| The U.S. State Department's top official for Latin | | | | frankly we don't see any significant possibility of |
| America said Wednesday Cuba's government has | | | | change of any kind until Fidel is gone." |
| become more hard-line since the ailing Fidel Castro | | | | Shannon said the United States has no independent |
| transferred power to his brother Raul in late July. | | | | information on the condition of Fidel Castro, who |
| Assistant Secretary of State Thomas Shannon says | | | | underwent intestinal surgery in July, but he termed it |
| U.S. officials see no reformer in the current Cuban | | | | significant that the Cuban leader was not able to |
| political lineup. VOA's David Gollust reports from the | | | | make an appearance at the birthday events early this |
| State Department. | | | | month. |
| Raul Castro made an overture for dialogue with the | | | | He said if the past is any indicator, Raul Castro, |
| United States in a speech December 2 at a rally | | | | known as a brutal enforcer of communist rule, will |
| marking his brother's 80th birthday. | | | | not be an agent of change in Cuba and none of the |
| But the State Department's top diplomat for Latin | | | | other senior figures in the hierarchy have shown any |
| America says if anything, the communist government | | | | signs of being reformers either. |
| in Havana has become more rigid and orthodox since | | | | Shannon said after Fidel Castro passes from the |
| the transfer of power, and the Raul Castro gesture | | | | scene, Cuban leaders will have a strategic choice to |
| is not being viewed here as a real opportunity for | | | | make: |
| change. | | | | "Once he goes, the successor government is going |
| In a talk with reporters, Assistant Secretary of State | | | | to have to chart out some kind of path into the |
| for Western Hemisphere Affairs Thomas Shannon | | | | future," he added. "The question is what kind of path |
| gave a bleak assessment of prospects for early | | | | does it chart out? Does it chart out a path that only |
| change in U.S.-Cuban relations. | | | | deepens the repression and deepens the misery? Or |
| He said there is no doubt that responsibility for | | | | does it attempt to chart out a path that is one of |
| running day-to-day affairs in Cuba has been passed | | | | engagement with the world and an opening, both |
| to Raul Castro, the longtime defense minister, but | | | | political and economic. But there are no clear signals |
| that there is no hint of change in the government's | | | | about what that path is going to be." |
| approach: | | | | Shannon said the Bush administration is comfortable |
| "With Fidel still alive, the regime has actually become | | | | with the terms of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act from |
| harder, more orthodox," he said. "And it's not in a | | | | Congress, which forbids U.S. recognition of any |
| position to signal in any meaningful way, what | | | | transitional Cuban government that includes Raul |
| direction it will take post-Fidel. So we don't feel that | | | | Castro. |
| we've lost an important moment, because quite | | | | |