Radio Havana News preview-23 June 2000 17:00 Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Radio Havana Cuba - News Preview - 23 June 2000 17:00 *USSR'S COLLAPSE: "WE SURVIVED THROUGH UNITY AND SOCIALISM"--FIDEL *US REPUBLICAN LEADERS WILL STOP OPPOSING FOOD, MEDICINE SALES TO CUBA *PARTIAL LIFTING OF BLOCKADE IS A POSITIVE STEP, BUT NOT ENOUGH *USSR'S COLLAPSE: "WE SURVIVED THROUGH UNITY AND SOCIALISM"--FIDEL Havana, June 23 (RHC)-- Cuban President Fidel Castro has asserted that Cuba could not have survived the collapse of the socialist camp without unity and socialism. This is one of the Cuban leader's key responses to an extensive interview of 33 questions, granted to former UNESCO Director General Federico Mayor Zaragoza, published Thursday in the Cuban news daily Granma. Granma explained that the interview took place last January 28th and will be included in a book that Mayor Zaragoza plans to publish later this year. The newspaper also explained that the decision to publish the interview follows the publication earlier this month by a French magazine of notes taken by Mayor Zaragoza in which some of the Cuban leader's responses were erroneous interpretations that were out of context. In response to a question about whether or not socialism is still a meaningful term, the leader of the Cuban Revolution said "without a doubt." Fidel Castro insisted that what happened 10 years ago was "the naive and inadvertent destruction of a formidable social and historic process that should have been perfected, but never destroyed." The Cuban leader said that developed capitalism, which has led to today's modern imperialism, "has nothing to offer humanity except its self-destruction," though such an event will perhaps also destroy the natural conditions that provide the sustenance for human life on this planet. Fidel said we cannot continue along the path that each day widens the gap between rich and poor. In reference to the European Union's political conditions for the establishment of formal trade relations with Cuba, President Fidel Castro said Cuba will never accept them -- not from Europe and much less from the United States. He termed as interesting the fact that the EU is much less concerned about the internal situations of other countries that represent a greater economic interest than Cuba. And in reference to the double standard of Washington's Cuba policy, he said long hours and many historic references would be needed for an in-depth analysis of what he called "the hypocrisy and indecency of that policy." The former UNESCO official asked Fidel Castro his opinion of the criticism leveled against Cuba for the alleged limitations on freedom of expression and thought on the island. The Cuban president said first one should ask whether in Latin America, where the majority of the population is totally or functionally illiterate, one can speak of these freedoms. He said many people in the world not only lack the freedom of thought, but that their tools for thinking have been destroyed -- adding that "without culture and education freedom is not possible." Asked about the legend that has been woven around him, Fidel Castro said that legend has been created by successive U.S. governments and that if he's a living legend it's because of all the failed efforts by the CIA to eliminate him. *US REPUBLICAN LEADERS WILL STOP OPPOSING FOOD, MEDICINE SALES TO CUBA Washington, June 23 (RHC)-- House Republican leaders in the United States have said they're willing to drop opposition to the sale of food and medicine to Cuba, according to Thursday's edition of The Washington Post. Washington Post staff writers Eric Pianin and Karen DeYoung reported that Wednesday evening, negotiators said they were making progress, asserting that House GOP leaders agreed in principle to accept the change after it became clear that they would likely lose to Democrats and farm state Republicans in a showdown vote. The article quoted House Majority leader Richard K. Armey, a Texas Republican, who said that "a deal is in the making." House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert and Majority Whip Tom Delay, who had vigorously opposed the measure, are now reportedly signaling a willingness to allow food and medicine sales to Cuba, but they want to deny U.S. credit guarantees for Havana. The influential news daily asserted that the decision marks a dramatic shift in policy toward Cuba, fueled largely by farm state Republicans frustrated over the loss of billions of dollars in agricultural sales and by churches and humanitarian groups that contend the sanctions hurt innocent people. The Washington Post staff writers also asserted that a major new element in this year's Cuba equation is the Elian Gonzalez case. According to opinion polls, states the article, resentment at what were seen as heavy-handed tactics in Miami to keep the six-year-old boy from returning to Cuba led a majority of Americans to question sanctions as the cornerstone of U.S. policy toward the island. *PARTIAL LIFTING OF BLOCKADE IS A POSITIVE STEP, BUT NOT ENOUGH Havana, June 23 (RHC)-- Cuba has reiterated that the lifting of Washington's restrictions on the sale of food and medicine to the island is a step in the right direction, but is insufficient. Cuban Foreign Ministry spokesperson Aymee Hernandez told local and foreign news correspondents on Thursday that Cuba is closely following this legislative process in the United States, but that what's needed is the total lifting of Washington's blockade. Hernandez said the amendments currently before Congress do not guarantee normal relations between the business firms of the two countries, normal financial transactions, regular lines of air and maritime transport and regular access to government credits which, she added, make the amendments a mere token gesture. (c) 2000 Radio Habana Cuba, NY Transfer News. All rights reserved. ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= rhc-eng-10197 2000-Jun-23 17:28:04