Powell Offers Rare Praise of Castro By Barry Schweid AP Diplomatic Writer Thursday, April 26, 2001; 2:45 p.m. EDT
WASHINGTON -- Four decades of icy distance from Cuba melted a bit Thursday as Secretary of State Colin Powell spoke in some praise of Fidel Castro.
"He's done some good things for his people," Powell said of Castro, who took over Cuba in a revolution in 1959 and has ruled the Caribbean country ever since.
In 1961, with hopes fading that Castro was a democratic reformer, the United States broke relations with Cuba, and has condemned it annually as a sponsor of terrorism.
"He is no longer the threat he was," Powell said in response to questioning at a House Appropriations subcommittee hearing by Rep. Jose E. Serrano, D-N.Y., who denounced U.S. diplomatic isolation of Cuba as senseless.
Successive Democratic and Republican administrations, including President Bush's, have sought to isolate Cuba economically and politically. Castro, however, has managed to hang on, for years with the financial support of the Soviet Union.
"That policy makes no sense," Serrano told Powell, who sat impassively in the witness chair.
"It is a country that has not done any harm to us," Serrano said. "Why China and why not Cuba?"
The United States has diplomatic relations with China and Vietnam, had relations with the Soviet Union and negotiated with North Korea, Serrano said.
Instead of trying to guide Cuba toward democracy and a better economy, the United States refuses to deal with Castro, Serrano said. "It is bad for them and it is bad for us."
Under Castro, he said, Cuba exports physicians, not revolution.
He suggested that U.S. policy perhaps is guided by sentiments in Dade County, Fla., which is home to tens of thousands of Cuban emigres who are hotly opposed to Castro and his government.
Powell said that in China, Russia and Vietnam "you can see leaders who the world is changing."
But in Cuba, he said, Castro is a leader trapped in the past. "He hasn't changed his views in any way," Powell said.
On other international matters, Powell said:
-There was "a little bit of progress" in U.S. efforts to curb violence in the Middle East. The Bush administration was talking to governments in the region on various levels to try to promote order, he said.
-On China, which President Bush has threatened with force if it attacks Taiwan, Powell took a tempered approach. "We will meet any danger which comes our way," he said. At the same time, "We are not looking for an enemy. We don't need an enemy." He added: "We are trying to get back on a more stable relations with China."
-On narcotics, Powell said that high-profile Americans in show business and the corporate world who use drugs were keeping the illicit trade going more than ordinary street users.
© Copyright 2001 The Associated Press