-DATE- 19830803 -YEAR- 1983 -DOCUMENT_TYPE- INTERVIEW -AUTHOR- F. CASTRO -HEADLINE- PRELA HIGHLIGHTS CASTRO REMARKS TO U.S. NEWSMEN -PLACE- CUBA -SOURCE- HAVANA PRELA -REPORT_NBR- FBIS -REPORT_DATE- 19830804 -TEXT- CUBA PRELA HIGHLIGHTS CASTRO REMARKS TO U.S. NEWSMEN PA032332 Havana PRELA in English 2235 GMT 3 Aug 83 -- FOR OFFICIAL USE ONLY [Text] Havana, Aug 4 [Date as received] (PL) -- Cuba announced its support to withdraw its 200 military advisors in Nicaragua as long as it forms part of the general solutions to the Central American conflicts, with the approval of the Sandinista Government, engaging all the sides involved. This was expressed by Cuban President Fidel Castro in a long talk held with U.S. journalists during a reception on July 28 to celebrate the thirtieth anniversary of the attack on the Moncada garrison, in Santiago de Cuba. The head of state warned that his government could not decide on these matters because "we are not directly involved." "I think -- he said -- that the decisions and the concessions would have to be made by those directly involved in the conflict." Fidel Castro insisted that Cuba cannot adopt unilateral decisions on the withdrawal of the advisors, some of them being military school professors. "We cannot make concessions; the ones who could discuss this are the Nicaraguans. But if they reach an agreement with the United States on the withdrawal of all the advisors in Central America, we would support it," he added. He voiced that if an agreement is reached on this issue, with the Nicaraguans' support, "we would support it a hundred percent." The Cuban top leader pointed out that the declarations of the Sandinista Government on the topic expressed that any kind of topic could be analyzed, on arms, advisors, but on an equitative and honorable basis, without unilateral conditions. He highlighted that any kind of political solution in the region has to include a negotiated political solution in El Salvador; if not, there would not be an honorable solution for one of the sides, for Nicaragua's or El Salvador's friends. Fidel Castro said that the key to this is the U.S. disposition to support a negotiated solution. If the United States sincerely backs the idea of a negotiated political solution, it would surely be reached. The Cuban President expressed his support to the negotiations carried out by the Contadora Group (Columbia, Mexico, Panama, and Venezuela) in Central America and warned that the reach any kind of agreement on the Salvadoran conflict, it would be necessary to gather representatives from the country's revolutionaries, its government, and its army. In El Salvador, like in Honduras, those who really rule are the military, supported by the United States, he pointed out. Fidel Castro said that his country cannot engage itself to give a military reply to the United States if it persists in its armed aggressions against Central America, but it would bring a reaction from all Latin America -- he highlighted. "Cuba cannot speak in terms of a power, and will not try to equal its forces to the U.S. ones," he added. "We would try to express our solidarity through all possible means," highlighted the Cuban leader. The intention to crush the Nicaraguan revolution and the Salvadoran revolutionary movement by force would spread that conflict throughout Central America. It would be like a cancer in the area, pointed out Fidel Castro. "I think -- he added -- that it would create a serious conflict between the Latin American people and the United States." In the case that Honduras directly attacks Nicaragua, Cuba has not made a decision on it. "We have to wait for the events and then make the decisions," he said. "If Cuba is attacked, we will resist, there is no problem. We are ready to resist attacks, to resist an attrition war, bombing, and we are ready to face the worst, which would be an invasion. We are even ready to struggle under an occupied country." "The United States would not only have to face our armed forces, our conventional means, it would have to face our most powerful means, the people." Fidel Castro said that he does not believe that the Central American conflict endangers world peace more than the placing of 572 middle-range nuclear missiles in Western Europe, as was suggested by several reporters attending the reception. He also pointed out the way in which the Western press has handled the presence of the Cuban advisors in Nicaragua, adding that it was an example of the distortion of information, for they have mentioned amounts around three to seven thousand advisors, when we really have 200. "We do have in Nicaragua more than 2,000 teachers, of whom at least 50 percent are women. We have 500 doctors in Nicaragua and also constructors who are helping there." -END-