Following are excerpts from a letter given to Jimmy Carter by Jorge Mas Santos of the Cuban American National Foundation last Thursday.

  T hank you for receiving our delegation today to discuss your upcoming trip to Cuba. . . . There is great concern that your visit will hurt, rather than help, the people of Cuba.

  Frankly, we share some of this concern. It is deeply troubling that you have entered into discussions with the Cuban regime, thereby giving a measure of legitimacy to a small group that rules through fear rather than the consent of the governed.. . .

  As you develop your program, consider the following:

  • Four decades after the revolution, the political prisons are still full. Attached is a list of some of the hundreds of prisoners of conscience. Castro has said you can go where you want. Why not go unannounced to the cells of Dr. Oscar Elías Biscet, Francisco Chaviano, Vladimiro Roca, Jorge Luis García Pérez Antúnez, Juan Carlos Leyva and others?

  • You are aware of Oswaldo Payá and his work on the Varela Project. There is healthy debate both on and off the island as to whether the formulation of the Varela Project meets the many needs for a political opening in Cuba. It is, however, inarguably the most developed and advanced political expression of free thought extant.

  The more than 10,000 individuals who have signed the Varela petition have done so at great risk. No one is better positioned than you, Mr. President, to give
  international recognition and support to this movement.

  Moreover, should you have an opportunity to discuss the Varela Project on a live broadcast over Cuban TV or before a large gathering, you could literally raise the
  free-speech and human-rights movement to a higher level.

  • There is now a significant number of independent professional journalists in Cuba who report the news despite harassment, beatings and imprisonment. The regime
  seeks to limit their effectiveness by banning them from all official events. I urge that you invite the independent journalists to all your press functions on an equal basis
  with all other domestic and foreign press.

  • Few grass-roots movements in Cuba today are as exciting as the growth of the independent libraries. Most libraries are simple rooms in people's homes, where any Cuban can find books and magazines otherwise unavailable. We strongly urge everyone who travels to Cuba to take a box or two of Spanish-language books and periodicals with them to give to the independent libraries.

  • We will support an immediate lifting of the embargo if the Cuban regime: frees all political prisoners and allows international human-rights groups into the country;
  allows the free flow of information into and out of the island; and announces free and fair elections within 12 months, contested by multiple political parties that can
  campaign and have access to the media, monitored by groups such as the Carter Center, the United Nations and the Organization of American States.