrictions to Cuba be lifted as well as limitations on the transfer of humanitarian funds to Cuba. He recalled some meetings with members of the diplomatic community in Havana who said they have found it quite difficult, over the past two years, to bring humanitarian aid to the Cuban people through normal channels because the United States limits the transfers. This was also corroborated by European Union leaders, and this lifting of restrictions could be done immediately by the President of the United States, Carter noted.

He also said he personally wished to see the complete abolishment of the Helms-Burton Law because in his opinion the approval and signing of it by former President Bill Clinton was a serious mistake.

As to other actions, Carter hopes that Mr. Gross be released and that the five Cubans return home.

Any effort on the part of the United States aimed at improving the life of the Cuban people based on financial assistance or other means is a suspicious act, according to the Helms-Burton law, because the legislation is aimed at putting an end to the “Castro regime”. In his opinion that law is counterproductive because when he was president he could do anything he wanted with respect to the travel restrictions and the reestablishment of relations.

As to the congress people of Cuban descent he said they are acting in a very counterproductive manner by trying to blame or punish the Cuban government, when in fact they are punishing the people of Cuba by backing these restrictions.

To the question that if he would agree to be a mediator between the two countries, Carter replied that there is little chance that he would be asked to take part in that kind of service, though he would be happy to help.

Carter also told reporters that he believed Cuba should be taken off of the US list of countries sponsoring terrorism. He said he has learned about a close cooperation between Cuban and US intelligence services to fight threats by Al Qaida and other organizations in the gulf region. The only allegations made by the United States against the Cuban government are related to some groups in Colombia like the FARC, and ETA from Spain. But such allegations about Cuba sponsoring terrorism have no grounds so the US President should take Cuba out of the list.

And responding to BBC if he tackled issues like the freedom of expression, the freedom to travel, the economic changes to be analyzed by the upcoming Communist Party Congress, during his meetings with Raul Castro and leader Fidel Castro, Jimmy Carter recalled that when he visited Cuba nine years ago he addressed the people on TV and on the radio and that the Granma newspaper published his statements just as he made them, which expressed his wish about those topics and carried his recommendations.

He said that although he was not very familiar with the details or aspects of the text to be analyzed by the Communist Party Congress, he was informed that some 8 million Cubans gave their opinions on the document. Carter added that the Cuban foreign minister told him that thousands of amendments were proposed to the text and that over 65 percent of the paragraphs had been modified on the basis of such proposals.

Finally, Carter said that the members of “dissident groups” he met in the morning told him that many of them had abstained from expressing any requests on personal liberties, because they did not want to be linked to the procedure, since they are in disagreement with its integrity.

While others did express their requests, though he said he was not familiarized with the document or with what is trying to be achieved.

(Agency information)

James Carter in Havana. Photo: Alex Castro

Translation: Machetera

Arleen Rodríguez: Hello!  A greeting to all of those who are watching Cuban Television right now.   I welcome all of you, along with the former President of the United States, James Carter, who just moments before leaving to return to his country has graciously agreed to give us an interview, and an exclusive statement for our television broadcast.

Welcome.  Thank you for accepting our invitation.

Jimmy Carter: It’s a great pleasure to return to Cuba, to Havana.

Rodríguez: It’s a great pleasure to have you here as well.  You told me that you’d like to say something to the Cuban people before our interview.

Carter: Yes.

Rodríguez: The camera is yours.

Carter: To the people of Cuba I would like to say that I am very grateful for the chance to return to your wonderful country once again.  My wife and I enjoy being here with the Cuban people, to meet with the government leaders, to meet with some of those Cuban citizens who disagree with the government.  We met with all of them.  We are very excited about the prospects for the upcoming Congress that will begin next month.  We also had a chance to meet with the parents of the so-called Cuban Five, with two of the mothers and also with the wives.

My hope is that in the future we will see normalization of relations between Cuba and the United States.  I would like to see at the time all the restraints on travel from the United States to Cuba and Cuba to the United States lifted, and also have freedoms in both our countries, freedom of assembly, freedom of speech, freedom to travel as you wish, these are very important for the entire world and for the people of Cuba.

We had meetings with the foreign minister, with the President of the National Assembly, with President Castro, with the former President, Fidel Castro, an old friend of mine, to learn all we can about the economic changes in Cuba.

This morning I was also able to meet with Mr. Gross, who has been sentenced to a long term in prison in Cuba, and we believe he is innocent of any crime.  I hope in the future we’ll see his freedom along with the freedom of the so-called Cuban Five who have now spent 12 years in prison in the United States.

In the future I hope that we can see unimpeded trade and commerce as well as travel back and forth between our two countries and I’d like to see the economic embargo lifted completely…it doesn’t just affect the government but it hurts the people.  My views on the Cuban American relationship are that it needs to change.

When I became president I immediately lifted the travel restraints between both my country and Cuba and I have worked very closely with your former President Fidel Castro to establish diplomatic exchange through Interests Sections.  Now the United States and Cuba have about 300 people employed in the Interests Sections, both in the United States as well as in Cuba, and there are Cubans who work in the Interests Section in Cuba and vice-versa, and I think that this can contribute to normal diplomatic relations between the two countries.

This has been a good opportunity that I’ve been given by Cuban TV to address you and say how marvelous your country is.

Rodríguez: Thanks.

I’d like to take advantage of this opportunity to ask you a few questions.

First of all, I’d like to congratulate you for the respect and sympathy that you’ve generated as the only U.S. President in 50 years to do something to normalize relations.  You recalled some of the important steps.  Also for the fact that you have come to Cuba twice already, and for doing so with your hand extended and with respect.  The Cuban people, who have a lot of pride and dignity, receive such visitors sympathetically.

I believe that, getting down to the substance of this interview, you’ve relieved me of having to do an introduction, by expressing once again your desire and willingness for the blockade against Cuba to be lifted.  It’s known that there’s a majority consensus in U.S. society on this, even among the Cuban community in the United States, and that, furthermore, the international community has overwhelmingly demanded this for the last twenty years, the same way that its efforts are supported by a vast majority in Cuba and the United States.

As you yourself acknowledge, the blockade remains in place, and the Cuban people know, furthermore, that it remains in place as stiffly as ever, sometimes even more rigorous than before.

I ask: What prospects do you see for relations between Cuba and the United States and for this blockade, that the whole world opposes?

Carter: As you know, the majority of Cubans want to have normal relations with the United States, and the overwhelming majority of North Americans also want to have normal relationships with Cuba.  Unfortunately there are a few radical leaders in my country, some in prominent positions in Congress, mostly Cuban Americans, who insist on keeping the relationship between our two countries separate, these representatives of the old Cuban American community, whose main goal was to overthrow the Castro regime; even among the Cuban Americans now in my country they are a small minority now, but they’re very powerful, in our political circles.  I believe that in the last few years, I’ve seen public opinion polls even inside Miami … testifying that the younger members of that community want to move the economic blockade against Cuba and want to have normal opportunities to travel in both directions: from the United States to Cuba and also from Cuba to the United States. This is a change.  In my opinion, it’s a change that is going to continue into the future and I hope that my small voice, and the opinion of many American, can make this a reality.

Rodríguez: Mr. Carter, I was very moved as I listened to you in the press conference, and here in your statement, when I heard you also ask for, demand, freedom for the Five Cuban Heroes imprisoned in the States, who Cuba considers heroes, because they faced terrorist groups and were able to prevent the list of 2,099 wounded and 3,478 dead from terrorist attacks on our country from growing any larger.

I don’t know how aware you are of how deeply the Cuban people feel about the demand that the Five be released.  However, I didn’t hear you say they should be pardoned.

You said that according to U.S. law you expected that they would be freed.  They have appealed to the Supreme Court, which refused to hear their case, despite the fact that more than 10 Nobel laureates and hundreds of political personalities and intellectuals around the world had demanded it.  In other words, all the legal steps have been exhausted.

The process has been extremely arbitrary, as you said, judges have acknowledged this, and two of them have been subjected to the additional punishment of being denied regular visits from their wives, as well as having the visits from their family members made very difficult.

To arrive at this point with the Supreme Court and not allow even for the review of such a complex case is what made these Nobel prizewinners and political personalities demand that Obama grant a pardon.

You were the President of the United States.  You exercised the right to pardon, as a humanitarian gesture, that I tell you – as a Cuban – the Cuban people would deeply appreciate a pardon.  Are you inclined to add your name to the other Nobel prizewinners who are asking Obama to pardon the Five?

Carter: As you know, I’m not only a former president, but I’m also a Nobel laureate.

Rodríguez: That’s why.

Carter: Well, in my private talks to President Bush and also with President Obama, I have urged the release of these prisoners.

I recognize the restraints within the American judicial system, and my hope is that the president might grant a pardon, but you have to realize that this is a decision that could only be made by the president himself, it would be presumptuous of me to try to tell another president what to do; but the presidents, now and before this, have known that my own opinion is that the original trial of the Cuban Five was very doubtful, it violated standards, and also some of the restraints on their visitation were extreme.

Now I know that all of the people have been able to visit them in jail, and it is my wish in the future that before a pardon might be granted is that there could be more access by these families to these prisoners .

I have been informed by officials, for instance, that the shooting down of the small planes over Havana, that caused the death of two pilots, was done after the President of the United States informed Cuban leaders that no more flights would take place.  And I was informed by Cuban officials that they notified the President of the United States, very clearly, that they could not permit a plane to fly over their capital city…dropping leaflets…but that they would protect the sovereignty of Cuba.  So even those more serious, allegations, in my opinion are very doubtful, about their need or cause of the extensive sentences that have been granted to one of the prisoners; but in every way, in my private report with Obama when I return to the United States, in my public statements like today, in my previous conversations with American leaders, I’ve called for the release of the Cuban Five. One of the reasons is that, guilty or not, is they’ve served a long prison sentence already, more than 12 years, and the fact that they’ve been punished adequately, even if they are guilty.

Rodríguez: Recently a person very closely connected to the case, who you knew very well, Leonard Weinglass, passed away.  I know that you know he was a man with a love for justice, who fought for justice, and his last words, his last work, even, on his deathbed, was to prove that the Five had nothing to do with the downing of the planes.

Carter: Yes, I know.

Rodríguez: To go further into the case would make this conversation much longer, but what the Cuban people know, what can be proven, what is known, even by U.S. authorities, through the reports that Cuba sent, is that the only thing these young people were doing was looking for information to prevent terrorist actions.

I am confident that you will be able to convey the insistence on a pardon, as a humanitarian gesture.  These men have suffered a lot, and have lost family members without being able to be at their side; finally, I don’t insist, I thank you for your interest and your statements in the name of the Cuban people.

Mr. Carter, you also said this morning at the press conference that you had a friendly meeting with Comandante Fidel Castro, who has expressed in his Reflections a great deal of anguish about the risks faced by the human species, about the huge nuclear arsenals that keep on growing and that are capable of destroying the world several times over, and also about the nefarious consequences that climate change might have for the human species.  These are subjects in which I believe you have broad agreement.

As a nuclear physicist, you know what nuclear weapons mean for the human species, when you were President, you worked hard to educate your people against consumer culture, promoted rational policies, defended the environment, even though it made you unpopular among certain sectors.

Well, quickly, I’d like to know if you still think there is a chance to do something to save humankind.

Carter: Well, when I was president, we negotiated with the Soviet Union to reduce the level of nuclear weapons, through the so-called SALT II Treaty, and since then I’ve been a strong advocate of reducing productions in nuclear arsenals on both sides.  Also I believe very strongly that there is a real threat to the wellbeing of all human beings through global warming, and as you probably know, President Obama and his predecessor, President Bush, attempted to work with other nuclear powers on reducing arsenals, and that they have been monitoring very closely the agreements that have been signed by these governments.

I think the United States has not been adequately strong in its potential leadership in addressing the global warming issue.  Cuban officials, since I’ve been here, have pointed out me that the old city in Havana is in danger of destruction… I have been to Bolivia to meet with Evo Morales, and maybe Bolivia will be the first country that will have major damage to its economy, because the glaciers in the mountains of Bolivia are melting…their source of drinking water.  So I’m hoping that in the future, this issue, and the global warming issue, can be addressed by my country and all nations, and I know that Fidel Castro is addressing this now, at least in his Reflections.  I talked to him about inviting … more definitively about his actions at present, as related to the United States … what goes on in current affairs, and he wants to use his voice as a senior statesman for the wellbeing of all humankind.  We’ve had good conversations, we basically agree on many things, and above all, we also talked about global warming, and I believe that there might be a possibility between our two countries.  Now I’m afraid I have to leave, to get on my airplane, I don’t have an Air Force One any more.

Rodríguez: I’m very grateful for your time.  Thank you.  Every time you come to Cuba, hope is awakened, although the blockade continues to make relations so difficult.

Carter: Espero que podemos volver otra vez, muchas veces.  En la oportunidad traer toda mi familia.  Hay muchos de nuestra familia.  Tenemos treinta y seis miembros… [I hope that we can return again, many times.  I'd like to bring all my family.  There are a lot of us.  We have thirty-six members...] grandchildren, great grandchildren, spouses, children, we’d like to have all of us come to Cuba.

Thank you very much.

Rodríguez: Thank you, Mr. Carter, very much.

James Carter visit Fidel Castro in Havana. Photo: Alex Castro

Carter, his wife Rosalynn and Fidel in Havana. Photo: Alex Castro

James Carter during an interview with Arleen Rodríguez. Photo: Jenny Muñoa

Machetera is a member of Tlaxcala, the international network of translators for linguistic diversity: http://www.tlaxcala-int.org