>From: "Macdonald Stainsby" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Forwarded from Jay Moore. > > > >> In an interview, Castro says he is confident of Cuba's future >> By Nicole Winfield, Associated Press, 6/23/2000 >> >> HAVANA - President Fidel Castro said in an interview published yesterday >> that he is not worried about Cuba's transition after he dies, because the >> socialist revolution will continue without him since he is just a common >> man. >> >> ''In Cuba, there is no personality cult,'' Castro said in an interview >with >> Spain's Federico Mayor, the former director general of the United Nations >> Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. >> >> The interview was published in its entirety in the official daily Granma. >> >> ''When a true revolution has been consolidated, and the spread of its >ideas >> and consciousness has begun to bear fruit, no one - no matter how >important >> his personal contribution - is indispensable,'' Castro said. >> >> The 73-year-old Cuban leader has in the past endorsed his brother, Raul >> Castro, as his successor. Raul Castro, 69, is the number two man in Cuba's >> Communist Party and the government's ruling Council of State, as well as >> head of the armed forces. >> >> Castro did not mention his brother in the interview, but he said the >> question of succession - a topic of endless speculation in Cuba and >abroad - >> was not really an issue. >> >> ''I wasn't a head of state as much as a very common man,'' Castro said. >''I >> didn't inherit any title, nor am I king.'' >> >> The socialist transition has been going on for more than 40 years and will >> continue because there is a party ''with much moral prestige and >> authority,'' Castro said. ''What should I be worried about?'' >> >> Castro touched on a host of issues, including the Elian Gonzalez case, the >> US election campaign, the problems confronting poor countries, and the US >> trade embargo against the Caribbean island. >> >> Mayor interviewed Castro in January in Havana for a book he is writing. >> Granma published what it said was the transcription of the interview >> yesterday. >> >> Mayor asked whether the United States was trying to influence Cuban >politics >> through the trade embargo. >> >> Castro responded: ''They didn't try to influence the revolution, but >rather >> destroy it.'' >> >> On Hillary Rodham Clinton's Senate campaign in New York, Castro said her >> aides sometimes give her bad advice. He said she had said she hoped >Elian's >> father could be persuaded to stay in the United States with his 6-year-old >> son. Castro termed the suggestion ''a grave and gratuitous offense'' to >> Cuba. >> >> Castro cited US laws that allow Cubans to receive residency if they reach >> American soil as the reason that so many Cubans have left the island. >> >> ''If Mexico and the rest of Latin America and the Caribbean had received >> such privileges over the past 35 years, more than half of the population >of >> the United States would be Latin American and Caribbean,'' Castro said. >> >> At the end of the interview, Mayor asked Castro whether he would remain a >> myth in death as he has been in life. >> >> ''That's not me,'' Castro said. ''It's the governments of the United >States >> that has converted me into what you call a myth, and if I have been one in >> life it's also thanks to their failures to deprive me of it.'' >> >> This story ran on page A23 of the Boston Globe on 6/23/2000. >> � Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company. >> > > >------------------------------------------------------------------------ >Law.com is the preeminent online destination for legal professionals. >Visit Law.com for exclusive content from American Lawyer Media, online >CLE Seminars, Practice Centers and Career Listings. >http://click.egroups.com/1/5803/0/_/30563/_/961884187/ >------------------------------------------------------------------------ > >Cuba SI - Imperialism NO! >Information and discussion about Cuba. >Socialism or death! Patria o muerte! Venceremos! >http://www.egroups.com/group/cubasi > >Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Change Delivery Options: http://www.egroups.com/mygroups > > > > __________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki - Finland +358-40-7177941, fax +358-9-7591081 e-mail [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.kominf.pp.fi ___________________________________ [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe/unsubscribe messages mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ___________________________________
