Skepticism, hope on eve of Carter visit to Cuba

Carter said he hopes to "explore issues of mutual interest ... and to share ideas on how to improve" U.S.-Cuban relations.

HAVANA, Cuba (CNN) -- For more than two decades Cuban President Fidel Castro and former U.S. President Jimmy Carter were divided by the Cold War, communicating through clandestine intermediaries, calculated rhetoric and in the face of fierce opposition in both nations to Cuba-U.S. reconciliation.

But the October 2000 funeral of flamboyant former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau brought together the two leaders as honorary pallbearers. And it was in Montreal that Castro first brought up the possibility of this week's historic meeting.

Carter touches down in Havana Sunday morning, the first U.S. president to travel to the Caribbean island since Calvin Coolidge in January 1928. The five-day visit, during which Carter will meet with Castro as well as opposition leaders, comes at a tenuous period in U.S.-Cuban relations, with tough talk on human rights and biological weapons mixed with increased trade and ties between U.S. businesses and Cuba.

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Carter downplayed expectations for his visit, saying he would not negotiate with Cuba. But he did express hope he could at least jump-start a dialogue between the two nations.

"It is an opportunity to explore issues of mutual interest between our citizens and to share ideas on how to improve the relationship between the United States and Cuba," Carter said in a statement issued by the Carter Center, the pro-democracy organization he founded in 1982.

Official cites Castro's respect for Carter

On the face of it, Castro and Carter are an odd couple.

Since leaving the White House in 1981, Carter has dedicated himself to safeguarding human rights, resolving conflicts and enhancing democracies worldwide. U.S. administrations, meanwhile, have long vilified Castro as an insular, authoritarian ruler who preserves his power at the expense of his people.

But Bernardo Benes, who carried out secret diplomatic missions for Washington in Cuba between 1977 and 1986, says that mutual respect could produce progress this week.

"Castro told me many times," Benes said, "when he spoke of Jimmy Carter, he always mentioned ... his moral and religious values."

Relations between Washington and Havana improved early in the Carter administration, starting with the creation of a U.S. Interests Section in Havana in 1977, the first official U.S. representation in the Cuban capital since diplomatic ties were cut 16 years earlier.

A shrimp boat returning from Mariel, Cuba, is packed with Cubans as it lands at Florida's Key West Naval Base in this April 30, 1980 file photo.

Carter hammered out deals allowing Cuban-Americans to visit Cuba once a year and expediting the return of American citizens and dual nationals from Cuba to the United States. Castro, in what Benes called a goodwill gesture to Carter, released 3,600 political prisoners from Cuban jails in 1978.

But U.S.-Cuban relations suffered a setback two years later, when more than 100,000 Cubans boarded a chaotic flotilla of boats in Mariel, Cuba, and headed to Florida with Castro's blessing -- catching the U.S. Coast Guard and Carter by surprise.

Many mixed signals

The killing of four Cuban-Americans when the Cuban military shot down their U.S.-owned planes in 1996 and the bitter legal battle over Elian Gonzalez, a 5-year-old rescued by U.S. authorities after his mother died while fleeing Cuba, further heightened tensions between the two nations. And just this week, a senior Bush administration official said Cuba is trying to develop biological weapons and is transferring its technical expertise to countries hostile to the United States -- claims Cuban officials denied.

But there has also been movement toward reconciliation. In recent years, under pressure from U.S. farmers and business interests, Congress relaxed the 41-year-old embargo against Cuba by allowing trade in food and medicine.

American opinions on Carter's visit are as varied and emotional as they are on U.S.-Cuban relations in general.

Castro wants to talk about ending the U.S. trade embargo.

"It's much ado about nothing," said U.S. Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican who represents a strong anti-Castro constituency in Miami, Florida. "Castro is never going to change. Are we ever going to understand that the man really is a dictator?"

In contrast, Alfredo Duran, vice president of the Cuban Committee for Democracy, which supports normalizing U.S.-Cuban ties, called the visit "a great trip." And Julia Sweig, deputy director of Latin American studies for the Council on Foreign Relations, said the meeting's symbolism could influence Cuban and American opinion.

"It will be a very important step marking the continued erosion marking the old sense that the embargo makes sense," she said.

Inside Cuba, the run-up to Carter's visit has been marked by several human rights gestures from Havana.

Earlier this week, the Cuban government freed from prison Vladimiro Roca Antunez, one of Cuba's best-known political dissidents.

And on Friday, Projecto Varela, an illegal but tolerated Christian liberation movement, sent 11,020 petitions to the National Assembly calling for a national referendum on free speech, free assembly, political prisoners, private business ownership and democratic elections.

Cuba's constitution requires the National Assembly consider legislative proposals presented by a petition with the names of at least 10,000 registered voters. While few expect the reforms to be enacted, Project Varela's ability to simply collect the signatures was a notable development.

Whatever it does for democracy, the president of the Cuban assembly, Ricardo Alarcon, expressed hopes that Carter's visit could drastically improve U.S.-Cuban relations.

"President Carter represents the future, a day when there will be a mutual respect and a good neighbor policy between the U.S. and Cuba, a future with a policy based on certain moral and ethical values," Alarcon said.