In what he called an important policy announcement, President Bush outlined three specific steps his administration is taking regarding travel, immigration, and planning for the future.
"Clearly the Castro regime will not change by its own choice," Bush told a gathering in the White House Rose Garden on Friday. "But Cuba must change," he added.
He said his new initiatives are intended to "hasten the arrival of a new, free, democratic Cuba."
First, Bush said, he has ordered his administration to strengthen enforcement of existing travel restrictions, which forbid Americans from traveling to Cuba for pleasure. The Cuban government - not the people - make money off U.S. tourists, he said.
He also accused the Cuban government of encouraging the illicit sex trade. "This cruel exploitation of innocent women and children must be exposed and must be ended," he said.
Second, Bush said his administration will increase the number of legal Cuban immigrants allowed into the U.S. each year. It will also launch a public outreach campaign to let Cubans know about "safe and legal routes into the United States." This will prevent Cubans fleeing the dictatorship from risking their lives at sea. "Our goal is to help more Cubans safely complete their journey to a free land," he said.
Third, Bush said, his administration will establish a commission to "plan for the happy day when Castro's regime is no more and democracy comes to the island." He said Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Mel Martinez will co-chair the commission.
"They will draw upon experts within our government to plan for Cuba's transition from Stalinist rule to a free and open society; to identify ways to hasten the arrival of that day."
Bush said America is not alone in calling for freedom inside Cuba. A growing number of countries now recognize the "oppressive nature of the Castro regime," he said.
Bush also said his administration will attempt to break the Cuban information embargo by expanding the distribution of printed, Internet and broadcast reports inside Cuba.
"Tyrants hate the truth. They jam messages," he said. "We're determined to bring the truth to the people who suffer under Fidel Castro."
Bush announced his new Cuba policy on the 135th anniversary of a Cuban battle to throw off colonial rule. "Today the struggle for freedom continues," he said, hailing by name some of the "brave dissidents" who continue that struggle.
Bush noted that last year in Miami, he offered the Cuban government "a way forward to democracy, hope, and better relations with the United States." But the Castro government refused Bush's demand for free and fair elections, free speech, and private enterprise.
"Since I made that offer, we have seen how the Castro regime answers diplomatic initiatives," Bush said on Friday. "The dictator has responded with defiance and contempt and a new round of brutal oppression that outraged the world's conscience."
Cuba's political prisoners are mistreated, Bush said - beaten, put in solitary confinement, and denied medical treatment.
"Elections in Cuba are still a sham," he continued. "Opposition groups still organize and meet at their own peril. Private economic activity is still strangled, non-government trade unions are still oppressed and suppressed; property rights are still ignored; and most goods and services produced in Cuba are still reserved for the political elite," he said.
To applause of the Cuban-Americans joining him in the Rose Garden, President Bush ended his speech with the phase, "Cuba libre."
