Cuba's highest ranking official in the United States called for increased communication and cooperation between the two nations in a lecture to the Macalester community on Tuesday.

"The time has come to make fundamental decisions," Dagoberto Rodriguez Barrera, head of Cuban diplomacy in Washington, said. "Cuba is ready and willing, and our only condition is absolute respect for our independence, dignity and sovereignty."

The lecture, which was sponsored in part by the Minnesota Cuba Committee, Students for Cuba and Macalester's Adelante!, presented the steps that need to be taken to improve U.S.-Cuba relations.

One of Barrera's main points of discussion was the embargo imposed on Cuba by the United States in 1961, two years after Fidel Castro led the revolution that implemented the current Communist government. He explained that over a decade after the Cold War ended, it wasn't reasonable to maintain old restrictions. "We could ask ourselves, 'what could possibly justify this policy today?'" he said.

Cuba is currently recovering from a severe economic depression that occurred during the early '90s, primarily due to the loss of Soviet assistance. In the decades leading up to the depression, "Cuba was able to carry out huge socio-economical changes," said Rodriguez, citing improved health care, life expectancy and literacy rates. He also promoted the increased emphasis on education, adding that the number of colleges rose from three to 47, with more than 800,000 students enrolled.

The tumultuous history of Cuban-American relations dates back to the revolution in 1959, with one of the lowest points coming after the failed Bay of Pigs invasion in 1961. In the mid-1990s, the two countries signed migration agreements to limit Cubans coming into the United States. The Helms-Burton Act, which was signed into effect in 1996, tightened the U.S. embargo on Cuban goods. Most recently, the Elian Gonzalez immigration issue has again called into question the strength of Cuban-American relations.

Now, Rodriguez said both Cuba and the United States could benefit from each other once relations are improved in several areas, including anti-narcotics programs, immigration policies and terrorism.

"Cuba strongly condemned terrorism, but also ratified the willingness to cooperate with the U.S. for total eradication of it," Rodriguez said. "Cuba could never, and will never, be used for terrorist acts against U.S. people."

He fielded questions from the audience after his lecture on a variety of current topics, including the question of supporting the use of force in Iraq. Barrera strongly emphasized the Cuban opposition to preemptive strikes.

"We are very much opposed to any military action in any country," Rodriguez said. "This is very, very concerning. We are not expressing an opposition to the U.S. government, but the foundation of terrorism is hatred, and [strikes] would result in further terrorism."

In addition to communicating the Cuban perspective of the country's history and issues, Rodriguez also addressed the benefits that the U.S. would experience if the embargo was lifted. "The Cuban people are not the only thing," he said. "Many Americans can't understand why they can't travel to Cuba, or why they can't take advantage of the economic opportunities Cuban markets provide.

"We recognize that globalization is a trend, and we aren't opposed to that notion," said Rodriguez. "We are opposed to the terms and conditions we are seeing right now."