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Cuba's Castro Aims to Attend UN Summit
Cuba's President Fidel Castro intends to make a rare visit to his arch-enemy, the United States, at the head of his nation's delegation to the United Nations "Millennium Summit" in New York next week.
"This morning, we communicated to the US government that the delegation would be presided by Comrade Fidel," a Cuban Foreign Ministry communique said on Friday in Havana.
It would be Castro's first trip abroad since a mid-1999 summit in Brazil, and, according to Cuban officials, his fourth visit to the United States since the 1959 Cuban Revolution and the ensuing cutting of diplomatic ties with Washington.
Castro, now 74, was last in New York in 1995 for the 50th UN anniversary celebration. On his first visit months after the revolution, he caused a sensation by staying at a downbeat hotel in Harlem.
The Cuban leader frequently stresses his enemy is the US government, not the American people. In a reminder of the frosty official relations, Havana implied on Friday that US authorities may have doubts over Castro's intended visit.
"Now everything depends on the attitude taken by the US government. Let's see if the Alarcon situation is repeated or not," the communique said, referring to Washington's refusal to grant a visa to Cuban National Assembly head Ricardo Alarcon for this week's meeting of world legislative representatives.
Alarcon is also included in the Cuban delegation for the Sept. 6-8 UN meeting.
In Washington, a US official source said a visa application for Castro was under consideration. The United States could deny a visa only on the grounds that Castro's presence would be "prejudicial to security".
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, who also hopes to attend, brushed aside Thursday reports that anti-Castro Cuban exiles were pressing the US government to deny Castro a visa or to arrest him for "crimes against humanity."
"There is no threat or risk that is capable of frightening anybody in our country," Perez told reporters in Havana.
Havana's communique on Friday said Cuban security personnel had already begun coordinating with their US counterparts and New York police over Castro's agenda and security arrangements.
CUBAN AMERICANS TO PROTEST
Castro's proposed visit comes amid unprecedented initiatives in the US Congress to ease the 38-year-old economic embargo on the Caribbean island. It also coincides with a war-of-words over the thorny issue of continuing immigration from Cuba across the dangerous Florida Straits.
The trip is sure to become a focus of protests from his foes among hardline, anti-communist groups in Florida's large Cuban American community, still smarting from the return of Cuban boy Elian Gonzalez in June after a 7-month custody feud.
Even before Friday's announcement, a leading anti-Castro Cuban American congressman in the United States, Representative Lincoln Diaz-Balart, Republican of Florida, had called on President Bill Clinton to deny Castro a visa.
Diaz-Balart, a distant relative of Castro, added that if he was granted a visa, he should be arrested for the "murder of American citizens and other crimes against humanity."
A leading conservative in the US Congress, North Carolina Republican Sen. Jesse Helms, who chairs the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to block Castro's entry.
Asked about that, UN spokesman Fred Eckhard pointed out the United States had signed an agreement with the United Nations saying it would facilitate visas for those on official UN business. He said the only caveat was that visas can be denied "if there are overriding national security concerns."
Ultimately it was a "matter between the United States and Cuba so I would not want to comment further," Eckhard added.
Cuban foreign minister Perez confirmed this week that he intended to meet moderate Cuban American groups during his trip to New York. Perez said he wanted to thank "the majority" of moderate Cuban Americans who support changes in US policy towards Cuba, and had also backed for the return of Elian.
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