Castro Must Yield to U.S., Bush Says

President Bush denounced Fidel Castro on Monday as a tyrant maintaining a “stranglehold” on Cuba and declared that the U.S. will continue its economic quarantine of the Communist island unless the Cuban president accedes to a long list of conditions, including free elections.

Speaking first at the White House and then here in the heart of the nation’s fiercely anti-Castro Cuban American community, Bush laid out his vision of normal diplomatic relations between the United States and a free Cuba. His remarks were the culmination of an administration policy review that began in January.

Cheered lustily by several thousand flag-waving, fist-pumping Cuban Americans in a Miami auditorium, the president said open trade with Cuba and a “robust” aid program “will only--only--be possible when Cuba has a new government that is fully democratic.”

But Bush’s adherence to a hard line on Cuba is likely to collide soon with attempts by members of Congress to ease the long-standing trade embargo. They argue that economic sanctions imposed more than 40 years ago have only harmed the Cuban people and have not been successful in removing Castro from power.

Bush did not indicate whether his vision for Cuba includes a role for Castro.

“The choice rests with Mr. Castro,” he said in Washington. “If he accepts our offer, he can bring help to his people and hope to our relations.”

In Miami, as his cheering listeners leapt to their feet, Bush declared: “Mr. Castro must now act. He has his chance.”

Among Bush’s demands were free, internationally monitored balloting for the National Assembly. Elections are set for next year.

“Mr. Castro, once, just once, show that you’re unafraid of a real election,” Bush said in Miami as his audience responded with another ovation.

The president indicated that even if Castro spurned his “Initiative for a New Cuba,” the proposals would promote democratic freedoms “step by step.”

“It’s sticks and carrots--both,” said Otto J. Reich, the State Department’s point man on Latin America.

“Our plan is to accelerate freedom’s progress in Cuba in every way possible,” Bush said. “The goal is freedom for Cuba’s people.”

The president spoke on the 100th anniversary of Cuba’s independence, which, he said, Castro “hijacked” nearly half a century ago. Castro “has turned a beautiful island into a prison,” Bush said.

He also vowed to veto any measure passed by Congress that would ease or repeal the long-standing trade embargo against Cuba. Softening the sanctions would “underwrite tyranny,” he said, “and we cannot let that happen.”

But a strong bipartisan coalition of lawmakers--comprising liberal Democrats, free-trade Republicans and farm-state representatives from both parties--wants to ease or repeal the sanctions, put in place after Castro nationalized U.S. property on the island in 1960.

Momentum for changing U.S. policy toward Cuba has grown in the six years since a tough embargo law was enacted after Castro’s military shot down two civilian airplanes piloted by Cuban Americans.

Many lawmakers who supported the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which codified the trade embargo, now seem willing to ease the embargo or even repeal it.

In 2000, Congress approved limited sales of food and medicine to Cuba. In 2001, the House of Representatives voted to end the widely circumnavigated ban on tourist travel to the island. And this year, the bipartisan coalitions in the House and the Senate are pushing to pry open doors to commerce that have been closed for four decades.

One such trade-promotion bill, called “Bridges to the Cuban People,” has 28 Senate sponsors, six of whom voted in March 1996 for the Helms-Burton Act.

Sen. Christopher J. Dodd (D-Conn.), the bill’s chief sponsor, derided Bush’s proposals to begin direct mail service to Cuba and allow humanitarian aid and support for Cuban dissidents. Unless the trade embargo ends, Dodd said, U.S. policy will remain flawed.

“Throwing worn-out wallpaper over a cracked foundation--which is what the Bush administration proposal amounts to--doesn’t solve the problem,” Dodd said. “We need a fundamental change in the way we look at Cuba.”

A Senate challenge to the Bush policy could come as early as today. Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-N.D.) is pushing an amendment to pending trade legislation that would ease credit restrictions on sales of U.S. food and medicine to Cuba. Currently, Cuba must pay for these imports with scarce cash or obtain loans from foreign banks. Dorgan said he hopes for a vote this week.

A House critic of current U.S. policy toward Cuba, Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.), predicted Monday that Congress will move soon to change policy whether or not the president agrees. Farm-state interests, he said, will soon roll over the embargo supporters, led by Cuban Americans in Miami and the House GOP leadership.

“Pressures are building,” Flake said. “Everyone recognizes it’s a failed policy.”

The embargo has influential backing among top GOP members of Congress, including House Republican Whip Tom DeLay of Texas.

“The president was exactly right to reiterate the fundamental bright-line threshold that Castro must cross to allow expanded relations between the United States and the people of Cuba,” DeLay said Monday.

Here in Miami, Bush was given a hero’s welcome in the James L. Knight International Center. The audience, estimated at 4,000 people, repeatedly interrupted the president with chants of “USA!” and a variety of Cuban liberation slogans.

The session often took on the look of a raucous political rally, and the audience sang the Cuban national anthem with far more vigor than it did “The Star-Spangled Banner.”

Bush’s initiative would provide aid to legitimate U.S. religious and other nongovernmental organizations that directly serve the needs of the Cuban people; offer scholarships in the U.S. for Cuban students and professionals seeking to build independent civil institutions in Cuba; and try to restore direct U.S.-Cuban mail service.

“Even as we seek to end tyranny, we will work to make life better for people living under and resisting Castro’s rule,” the president said.

Although he harshly condemned Castro and his “career of oppression,” Bush did not call outright for a “regime change” in Havana, as he has in the case of Saddam Hussein and Iraq.

“Today’s initiative offers Cuba’s government a different path, leading to a different future--a future of greater democracy and prosperity and respect,” Bush said.

In neither speech did Bush mention the accusations made this month by a senior State Department official that Cuba is developing biological weapons technology. He also did not announce tougher restrictions on travel to Cuba, as had been predicted by some.

“Those are follow-on issues that we’re going to look at throughout the year,” a senior Bush administration official said.

After his remarks here, Bush attended a fund-raiser expected to reap $2 million for Florida Republicans. He was accompanied by his brother Jeb, who is seeking reelection as governor of the state.

Chen reported from Miami and Anderson from Washington. Times staff writer Janet Hook in Washington contributed to this report.