THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

May 6, 1998

 
PRESS CONFERENCE OF THE PRESIDENT
AND PRIME MINISTER PRODI OF ITALY
 
 
Room 450
Old Executive Office
Building

[excerpt]

             Q Thank you, Mr. President.  I wanted to ask you about Cuba for a moment.

             THE PRESIDENT:  Go ahead.

             Q Your former Atlantic Commander, Jack Sheehan, came back from a visit to Cuba -- he spent a week there, spent eight hours with Fidel Castro, and returned seeing an opportunities for some rapprochement with Castro.  I wonder if you're now willing to undertake some steps to ease the embargo or take additional steps to provide humanitarian relief in Cuba, and secondly, whether you're willing to undertake any steps to dismantle or ease the defense perimeter around Guantanamo Bay as a symbolic gesture toward Cuba at this moment.

             THE PRESIDENT:  Well, the Pope's visit to Cuba, which I hope would send the right signal to the Cuban people -- in the hopes that it would help to support a move toward a civil society there.  As you know, what further steps I could take are clearly circumscribed by the passage of the Helms-Burton Act.  And furthermore, there have been mixed signals coming out of the actions of the government in Cuba since then about whether they really wish to have a rapprochement that is more than government to government and maybe trade to trade, but also includes what our real concern is.

             Our real concern is for the people of Cuba:  can we move the society toward freedom and human rights and a democratic system. These things don't have to be done overnight, but then again, they have to be done.  There has to be some clear signal.

             I understand the desire of the Cuban government to keep its health care system, to keep its commitment to universal literacy to even its poorest citizens.  That's a commendable and laudable thing.  But I do not accept, nor can I ever accept, some of the anti-democratic and, frankly, clearly anti-human rights policies of the government.  So we have to have some basis for doing more, especially given the constrictions of the law.  Now, nothing would make me happier than to see some basis for doing more.  I think all Americans would like to be reconciled with Cuba because of our ties of blood in this country and because of its proximity to us.