Bush gets rare exposure in Cuba media

MIAMI — In a highly unusual move, the Cuban government media Thursday published an entire page of excerpts from President Bush's speech on the island, and earlier broadcast some 15 minutes of his address on television.

The step surprised veteran Cuba watchers, who said the rare decision to let Cubans see and read Bush's withering criticism of Havana's leadership clearly signals a shift in strategy — though they're not sure in what direction.

"In the past, they would summarize speeches or quote the parts they liked that suited their purposes," human-rights activist Vladimiro Roca said by telephone from Havana. "I'll tell you this: Something is behind this. If I only knew what."

Bush gave a 30-minute address Wednesday about Cuba, his first in four years. He attacked the Castro administration and outlined ways that Washington could help if communism collapsed and freedom took its place.

Using a feed from CNN en Español, hours later the Cuban TV news program Mesa Redonda (Round Table) aired the second half of Bush's speech.

Although the Bush administration recalls that Cuba also broadcast a part of a Bush speech last year — and ran critical comments by former President Carter — it was the first time any sitting U.S. president appeared for that length of time and unedited in decades.

Thursday's Communist Party daily Granma printed about half of Bush's address in a full page under the headline "Essential Parts of Bush's Speech."

Left out: references by name to various political prisoners on the island. The line "the socialist paradise is a tropical gulag" also did not make it.

But plenty stayed in. The article included Bush's attacks on the Castro brothers, including references to rat-infested jails and a police state. The paper also published Bush's calls for freedom of the press and the right to travel abroad.

The transcript also included the parts where Bush directly addressed Cuban people, including the military.

The U.S. State Department, which hosted Bush for his speech, declined to comment on "what a government-controlled press airs or prints."

One Cuban academic said the decision to run the speech was the talk of Havana's academic circles Thursday. But he said most ordinary Cubans did not watch it: The Round Table program is so dull that hardly anyone watches it.

Some experts wondered whether the decision to air and print the speech was part of interim President Raul Castro's campaign to open the Cuban news media to criticism. Castro, in office since his brother Fidel fell ill 15 months ago, has allowed the media to run articles critical of the system, and also has convened neighborhood meetings to air complaints.

"I am not surprised, because there have been changes in the media which are definitely part of Raul Castro's decisions," Rafael Hernandez, editor of the political magazine Issues, said by phone from Havana. "The changes in the press are something that should have happened sooner."

Hernandez said the Cuban leadership also probably decided to run the speech so Cubans could see Bush and judge for themselves.

"I think U.S. policy is like any horror-movie monster," Hernandez said.