toledoblade.com --

WASHINGTON - With a ringing statement that "Cuba must change," President Bush reversed course yesterday and announced in a speech directed at Cuban-Americans that he is planning to tighten economic restrictions on Cuba in an effort to force the ouster of leader Fidel Castro, whom he branded a "tyrant."

Flanked in the Rose Garden by Secretary of State Colin Powell and Housing Secretary Mel Martinez, of Florida, himself a Cuban immigrant, Mr. Bush said he will try to make it easier for those wishing to flee Cuba to do so.

He did not offer specifics on how that would be accomplished. The United States has been reluctant to take in Cubans who make the perilous trip by small boat or raft.

Mr. Bush said only that he would undertake a campaign to spell out for the Cuban people "the many routes to safe and legal entry" to the United States.

"We'll increase the number of new Cuban immigrants we welcome every year," he said. "We are free to do so, and we will, for the good of those who seek freedom."

He said more communication with the Cuban people would be tried through Radio and TV Marti broadcasts aimed at Cuba. He cited anti-jamming technology through a new satellite service, launched this year to break through Castro's efforts to keep out U.S. broadcast signals.

"We know that the enemy of every tyrant is the truth. We're determined to bring the truth to the people who suffer under Fidel Castro," Mr. Bush said.

The President said he is asking Mr. Powell and Mr. Martinez to put together a commission to devise ways to help Cuba become a democracy once the aging Cuban leader, who has ruled since 1959, no longer is in power.

Since Mr. Bush made a speech in Miami last year, vowing to work with Congress to ease bans on trade and travel, Castro has cracked down even harder on dissidents, the President insisted. In April, 75 political opponents of Mr. Castro were given prison sentences of up to 20 years.

Mr. Bush said he wants no more Americans going to Cuba as tourists and said enforcement to permit travel only for family visits, humanitarian aid, and research will be tightened. He said the Coast Guard will stop pleasure boats from the United States from traveling to Cuba and will try to keep third parties from entering Cuba for tourism.

"I've instructed the Department of Homeland Security to increase inspections of travelers and shipments to and from Cuba. We will enforce the law," he said.

"A good soul in America that wants to be a tourist goes to a foreign-owned resort, pays the hotel bill. That money goes to the government," the President explained. "The government, in turn, pays the workers a pittance in worthless pesos and keeps the hard currency to prop up the dictator and his cronies."

Mr. Bush cited Cuba as a country where kidnapping and enslaving young women and children for illicit sex is a growing business. That has been the subject of a number of the President's speeches lately, and he has said he will do whatever he can to stop it.

The audience of mostly Cuban-Americans applauded vigorously. They argue that, while lack of trade with the United States keeps Cubans poor, any relaxation of economic sanctions only will delay Cuba's return to capitalism.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R., Fla.) praised Mr. Bush's speech and gave him congratulatory hugs and kisses.

Mr. Bush said implanting democracy in Cuba after Castro is gone will not be easy but that the United States is pledging to help.

Cuban diplomats in the United States dismissed Mr. Bush's speech as electioneering. They cited criticism in Canada and Europe of the U.S. policy of containing Cuba.

Each year for more than a decade, the U.N. General Assembly has passed a resolution urging the United States to end its trade embargo against Cuba. The United States has paid no attention to those votes.

Mr. Bush said a coalition of countries is ready to work to continue sanctions against Cuba and said the United States would work with that coalition. But he did not name any countries that are supporting it.

After 135 years, Cuba's "struggle for freedom continues," Mr. Bush said. "It hasn't ended.

"The dictator," Mr. Bush said, has responded to efforts to bring democracy to Cuba with "defiance and contempt and a new round of brutal oppression that outraged the world's conscience."

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