-DATE-
19720724
-YEAR-
1972
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
INTERVIEW
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
DENIES REPORTS HE WILL QUIT AS PRIME MINISTER
-PLACE-
HAVANA
-SOURCE-
SIEMPRE MEXICAN MAGAZINE
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19720725
-TEXT-
CASTRO DENIES REPORTS HE WILL QUIT AS PRIME MINISTER

Paris AFP in Spanish 2142 GMT 24 Jul 72 C--FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY

[Text] Havana, 24 Jul--In a conversation with journalist Marta
Solis--correspondent here from the Mexican magazine SIEMPRE--Fidel Castro
has labeled as laughable the rumor that he could quit his post of Cuban
prime minister.

Reports that the top leader of the Cuban revolution would devote his time
in the near future exclusively to his post of Communist Party first
secretary--quitting as prime minister--circulated recently with some
insistency here.

Castro labeled such rumors as gossip and emphasized that his health could
not be better. Castro talked with Marti Solis at the Polish Embassy here
when he attended a reception celebrating Poland's independence day.

A Cuban official source was of the opinion that Castro's presence there was
a sign of the existing magnificent relations between the two countries.

Castro--who humorously insisted that he is healthy as a horse--referred
again to the report published during his recent stay in Warsaw that he had
suffered a heart attack, a report forcefully and immediately denied.

In referring to Cuba's foreign relations, Castro declared that they have
never been better, and he pointed out that the relations which unite Cuba
with the socialist countries he visited recently are extremely good.
Between May and June, the prime minister visited Guinea, Algeria and Sierra
Leone in Africa; and on the old continent he visited Bulgaria, Romania,
Hungary, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, the GDR and the USSR.

Upon his return to Havana, Cuba's entry into CEMA, the economic community
of eastern European socialist countries, was announced. In this regard,
Castro indicated such entry will give Cuba an immediate future of
industrialization and development of other sectors of its economy other
than agricultural and livestock, although Cuba must continue depending on
agricultural and livestock production for the present.

Finally, Castro pointed out that measures would be taken in Cuba for a
certain economic readjustment, but that there will not be any political
change in the principles followed by the Cuban Revolution.
-END-