Jeb Bush denies Cuban allegations

TALLAHASSEE, Fla., May 19 (UPI) -- Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Monday said allegations by a leading Cuban government figure that he is urging his brother to invade the communist nation were the usual lies by Cuban officials.

Ricardo Alarcon, leader of the Cuban National Assembly, said Jeb Bush and others were working for a change by force of President Fidel Castro's regime.

Bush denied it with a chuckle, indicating it was all nonsense.

"He's wrong. What I do favor, which 90 percent, 95 percent, 100 percent of people -- not just Cubans but people who live in our community and this country -- should aspire to is democracy and freedom for Cuba," Bush said.

"U.S. policy should be that we should transition away from one of the last ugly dictatorships in the world to democracy and freedom," he said. "That implies that it can't be done while Castro is there, but it does not imply an invasion."

He said he believes that is also the policy of President George W. Bush, his brother.

Tuesday is Cuban Independence Day, and the president is expected to make some remarks on Cuban policy at a White House ceremony.

Alarcon appeared on the ABC News television program Sunday, and said, "You have, first of all, those in Miami that are calling for even a military action against Cuba, including the governor."

Later in the interview, he repeated the contention.

"I am convinced that not very far from President Bush and his entourage are people that are not just willing, but actively working toward that," he said.

"(Jeb Bush) was very open, calling publicly in Florida to do in the neighborhood, in the nation of Cuba, what you just did to Iraq," Alarcon said.

Bush has never made such a statement, at least publicly, although some other politicians in Miami have been more vocal than he has been.

During an incident Thursday in which the Coast Guard chased down six Cuban refugees trying to reach shore in the Florida Keys, Rep. Mario Diaz Balart, R-Fla., said the situation was so bad that "Castro must go."

Those refugees were repatriated Monday along with 21 others who were intercepted in three other confrontations at sea last week.

Relations with Cuba are more strained now than in recent years. The United States condemned prison sentences ranging up to 27 years for 75 Cuban dissidents. President Bush will meet with relatives of some of the dissidents Tuesday.

The administration has also condemned the executions by firing squad of three men for trying to hijack a Havana Harbor ferry to Florida.

Then on Tuesday, the United States expelled 14 Cuban diplomats from the U.S. Interest Section in Washington and the United Nations amid allegations of spying.

The Cuban Foreign Ministry said at the time it was an effort to provoke conflict.