MIAMI, Aug 27 (AFP) - President George W. Bush on Friday accused his Democratic rival John Kerry of waffling on policy toward communist Cuba.
Bush accused Kerry of voting against a law known as Helms-Burton, which tightened the US embargo against the island, while claiming to have voted for it.
"To clear things up, his campaign said that while he did vote against final passages, he had voted for it more earlier," Bush said at a campaign stop here.
"Voto si, y despues, voto no," Bush said, repeating the charge in Spanish that "he voted yes, and then he voted no."
Kerry's campaign said that the Massachusetts senator voted for two versions of the law but voted against final passage.
"Last year, after Castro launched a brutal crackdown on dissidents, my opponent responded by voting to reward the dictator by lifting the tourism travel ban," Bush said.
"A few years earlier in 2000, he said the only reason we don't change the embargo is because of the politics in Florida," he added.
Kerry has argued for what he calls "principled travel" to Cuba, and supported a Senate bill that would have ended the travel embargo.
Bush on July 1 imposed new restrictions cutting visits and money remittances to the island -- a highly unpopular move among Cuban-Americans.
"When the president's proposals take effect, the misery of the Cuban people, not of Castro, is sure to rise," Kerry said in a June statement.
"Instead, we should promote the interchanges of ideas that will begin now to lay the foundations for economic prosperity and an independent civil society that I believe are so critical to peace and democracy."
"Cuban-American families are the most positive force for change in Cuba today. Why limit their freedom to press for change?" Kerry said.
In his campaign speech sprinkled with Spanish and tailored to Florida, where 1.2 million Cuban-Americans live, Bush also said he would continue using airplanes to circumvent Cuban electronic jamming and broadcast US-funded Radio and TV Marti into the island.
The US government began the broadcasts began last weekend, using a C-130 military cargo airplane.
"We're continuing to implement our strategy of 'hablar' the truth," Bush said, using the Spanish word for "speak."
"We launched the first of what will be regular airborne broadcasts into Cuba," he said. "We will continue those broadcasts. The Cuban people are hearing the truth once again.
"I believe and strongly believe the people of Cuba should be free from the tyrant. And I believe that enforcing the embargo is a necessary part of the strategy," he said to applause.