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CNN Live Today

Cuban Opposition Groups Encouraged By Carter Speech

Aired May 15, 2002 - 10:13   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.
LEON HARRIS, CNN ANCHOR: Now we turn at 13 minutes after the hour to the latest on Jimmy Carter's historic visit to Cuba. Last night, the former president delivered an unprecedented speech in halting Spanish, but the message was loud and clear.

CNN's John Zarrella joins us now from Havana live with all of that -- hello, John.

JOHN ZARRELLA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Leon -- certainly a landmark event. Where we are right now is called Parque Central, Central Park in Havana. And these guys here usually come here every single day, and what they do is they talk about more -- really they argue about baseball. Who is good, who is not in the major leagues and in the Cuban leagues.

But today the talk has been more than just about baseball. It has been about that speech, about Jimmy Carter's speech last night, delivered at the University of Havana, where he highlighted the differences between the United States, differences between the United States and Cuba, and talked about what needed to be done to bridge the gap between the two nations.

At one point, the former president said that he believed the United States, because it is the big superpower, needed to take the lead in making change for the positive.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY CARTER, FMR. U.S. PRESIDENT (through translator): I hope that the United States Congress very soon will act so as to allow the traveling without any restriction between the United States and Cuba, to establish trade relations in an open manner and to do away with the embargo.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZARRELLA: Now, an interesting take in this morning's drama, the Communist Party newspaper. The headline reads, "I have come in search of an answer for a positive relationship between the U.S. and Cuba." On the inside, there is no actual verbatim of the entire speech. The take that's given is a take that highlights all that Jimmy Carter pointed out was wrong with the United States, but very little of what Jimmy Carter said was wrong with Cuba. So quite a slanted article and approach. Now, let me give you a look over here to our left. This is something you don't often see in Cuba. This is a group of opposition people here. We talked to them a little while ago. They told us that they were very encouraged by Jimmy Carter's speech. They thought it was a momentous moment in Cuban history and will go down that way. They believe that it gave them great insights into what democracy is, what democracy should be, and they believe that it will lead to certainly subtle changes to come here in Cuba.

So a very big night last night for President Carter, a landmark speech given here on this island nation -- Leon.

HARRIS: Well, John, we have to press on you for a sports report as well. There was a baseball game last night that President Carter made an appearance at.

ZARRELLA: That's exactly right. And if President Castro was upset with anything Jimmy Carter said, he sure didn't show it. The two of them went to the ball game, an east-west all star game at the Latin-American Stadium here, and Jimmy Carter with Fidel Castro showing him how to pitch, because you probably recall, Leon, Castro tried out for the Washington Senators as a pitcher way back in the '50s...

HARRIS: That's right.

ZARRELLA: ... early '50s. He was showing Jimmy Carter how to throw pitches. And then after that was done, the ball was tossed to President Castro, and then he threw a pitch to home plate, which was promptly bunted foul by the batter. Probably appropriate that that batter didn't try for a base hit off of President Castro -- Leon.

HARRIS: Yes, that would be -- he would then have the record for the shortest career ever if he were able to hit Fidel Castro's pitch out of the park. All right. John, thanks much -- John Zarrella reporting live for us from Havana.

ZARRELLA: It's a pleasure.

HARRIS: John, be careful down there -- have a good one. We'll check back with you later on.

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