-DATE-
19871206
-YEAR-
1987
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
INTERVIEW
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CASTRO DISCUSSES PUBLICITY FOR EXPO CENTER
-PLACE-
JULIO DIAZ HOSPITAL
-SOURCE-
HAVANA TELEVISION SERVI
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19871211
-TEXT-
Castro Discusses Publicity for Expo Center
FL102351 Havana Television Service in Spanish
0100 GMT 6 Dec 87

[Text] During his tour of the Julio Diaz Hospital expansion site, Commander
in Chief Fidel Castro conversed with our reporter, Oscar Suerez, about the
construction of the national exhibition center by the minibrigades.

[Begin recording[ [Suerez] Following your criticism of the press during the
PCC provincial meeting in Havana to the effect that Expo-Cuba, the national
exhibition center, had not been publicized enough, we took the opportunity,
since we had planned a writeup, to come here, and...

[Castro, interrupting]  I didn't exactly criticize the press.  Rather, I
meant that the press had not reported on the center.  I wanted to point out
the work was being done quietly, without publicity; but the press is not to
blame in this case.

[Suerez] We ourselves were impressed, because the center's area is almost
10 times the size of that of the Latin American Stadium.

[Castro] Yes, it is a huge project. But we talk about the child care
centers, the polyclinics, and the schools, and we forget the exhibition
center. We forget, not you. I really did not want to point a finger at the
press. The press is not to blame. We are, because we spoke about everything
else, but forgot about the exhibition center. That is why it had received
little publicity Not on your part but ours. If we had given it more
publicity, we surely...

[Suerez, interrupting] Well, it was a happy suggestion, because we
ourselves...

[Castro interrupting] I wanted to remind people we were doing other big
things.  We do small things such as a family doctor's office-home.  By the
way, the first of 1988 was inaugurated yesterday in San Miguel.

[Suerez] We were there.

[Castro] Were you there?  Were there a lot of people there?

[Suerez] There were a lot of people.  I'm from Channel Six and we reported
on it.

[Castro] I reviewed it in the newspapers.  Unfortunately you have fixed
hours but the newspapers don't.  I can read the newspaper at 0100, 0200, or
0300; but if I don't watch the television news at 2030, if I am attending a
meeting or am somewhere else, I can't find out what's happening.  I do
enjoy the television news.

[Suerez] Good news comes from everywhere.

[Castro] I'm glad, I'm glad.  I congratulate you for being the first in
reporting about the center.

[Suerez] It's a monster of a center.

[Castro] It is.  My pleasure.  So long. [end recording]

-END-