Yahoo! December 28, 2000
HAVANA (AP) - A top Cuban official said Wednesday that his government does
not expect any immediate changes in Cuba policy under the new istration of
President-elect George W. Bush (news - web sites), but is convinced that the
U.S. economic embargo will eventually fall.
Ricardo Alarcon, president of Cuba's National Assembly, or parliament, told
a news conference that he was ``profoundly optimistic over the long term'' for
relations between the two countries.
``I don't have the least doubt that it is a policy condemned to fail,''
Alarcon said, referring to the nearly 40-year-old U.S. trade embargo against the
island nation. Alarcon noted there have been increased attempts by Congress in
recent years to ease the sanctions, albeit with limited success.
Cuban-Americans who oppose Castro's government have fought attempts to ease
the embargo and hope that Bush will maintain the current sanctions after he
takes office on Jan. 20.
Earlier this week, a group of Americans who improved relations
between the countries wrote President Clinton (news - web sites) asking him to
visit Cuba before Bush takes office.
Alarcon said that if Clinton decided to come, he would be greeted here like
any other U.S. citizen. But ``we have received no indication that (Clinton) is
interested in traveling'' to the island, he added.
The letter was signed by 106 people, including Wayne Smith, former chief
U.S. diplomat to Havana during the Reagan and Carter istrations; and John
Coatsworth, of the Rockefeller Center for Latin Studies at Harvard University.
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