Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Today

Carter Tours Cuba with Castro

Aired May 14, 2002 - 10:14   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, we want to head to Cuba for the latest on the historic trip to Cuba by former President Jimmy Carter. He will speak tonight in a speech that will be carried live on state-run television and radio.

Our Kate Snow is traveling with the former president, and she joins us now with a preview -- Kate, good morning.

KATE SNOW, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi. Good morning. Good morning, Daryn. We are joining you live from the University of Havana. This is the largest university in all of Cuba. They have 30,000 students here; 1,700 professors.

And Jimmy Carter right now, President Carter touring around another part of the city. He is over at an AIDS clinic. Of course, that's an area that he has a lot of interest in through his work at the Carter Center. But later tonight, he's going to be right here on this campus at the university.

And let's just take you inside. He is going to be in this room right here. We wanted to show you, because it's an absolutely impressive location. It's going to be broadcast live in Spanish, as you mentioned, from this room. You can see the two flags over there already set up, the American flag and the Cuban flag.

Take a look at some of the artwork in here. There are murals all over the walls in here. It's just really dramatic, done by the Cuban artist, Armando Menocal. They show the Muses; and also some reliefs (ph) on the wall there of some of Cuba's leaders, some of their leading intellectuals. Of course, this is a university, as I said, with 25 different majors. So a nice setting for President Carter tonight to give his speech.

Yesterday, Carter traveled around, toured around Havana with Fidel Castro, spending a lot of time with him. Now, the two men get along well, but they do have their differences. And yesterday this came out fairly clearly, differences on democracy and human rights. President Carter at one point said, "In the United States, it is very important to have freedom of expression and freedom of assembly," he said, freedoms that many human rights groups thinks Cuba doesn't have. Castro later responded to that comparing western-style democracies to Athens, where he said, "A minority dominates the majority."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) FIDEL CASTRO, PRESIDENT OF CUBA (through translator): Why is everybody talking about our human rights? What world are we living in when a country that today, facing unimaginable difficulties, is getting closer and closer and faster and faster to that level, that dream of justice, of real freedom, real democracy, real human rights, and still, gets condemned of violators of those rights?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SNOW: Now, we expect President Carter will talk about human rights when he delivers this speech in Spanish tonight. He has been mentioning this speech, Daryn, everywhere he goes. He really wants people to tune in.

We should note, it is going to be broadcast live, and the Castro regime saying they will not cut or interfere. They will not censor the speech in any way, so he is free to say, they say, whatever he likes.

And in the room, just one last point, Daryn, there's not a lot of space. I think there are maybe a 100-150 chairs in here. We understand a lot of Cuban students will be here of the 30,000 who go to this school, but also some Americans. We just ran into an American outside who is studying here. There are a few limited programs that come here to study. And she told me that 40 or so of their students will be here tonight, so some Americans in the audience as well -- Daryn.

KAGAN: All right. Kate Snow, thank you -- live from Cuba. And we'll see a lot more of Kate later on. She'll be live from Cuba tonight at 8:00 p.m. -- thank you so much.

TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com