US President George W. Bush called on the world to steer Cuba out of its "tropical Gulag" toward democracy, drawing charges from Havana that he is inciting violence.
In his first address since 2003 to focus solely on Cuba, Bush on Wednesday also said he would create a "freedom fund" to promote democratic reforms in Cuba, taking advantage of ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro's fading grip on power.
But he adamantly refused to lift the decades-old US sanctions on the communist island.
"Viva Cuba libre" -- long live a free Cuba -- Bush said in a speech at the US State Department.
Cuba immediately fired back, with Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque accusing Bush of making "a plea for violence, a call for the use of force to topple the revolution and impose his ideas on Cuba."
The influential Cuban American National Foundation welcomed Bush's call for democratic reforms, but said his administration lacked a clear strategy to bring about a change in Cuba. It called for direct an substantial assistance to Cuba's democratic opposition.
Bush called on the international community to invest economic and political capital in Cuba's democracy movements and said countries that do business with Havana were enriching a brutal elite with an iron grip on power.
"The socialist paradise is a tropical Gulag," the president, who shared the stage with relatives of jailed opponents of Castro's regime, said in a reference to former Soviet prison camps for political dissidents.
Castro, 81, continues to be sidelined from power since he underwent gastrointestinal surgery in July last year. Raul Castro, 76, is serving as interim president of Cuba, while his elder brother recovers.
Bush flatly rejected widespread calls for lifting the nearly half-century US economic sanctions imposed after Cuba's 1959 revolution, including possible pending action at the UN.
"As long as the regime maintains its monopoly over the political and economic life of the Cuban people, the United States will keep the embargo in place," he said, to applause from the crowd.
But Bush said US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Cuba-born US Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez would seek contributions for a billion-dollar "freedom fund" tied to future democratic reforms in Havana.
"Now is the time to stand with the Cuban people as they stand up for their liberty. Now is the time for the world to put aside its differences and prepare for Cubans' transition to a future of freedom and progress and promise," he said.
The fund would provide grants and loans and debt relief to Cubans -- but only once their government has fully embraced core liberties like freedom of speech and of the press and periodic, free and fair multi-party elections.
Bush also called on other countries to make more public shows of support for democracy activists in Cuba, and warned that there may be a price to pay for countries that fail to help.
"The dissidents of today will be the nation's leaders tomorrow. When freedom finally comes, they will surely remember who stood with them," the president said.
He also had a message for Cuba's security apparatus, saying "When Cubans rise up to demand their liberty, the liberty they deserve, you've got to make a choice."
"Will you defend a disgraced and dying order by using force against your own people or will you embrace your people's desire for change?" Bush said.
A senior aide had said on Tuesday that this was not a call for "armed rebellion."
Bush, who never named either Castro, ruled out a softening of US policies if Raul were to take over permanently and enact what some Cubans expect to be piecemeal economic reforms.
"We will not support the old way with new faces, the old system held together by new chains. The operative word in our future dealings with Cuba is not stability; the operative word is freedom," he said.
But he said that he was prepared to allow non-governmental organizations and religious groups to provide computers and Internet access, as long as Havana lifts restrictions on using the World Wide Web.
And he invited young Cubans to take part in a scholarship program.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese