Bush criticizes new Cuban leadership

WASHINGTON — President Bush said Wednesday that Cuba's post-Fidel Castro leadership has made only "empty gestures at reform" and rejected calls for easing of U.S. restrictions on the communist island.

"Until there is a change of heart and a change of compassion and a change of how the Cuban government treats its people, there's no change at all," Bush said at the State Department to the Council of Americas, a business group that supports democracy and open markets in the Western Hemisphere. "Cuba will not be a land of liberty so long as free expression is punished and free speech can take place only in hushed whispers and silent prayers. And Cuba will not become a place of prosperity just by easing restrictions on the sale of products that the average Cuban cannot afford."

The White House also said Wednesday that the president spoke by videoconference this week with democratic activists in Cuba, an unprecedented move that may enrage the Castro government.

The developments are part of a stepped-up effort by Bush to talk about Cuba and press for political change since Fidel Castro officially stepped down in February after nearly a half-century ruling the island. Fidel's brother, Raul, took over as president in the ailing leader's place, and has unveiled a series of changes in Cuba since then, from raising salaries to dropping irritating limits on what Cubans can buy and sell.

For years, lawmakers of both parties have been trying to chip away at the United States' Cold War-era trade, travel and home visit restrictions aimed at undermining a hostile government just 90 miles from U.S. shores. They contend the leadership change in Havana provides the opportunity to lift the embargo.

But Bush has stressed that a new Castro does not mean a new Cuba, and he did so again on Wednesday.

He said Cuba's government must allow Cubans "to pick their own leaders in free and fair elections," release all political prisoners and respect human rights "in word and deed."

"This is the policy of the United States and it must not change until the people of Cuba are free," the president said.

In the teleconference that occurred Tuesday, Bush spoke with Martha Beatriz Roque, one of the 75 pro-democracy activists arrested in a 2003 crackdown for offenses against the Castro regime; Berta Soler, the wife of an activist still jailed for treason, and Jorge Luis Garcia Perez, who was released last year after 17 years in prison.