Reply #115: Bush Greets Castro Resignation

[Scurrilous]

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"President Bush said Tuesday that the resignation of Fidel Castro “ought to be a period of democratic transition” for Cuba, and said the country must hold free and fair elections to pick a successor after half a century of Communist rule.

“And I mean free and I mean fair,” Mr. Bush added, “not these kind of staged elections that the Castro brothers try to foist off as true democracy.”

The president spoke during a joint news conference with President Paul Kagame of Rwanda, after the two signed a treaty intended to open up trade between the two countries."

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"The question really should be what does this mean for the people in Cuba?” Mr. Bush said during the news conference, in response to a question about what Mr. Castro’s resignation would mean for United States-Cuban relations.

"They’re the ones who suffered under Fidel Castro,” he said. “They’re the ones who were put in prison because of their beliefs. They’re the ones who have been denied a right to live in a free society. So I view this as a period of transition and it should be the beginning of a democratic transition in Cuba."

Mr. Bush has met frequently with the families of political prisoners in Cuba, and he said those prisoners must be freed as a first step toward democracy. He went on to say that some people might argue this is a time for ensuring stability in Cuba.

"In the meantime," he said, "political prisoners will rot in prison and the human condition will remain pathetic in many cases."

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/20/world/americas/20rwanda.html