Mayaguez, Puerto Rico, Oct 29 (EFE).- A Cuban dissident group on Wednesday called on President Clinton to invite other Communist leaders to the United States - specifically Cuban President Fidel Castro - in light of the visit by Chinese President Jiang Zemin.
"If the White House rolls out the red carpet for China, which supported the Korean and Vietnam wars in which thousands of Americans died, why not do the same for Fidel Castro?" said Angel Padilla, a delegate of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation in Puerto Rico.
Zemin, who will spend eight days in the United States, will also visit Cuba, in a move the Cuban dissident sees as a further opening of the island's political process.
The Cuban leader, exiled in Puerto Rico, added that if the embargoes against China and Vietnam have been lifted, the embargo against Cuba should also be lifted.
"We cannot welcome an undemocratic Chinese president and demand that Castro move toward democracy" as a prerequisite to re-establishing relations, said Padilla.
Padilla expects that Zemin's visit to Cuba will strengthen economic ties between the countries, despite a weakened Cuban economy, though he does not foresee that the Chinese government will subsidize the Cuban economy as the former Soviet Union did for so many years. EFE