MIAMI, May 14 -- In an unprecedented speech to the Cuban people by an American political leader Tuesday, former President Jimmy Carter urged Cuba to adopt a Democratic system and allow inspections of prisons for violations of civil rights.
He also said the United States should end the 42-year economic embargo of Cuba.
"Our two nations have been trapped in a destructive state of belligerence for 42 years, and it is time for us to change our relationship and the way we think and talk about each other," he said on national television. "Because the United States is the most powerful nation, we should take the first step."
Carter said Cuba and President Fidel Castro have adopted a socialist government where one political party dominates, and people are not permitted to oppose it.
"The term (democracy) is embedded in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which Cuba signed in 1948, and it was defined very precisely by all the others countries of the Americas in the Inter-American Democratic Charter last September," he said.
Carter endorsed a petition drive that collected 11,020 signatures that urges a referendum on democracy and human rights. The Cuban constitution said that any issue can get on the ballot with 10,000 signatures but there is virtually no hope that it will happen.
"When Cubans exercise this freedom to change laws peacefully by a direct vote, the world will see that Cubans, and not foreigners, will decide the future of this country," he said.
Carter also suggested that international agencies be allowed inside Cuba's prisons to talk to political prisoners.
"I would ask that you permit the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit prisons and that you would receive the United Nations Human Rights Commissioner to address such issues as prisoners of conscience and the treatment of inmates," Carter said. "These visits could help to refute any unwarranted criticisms."
He said the people of both nations would benefit from better relations and that's what most people want.
"Public opinion polls show that a majority of the people in the United States would like to see our economic embargo ended, normal travel between our two countries, friendship between our people and Cuba to be welcomed into the community of democracies in the Americas," he said.
"At the same time, most of my fellow citizens believe that the issues of economic and political freedom need to be addressed by the Cuban people," Carter said.
Although Carter, 77, is traveling as a private citizen, his visit to the communist nation is viewed as the highest-level U.S. visit to Cuba since Castro took control in 1959.
President Bush said earlier that Carter's visit did not complicate his policy toward Cuba and President Fidel Castro because it remains the same.
"Castro is a dictator and he is repressive," Bush said. "And he ought to have free elections, and he ought to have a free press and he ought to free his prisoners and he ought to encourage free enterprise. My message to the Cuban people is to demand freedom. You've got a president who stands with you."
He said he will carry the same hard line with him Monday when he visits Miami for Cuban Independence Day.
Carter began his six-day visit to Cuba Sunday with a long dinner with the 75-year-old Castro. He returns to the United States Friday after a 10 a.m. EDT meeting with reporters.
Earlier Tuesday, Carter visited an AIDS sanatorium and an agricultural cooperative. At the sanatorium he asked if any steps were being taken to curb the prostitution he has been told flourishes at the tourist hotels, or encourage the use of condoms to prevent disease.
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