-DATE-
19890204
-YEAR-
1989
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
INTERVIEW
-AUTHOR-
F.CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
U.S REACTION TO VISIT IN CARACAS
-PLACE-
CARACAS
-SOURCE-
HAVANA TELEVISION SVC
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19890207
-TEXT-
U.S. Reaction to Visit

FL0402032589 Havana Television Service in Spanish 0100 GMT 4 Feb 89

[Text] Commander in Chief Fidel Castro's presence here in Caracas has been
the focus of attention for the media and broad sectors of Caracas public
opinion.

[Begin recording] [Castro] I could not disregard Carlos Andres Perez'
invitation.  I had to come after he invited me and there was so much
controversy regarding the invitation.  The U.S. ambassador also was
involved in the controversy.  He said the United States would not like for
me to come.  I thought this was interference.  This increased my desire to
come here.

[Unidentified reporter] President, in the hours you have been in Caracas,
in the contacts you have had with Latin American dignitaries, have you
detected any sign that this meeting of notable people from Latin American
politics...

[Castro, interrupting] And the world.

[Reporter] Exactly, and the world...

[Castro, interrupting] Because Felipe [Gonzalez] is not from Latin America.
It would be Ibero-American.

[Reporter] Ibero-American.  Could a concrete initiative aimed at getting
Latin America out of its big problem, the foreign debt, come about?

[Castro] I believe a movement is gestating.  It is preceded by an awareness
by Latin American countries of the need to act in a concerted way and to
act united and with solidarity to find a solution to these problems.  Not
only the foreign debt problem, but unequal trade, the need for a new
international economic order, the need to end protectionism, dumping
[preceding word in English], and a number of measures that damage Latin
American countries terribly.  So, we could say that an awareness of all
this is gestating.

It would not be as important and it is not as necessary for an initiative
to come up.  The important thing is to express a will for unity and a
common struggle.  It is very difficult to thoroughly analyze problems in
events such as this one.  This is not a meeting to analyze a problem; it is
a meeting to attend an event.  People from all parts of the world are
meeting here.  There are people from OPEC, people from the Social
Democracy, people from all countries, people from the Nonaligned Movement,
and Latin American people. [Words indistinct] a number of [words
indistinct] it is impossible to analyze in-depth a problem.  This doesn't
mean that an initiative is going to come out of this.  It means that people
are uniting forces. [end recording]

[Dominguez] Vice Minister, some observers cannot understand why the United
States is bent on sending former Batista policeman Armando Valladares as
its ambassador to the UN Commission on Human Rights, that man has a
terrorist background and he was a complete failure during the last meeting
of the commission.  What do you think about this?

[Roa] I do not understand what prompted the United States to appoint former
Batista policeman Valladares as head of the U.S. delegation of Geneva.
First, Valladares has a notorious reputation as a former policeman during
the Batista tyranny; second, he is a convicted terrorist.  Valladares,
together with a group of counterrevolutionaries, were tried in Cuba, found
guilty of terrorist activities, and sentenced.  What we must ask ourselves
is whether the appointment is the result of the close ties between U.S.
leaders and the Cuban worms who finance the U.S. Republican Party's policy.
We must ask ourselves if this is the only reason, if this is the U.S.
leader's way of rewarding the rich worms who donate money for the
Republican Party's campaigns.  Perhaps that is the answer.  Another
explanation could be that the new U.S. Administration wishes to continue
the confrontational policy practiced by the Reagan administration in Latin
America.

[Dominguez] Meanwhile, the Latin American people ask themselves whether the
appointment of Valladares--a notorious terrorist, an inept person, and a
former Batista policeman--as head of the U.S. delegation has political
significance.
-END-