In an interview on NBC's Meet the Press, Clinton said he had been working toward ``a gradually evolving relationship'' with Havana until Cuban fighters shot down two small planes piloted by Cuban Americans in February 1996. Until then, Clinton had resisted tougher anti-Cuba legislation in Congress, but he signed the so-called Helms-Burton Act after the attack.
``So, we are at an impasse now,'' Clinton said. ``I still want that kind of relationship with Cuba, but we have to have some kind of indication that there will be an opening up, a movement toward democracy, . . . and I don't have that indication today.''
Clinton stopped short of saying he wants diplomatic relations with Cuba, as his reference to Chinese ties would imply, and White House officials said it was not his intent to indicate he wants such ties. ``No,'' said national security spokeswoman Ann Luzatto, ``not under the current circumstances.''
The Cuban president himself rejected prospects for change in the near future. ``In Cuba, there was, there is and there will be a revolution based on principles that are not for sale,'' Castro told 21 heads of government Saturday at the annual Ibero-American summit in Porlamar, Venezuela.
Asked why the United States has active political and economic relations with vast, distant China but not the smaller, closer Cuba, Clinton said China has been willing to ``open up and to work with us'' on weapons proliferation, human rights and environmental issues.
``We've got this ongoing relationship'' with China, he said. ``That's what I wanted to do with Cuba.'' He was headed in that direction by supporting the 1992 Cuba Democracy Act, which toughened economic sanctions but opened the way for humanitarian contacts -- progress that unraveled when Cuba shot down the planes.
Copyright © 1997 The Miami Herald