WASHINGTON, Feb. 19 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Sarah Stephens, director of the Center for Democracy in the Americas, released the following statement about the retirement of Cuba's president Fidel Castro:
"The United States has just spent almost fifty years trying to stop an event that has just taken place. Fidel Castro's retirement and his peaceful replacement with new leadership in Cuba is the clearest possible demonstration that U.S. policy has failed.
"After every U.S. President since Eisenhower tried to kill or topple Fidel Castro from power, it is essential that we have a new policy of engagement that respects Cuba's sovereignty and puts the U.S. in step with the nations of the Americas and the rest of the world.
"If President Bush cannot answer the call to history that has been issued in Havana, perhaps his successor will respond with greater imagination when he or she takes office in Washington next year.
"People here should not misunderstand this historic moment: the Cubans we know, even determined political opponents of Fidel Castro, are proud of their country, proud of its accomplishments, and persuaded that only Cubans in Cuba - not politicians in Washington or hardliners in Miami - have the right and responsibility to determine their own destiny. We owe them that opportunity, now more than ever."
The Center for Democracy in the Americas (CDA) is devoted to changing U.S. policy toward the countries of the Americas by basing our relations on mutual respect, recognizing positive models of governance in the region, and fostering dialogue particularly with those governments and movements with which U.S. policy is at odds.
Over the last seven years, our Cuba program has organized trips to Cuba for thirty-one Members of the U.S. House and Senate, and for staff delegations from seventeen Congressional offices. We have met with President Fidel Castro on eight occasions.
The Center's website is: http://www.democracyinamericas.org/.
The Center for Democracy in the Americas
