A Castro Coming to United States
BLITZER: Many Cuban-Americans, especially in south Florida, they are furious right now at the Obama administration that a Castro, yes from the Castro family is being allowed to visit the United States this week. Our foreign affairs correspondent Jill Dougherty has the story. (</s>BEGIN VIDEOTA-E) JILL DOUGHERTY, CNN FOREIGN AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Her family name says it all, Castro, and she's coming to the United States. Mariela Castro Espin, daughter of Cuban leader Raul Castro, granted a visa by the State Department to attend an academic conference. In Miami's Little Havana neighborhood, some Cuban-Americans are furious.</s>TERESA PINCHET, CUBAN-AMERICAN: She's coming here just to spread their communism because that's what it is, and they're coming under false pretenses to try to lift the embargo.</s>DOUGHERTY: The 50-year-old directs the Cuban National Center for Sex Education in Havana. She's an activist for gay rights in Cuba, which were non-existent in the early years of Fidel Castro's regime, but have changed in recent years. In a 2008 interview with CNN, Castro is seen brushing off her communist pedigree. "The only advantage that the person who is now president is also my papa, and that I can talk to him," she said. "But don't think I can talk to him a lot." The Bush administration granted Castro a visa in 2002, but some lawmakers say it's an outrage to do it this time.</s>REP. ILEANA ROS-LEHTINEN (R), FLORIDA: People are in hunger strikes, dissidents in Cuba jails. Nothing has improved. It's all gotten worse. And yet, here, it's just all systems go for the Obama administration. Raul Castro's daughter wants to come to the U.S., sure, she's an academic. Let her come.</s>DOUGHERTY: Ros-Lehtinen points to Alan Gross, an American imprisoned in Cuba on charges of subversion. She says the Obama administration should send a message to the Cuban lead by refusing his daughter a visa. The State Department citing privacy concerns won't comment on Castro Espin's case. But says about 100 Cuban academics were invited to the conference in San Francisco, 77 applied for visas. As of Friday, 60 got them, 11 were denied and six were still being processed. A U.S. presidential proclamation rules out visas for high level officials of the Cuban government or communist party for military, police and spies. But it can make exceptions if there are no security concerns and the reason for applying is legitimate. Raul Castro's daughter appears to have passed that test, but not in Miami.</s>EMILIO IZQUIERDO, JR., CUBAN-AMERICAN: It's an offense to the Cuban-American community in USA, and it's a big offense to all patriots.</s>DOUGHERTY (on camera): The State Department says it doesn't link visa policy with larger political, economic and human rights issues. It's based on law. And if Congress wants to change that law, the State Department says, Congress can. Jill Dougherty, CNN, the State Department.</s>BLITZER: Let's dig a little bit deeper right now with Julia Sweig. She's a senior fellow for Latin American studies over at the Council on Foreign Relations, also the author of the book, "Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Cuban Underground." Julia, thanks very much for coming in. It's a significant decision seems to me that the Obama administration allows 60 of these Cubans to come in, including the daughter of Raul Castro. Here's a question: is it linked any way as far as you can tell, to what's going on with Alan Gross, the American held in prison now for two and a half years?</s>JULIA SWEIG, AUTHOR, "INSIDE THE CUBAN REVOLUTION": : Thanks for having me, Wolf. Frankly, I don't see a direct link. The academic exchanges, the cultural exchanges, the student exchanges that the Obama administration has started are continuing and this conference in San Francisco is part of that. The question of Alan Gross is dealt with on a separate track very clearly as the absence of diplomacy shows with regard to the fact that he's still in prison.</s>BLITZER: But the fact that the daughter of the president of Cuba, Raul Castro's daughter is allowed to come into the United States, that's not just an average Cuban academic, if you will. That's a big deal.</s>SWEIG: It's a big deal and several average Cuban academics of high esteem were denied visas, in fact. Mariela Castro coming here to speak about the LGBT agenda, gay rights, family law, civil society in Cuba is very, very significant. And, frankly, I'm a bit puzzled about the denials, on the one hand to long standing scholars that have taught in our universities and I'm surprised that the visa has been granted to Mariela Castro.</s>BLITZER: You saw, 60 out of 77 have been granted so far. That's a pretty significant number.</s>SWEIG: It's significant. I have no idea why professors from Harvard and Columbia and MIT and others that have come here under Obama, under Bush, weren't given the visas. This is all a mishmash, frankly, to me. It's very puzzling. I wish there was a pretty bow to tie around why Mariela, why not the other 10?</s>BLITZER: Is Mariela Castro as someone who could emerge as the leader of Cuba following her father and her uncle?</s>SWEIG: I have no idea, and I don't think she does either. My guess is that the Castro brothers senior are all we're going to see in terms of family governance. She has a very specific space. It's a very important human rights space about civil society, but, you know, we never know and the looking glass is not that bright in terms of leadership succession.</s>BLITZER: It seems to me the past two and a half years in Cuba, for the Castro regime over there, there's been a totally missed opportunity because this president came in, he wanted to see an improvement in U.S.-Cuban relations. But they've taken some of these steps including imprisoning Alan Gross, this American, for 2 1/2 years, that almost make that impossible to go forward.</s>SWEIG: Let me tell you what's with absent. I know that what you see is exchanges and some travel and a lot of Cuban-American travel and remittances to the island despite what Miami says. They're traveling and supporting their family there. What we don't have is a diplomatic framework. What we don't have is a policy framework so that these major issues like Alan Gross, like other big longstanding problems can be dealt with. The administration doesn't have a bilateral diplomatic framework and, frankly, I don't see the U.S. government taking yes for an answer. Most of the political prisoners have been released, not all. Significant, I think, and exorable economic reforms going forward that actually the changes from the Obama administration have been cautious and careful and mindful of Miami.</s>BLITZER: But if they did release Alan Gross, that would be a significant gesture.</s>SWEIG: Of course, it would be, but I think the expect that they do so unilaterally because they so desperately want the embargo to be lifted is the 1980s expectation. It's a Cold War expectation. This is now 50 years in which this Cuban government has learned to live with the embargo. And so, the question of unilateral concessions misses what's really happening and that's why I'm emphasizing the need for a diplomatic framework.</s>BLITZER: Julia Sweig, thanks very much for coming in.</s>SWEIG: Thanks for having me.</s>BLITZER: It's a parent's nightmare: a child thinks his toy is just like a real car and drives it into a busy downtown intersection. We have the frightening video. That's coming up. And something happened to a baseball fan that so rare and so improbable, he's expecting a call from "The Tonight Show."</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Leno or Letterman gotten a hold of you?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope to be on the next flight to Leno in New York City, I hope so.