Cuba does not want charity: Castro

HAVANA: Cuban leader Fidel Castro called for an end to the U.S. embargo and said Cuba was not asking for “charity,” hours after U.S. President Barack Obama lifted curbs on travel and money transfers by Cuban-Americans. Mr. Castro said the Obama administration did not go far enough in softening sanctions, and criticised it for leaving in place the embargo that bars most trade and travel between the two countries.
The White House on Monday said Americans would now be able to make unlimited transfers of money and visits to relatives in Cuba. Under Bush administration rules, Cuban-Americans were eligible to travel here only every three years and send up to $300 to relatives every three months.
Mr. Castro responded in an online column on Monday night. The former President wrote that the U.S. had announced the repeal of “several hateful restrictions,” but had stopped short of real change. “Of the blockade, which is the cruellest of measures, not a word was uttered,” he wrote.
Mr. Castro noted that several U.S. Senators favoured lifting the trade embargo and urged Mr. Obama to seize the opportunity. “Conditions in place”
“The conditions are in place for Obama to use his talent in a constructive policy that ends something that has failed for nearly half a century,” he wrote.
While analysts say the U.S. policy change could usher in a new era of openness between the two countries, few here think it will mean the end of the trade embargo, which has choked off nearly all U.S. trade with the island for 47 years and counting.