``American policies, 40 years in application, have hurt ordinary men, woman and children in Cuba, and Afro-Cubans particularly, and it's simply unacceptable,'' said Randall Robinson, president of the TransAfrica Forum, a Washington-based group that works to influence U.S. policy toward African and Caribbean states.
Meanwhile, Canadian Foreign Minister Lloyd Axworthy said he held talks with Castro on Thursday dealing with issues ranging from human rights to improving Canadian-Cuban ties.
Axworthy told reporters later that he mentioned the case of four still-imprisoned Cuban dissidents whose release Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien had sought during an April visit to Cuba.
But the focus appeared to be on cooperation rather than conflict with the two nations agreeing to increase anti-drug cooperation and to allow an exchange of prisoners so that inmates could serve time in their home country.
``It was really an opportunity to maintain a dialogue, an exchange,'' Axworthy said.
Axworthy said the U.S. announcement this week easing a few of the country's sanctions against Cuba seemed to propose ``some degree of constructive engagement,'' a policy that Canada has advocated in opposition to the traditional U.S. policy of isolating Cuba.
``We think there is a certain trend line in the United States toward a more open attitude,'' he said.
Axworthy's visit seemed far less controversial than his 1997 trip to Cuba, which was criticized by Sen. Jesse Helms, R-N.C., and by the U.S. State Department.
Since that time, Pope John Paul II has visited Cuba -- as has Chretien. Canada has strongly opposed the U.S. embargo of Cuba and has become a major economic partner of Cuba.
Castro spent 2 1/2 hours early in the day with the 18-member TransAfrica delegation, which included actor Danny Glover, as well as prominent attorneys and scholars.
Robinson said the Cuban leader described his government's efforts to overcome centuries of slavery and segregation and said Castro admitted that more work needs to be done to end racism. He said that black Cubans are over represented in Cuba's prisons.
``Whatever kind of race problem still exists in Cuba is dwarfed by the race problem that we have to contend with in the United States,'' Robinson.
Robinson called the embargo itself ``unjust, unfair and cruel'' and noted that even former Republican secretaries of state recently called for a reassessment of Cuba policy.
``I think forces are gathering on all sides'' against the embargo ``because the American people can see the essential silliness of this policy that has up until now been controlled by a small group of white, wealthy Cubans who fled to Miami 40 years ago.''
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press