Ricardo Alarcon de Quesada, Speaker of the People’s Power National Assembly (the Cuban Parliament) is considered one of the island nation’s leaders with more in-depth knowledge about international affairs. He’s a respected analyst of Washington’s Cuba policy.

Immersed in many a task, Mr. Alarcon agreed to talk with Cuba Excellencies about the island’s ongoing situation, its relations with the U.S. government and the prospects of the Bolivarian Initiative for the Americas –an economic and social integration project for Latin America aimed at contributing to the development of the peoples of the region.

How do you think the next U.S. presidential elections will play out? All I know is that Bush won’t win because by law he can’t seek a third term in office.

Could a new U.S. administration –as many expected to happen with Al Gore- soften its ban on the island or knock down travel restrictions for American citizens to come to Cuba? I don’t know if it could, but that’ll be great. There won’t be restrictions for American citizens of Cuban origin, and Cuba won’t put any restrictions, either. The U.S. travel ban against Cuba would be lifted and that would force the U.S. government to open trade between the two countries, otherwise American businesspeople would lose money, and they’re not going to let that happen. In a word, Washington would have to lift the economic and trade embargo on the island.

According to some studies conducted in the U.S., as many as ten million Americans would like to spend their vacations on the island if they would be allowed to travel freely to Cuba. And that could happen in the course of just a few years. I don’t know whether some ten million Americans would like to travel to Cuba immediately, but I can tell you that Cubans living in the States –there are nearly a million of them- would surely come down to Cuba.

What are the main advantages the Bolivarian Initiative for the Americas (ALBA) has as stacked up against the Free Trade Association for the Americas (ALCA)? The basic difference lies in the fact that ALCA is an association fostered by the U.S. only for economic purposes and that would eventually hurt the underdeveloped nations of Latin America and the Caribbean. This project would give American exporters the possibility of having access to those markets and glut them with their agricultural and industrial products, thus leaving those nations in economic and social ruins. However, ALBA is an economic and social integration project that seeks the development of those nations willing to sign up for it.

How important will this project be in the face of the European Union? Indeed, the U.S. is the main foe of ALBA.

Cuba has supported the Caribbean throughout all these years since the 1959 Revolution. What are the basis of today’s cooperation with the region, for instance in the case of Operation Miracle? Since the early going of the Revolution, Cuba has never been isolated in the Caribbean. Our country has had excellent relations with the countries of the region. If we look back in history, Cuba and Jamaica had ties long before the independence. After the triumph of the 1959 Revolution, the Organization of America States (OAS), as part of Washington’s hostile policy, called for breaking all ties with Cuba. Nevertheless, when Jamaica won its independence and was invited to join the OAS, it put the condition of keeping relations with Cuba. Countries like Guyana, Barbados and Trinidad & Tobago followed suit later on. It’s not just Operation Miracle, a project that has given free eye operations to thousands of Caribbean and Latin American people. Thousands of scholarships are doled out every year for Caribbean citizens, so that they come to Cuba to study here. It’s not odd at all to find someone in the streets of any Caribbean nation speaking Spanish with a Cuban accent. That’s no doubt someone who went to college here in Cuba.