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CNN Sunday Morning
Interview with Joe Contreras
Aired May 12, 2002 - 07:37 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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Well, we're going to turn back to the historic visit that we've been talking about by former President Carter to Cuba. Joe Contreras is "Newsweek" magazine's Miami bureau chief. He joins us live to talk about the significance of the former president's visit.
Good to see you, Joe.
JOE CONTRERAS, NEWSWEEK: Good to be here.
PHILLIPS: All right, well the State Department wants Mr. Carter to tell Fidel Castro that it's time for democracy. What do you think? What's going to happen?
CONTRERAS: Well, I think that Carter will have that opportunity when he has this unprecedented opportunity to address the Cuban people on live television on Tuesday. And I would've expected Carter, given his reputation as a long time champion of democracy and human rights, to convey those sentiments and those opinions to Castro when they have, I think, two or three private meetings.
What will actually come of this in concrete terms I think will be relatively little. I don't expect any significant changes in Cuban policy on the part of the Bush administration. And I certainly don't expect Fidel Castro to launch a Democratic opening after Carter's visit.
PHILLIPS: Well, yesterday, activists in Cuba delivered a petition demanding a referendum for social changes in Cuba. Could you tell us a little bit about this referendum? Give us some background?
CONTRERAS: Yes. Last year, prominent figures in the internal opposition inside Cuba began collecting signatures for a petition that would be submitted to the national assembly for posing a referendum essentially on 43 years of communist rule. This petition needed to obtain at least 10,000 signatures of Cuban citizens, according to the national constitution. And they managed to collect something like 11,000 signatures.
Now no one really expects the rubber stamp national assembly to approve their initiative and vote in favor of holding such a plebicite, but it is a symbolic victory, I think, for the internal opposition, that they manage to collect these signatures and submit them just prior to the arrival of Jimmy Carter. PHILLIPS: All right, so you think the timing of this is significant here, the signing -- the signatures, Carter's trip coming into play?
CONTRERAS: I think the opposition is clearly taking advantage of his arrival to present those signatures as they did yesterday. Originally, I spoke with some of them last month. And they were planning to submit the signatures in July or August. So clearly, they decided to move up the time table for submitting them, in order to gain maximum media exposure. But it's important to point that this process of trying to collect signatures in favor of this referndum goes back several months, well before the Carter trip was even announced. So there's not a direct connection as far as the referendum drive in Carter's visit are concerned, but rather the timing of the submission of signatures.
PHILLIPS: All right, Carter's always been one to address human rights issues. Is he going to do this with Fidel Castro? Yes, no? And I also want to know what type of political pressures you think Carter is under? Or is he not under any type of political pressure back here?
CONTRERAS: Well, I think he's clearly going to take up these issues with Castro in their private meetings. And I would expect President Carter to also tackle head on the issues of democracy and human rights when he speaks to the Cuban people live on television on Tuesday.
As far as political pressures are concerned, clearly the Bush administration is urging him to put these kinds of concerns front and center stage throughout his trip, and also we're told that two of the Miami based U.S. congressmen put pressure on the Bush administration to withhold formal permission to Carter to make this trip. Obviously, that lobbying effort failed, but I think Carter will be under some pressure back here from the Cuban-American community. And also, I think, from the human rights community to raise these matters with Castro, and also in his meetings with the internal opposition.
PHILLIPS: All right, Joe Contrera, "Newsweek" magazine's Miami bureau chief. We'll of course follow the trip. We're going to have live coverage of Carter's arrival. And no doubt, we'll be checking in with you after the meeting takes place between the two leaders. Thanks so much, Joe.
CONTRERAS: Thank you.
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