New U.S. envoy lays out his vision for a democratic Cuba

In the three months that Michael Parmly has been the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba, he has talked to many "awfully smart people" he thinks have the pulse of the island: the leading dissidents and opposition figures.

"I don't know when a change is happening," said Parmly, the chief of the U.S. Interests Section. "I just know that a change is happening."

Leading news organizations, including The Christian Science Monitor and The Economist, recently reported that the U.S. government's new transition coordinator for Cuba, Caleb McCarry, has stepped up plans to assist Cubans in changing their political and economic system. The Monitor reported that the plan includes rebuilding Cuba's utilities, punishing Cuba's allies and trying to subvert Castro's efforts to transfer power to his brother Raul.

"The whole idea that somehow Caleb McCarry is going to come in and supervise the transition in Cuba is absurd," said Wayne Smith, former head of the U.S. mission in Cuba under the Carter administration. "Cubans would never accept that, not even Cubans who oppose the government."