US Secretary of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will on Friday record a message for broadcast to the people of Cuba, as uncertainty grips the communist-ruled island during President Fidel Castro's illness.
WASHINGTON: US Secretary of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will on Friday record a message for broadcast to the people of Cuba, as uncertainty grips the communist-ruled island during President Fidel Castro's illness.
The message will be carried on Radio and TV Marti, a US-funded broadcasting operation designed to send uncensored news to the people of Cuba, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Another State Department official said Rice's message, due to be recorded early Friday afternoon Washington time, would likely be in line with US government statements on Cuba in the past few days.
Thursday, President George W. Bush made his first comments on the crisis after the elder Castro transferred most of his powers to his brother Raul, until now the defense chief in the only one-party communist-ruled nation in the Americas.
"I urge the Cuban people to work for democratic change on the island," Bush said in a statement.
McCormack on Thursday, criticised what he said was the "imposition" of Raul Castro on the Cuban people, which he said frustrated democratic aspirations.
But US officials have been clear that they also want to avoid a mass exodus from Cuba while working to democratize the Caribbean island of more than 11 million which lies close to the southeastern US state of Florida.
"We encourage the Cuban people to advance that cause as well by remaining in Cuba and working for positive change," McCormack said Thursday.
In another development, McCormack said Friday that the US government had now set up an inter-agency task-force to monitor the situation in Cuba, a constant irritant to US foreign policy for decades.
Castro, nearly 80, ceded his leadership positions Monday to his brother Raul, 75, while he recovers from surgery for intestinal bleeding. Neither of the Castro brothers has been seen in public since the announced transition.
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