-DATE-
19900709
-YEAR-
1990
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
-AUTHOR-
-HEADLINE-
Comparison to Castro Interview With Ted Turner
-PLACE-
CARIBBEAN / Cuba
-SOURCE-
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS-LAT-90-131
-REPORT_DATE-
19900709
-HEADER-
BRS Assigned Document Number: 000011707
Report Type: Daily Report AFS Number: FL0707014690
Report Number: FBIS-LAT-90-131 Report Date: 09 Jul 90
Report Series: Daily Report Start Page: 3
Report Division: CARIBBEAN End Page: 8
Report Subdivision: Cuba AG File Flag:
Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Language:
Report Volume: Monday Vol VI No 131
Dissemination:
Report Name: Latin America
Headline: Comparison to Castro Interview With Ted Turner
Source Line: FL0707014690
-TEXT-
FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE:
1. Havana Tele Rebelde Network in Spanish at 0030 GMT on 5 July carries the
``complete text'' of the 10 June interview granted by President Fidel Castro to
CNN Chairman Ted Turner in Havana's Palace of the Revolution. This version has
been compared with the Cubavision Network version published in the 29 June
Latin America DAILY REPORT, pages 2-7, revealing the following variations:
2. Page 2, column two, paragraph four, from sentence one reads: [Text]
[Announcer Manolo Ortega] On Sunday, 10 June, the interview [granted by
President Fidel Castro] to CNN Chairman Ted Turner took place in the Palace of
the Revolution. The actual length of the interview was 70 minutes, but because
of the broadcast time available in the United States, the material was edited
by CNN-- with the prior agreement of both parties--and only about 43 minutes
was broadcast. Cuban television now presents for our people's information the
complete version of this interesting conversation.
3. [Turner] Hi, I am Ted Turner... (supplying additional material)
4. Page 2, column two, paragraph eight, from last sentence reads: In the
United States, they number in the tens of millions.
5. On the other hand, our food levels are higher than those in the immense
majority of Latin American countries. The consumption of daily calories,
protein--including animal protein--and our levels of sports, culture, and
recreation are very high. If we can really do this despite the economic
difficulties, it shows that we are doing a good job of distributing the wealth
our people produce. I do not want to add much more to this, but I want to say
we are objectively and subjectively prepared to confront any kind of economic
difficulty that may arise in the future.
6. [Turner] Thank you. I know this is a difficult question... (providing
additional material)
7. Page 3, column one, first incomplete paragraph, last sentence reads: ...in
the world. It simply would not exist.
8. Since 1970, in 20 years, for example, 423 narcotraffickers have been
captured in our country. Of these 423 traffickers, 113 of them are U.S.
citizens. They were captured, not because they used our territory, but because
they passed close by Cuba. On several occasions they were forced to land. On
other occasions, the boats arrived in our country and we captured them. We
have captured 30 airplanes and 70 boats over the years. We have seized 250
tons of marijuana and between four and six tons of cocaine from people who
simply violated the country's laws in one form or another.
9. Unfortunately, we had the case... (supplying additional material)
10. Page 3, column one, paragraph two, from last sentence reads: ...on drug
trafficking. If other countries would apply the same measures Cuba has applied,
there would be no drug trafficking in the world. That is the truth. Our laws
are harsh, but, if necessary, we could approve even tougher laws.
11. We recently captured two groups of drug traffickers on the northern coast
who were trying to conduct drug operations using the territories in the keys.
At this moment, they are being tried, and they will be punished according to
law. We said publicly that we would give the governments of these citizens the
information they needed. Some of them are U.S. citizens. [new paragraph]
12. Our laws are tough, but if necessary, we could draft laws that are even
tougher because we are outraged, offended, that drug traffickers should want to
use our territory to conduct these kinds of activities. (supplying additional
material)
13. Page 3, column one, paragraph four, from sentence four reads: ...violate
international agreements.
14. One day I asked for some information and I was told that there are
thousands of companies and airlines that travel through these air routes. We
cannot register the planes in the air. As long as there is something abnormal,
if they violate the airspace and fly where they should not, we can take all the
measures necessary and those measures are not easy because the methods we use
are military. We have planes that travel very fast and it is not easy to
follow a small plane that turns off its lights at night and flies low. We have
even lost planes practicing interception. But, in the end, I believe that we
have been exemplary in fulfilling our duties regarding international
cooperation. We are willing to take any necessary measures, such as a
contribution to the struggle against the drug-trafficking tragedy.
15. Any accusation made against Cuba is slanderous and the most benign
comments made about us are cynical.
16. [Turner] On the other hand,... (supplying additional material)
17. Page 3, column two, paragraph one, from last sentence reads: ...can
practice some religious belief. This is a universal principle for all religious
creeds, for Protestants as well as Catholics and animists, any type of creed.
We are introducing changes along these lines.
18. Concerning the pope's visit, no agreement has yet been reached on the
visit. Therefore, we cannot speak of a date for the pope's visit to Cuba.
19. [Turner] President Castro, how do you feel about the changes in the Soviet
Union? (supplying additional material, omitting Turner's remarks leading into
commercials)
20. Page 4, column one, paragraph one, from last sentence reads: ...we would
respect that. The Soviet Union has the right to adopt all the reforms and
modifications that are appropriate. Any kind of change--economic, social, or
political--will not affect relations between our two countries. They are
relations that have developed. Throughout history, they have developed as
political and economic relations. There is a prevailing principle in all of
this: the right of each country's sovereignty. Regarding the problems of
political changes, there is no reason for them to affect our relations.
21. Our economic relations may be affected as a result of the objective
problems that occurred in the Soviet Union, because the USSR is Cuba's
principle trade partner. It is the country with which we have a very high
degree of trade, mutually beneficial trade. We export millions of tons of
sugar to the USSR. We export hundreds of thousands of tons of citrus. We are
an important food-exporting country for the USSR. We produce enough calories
for more than 20 million Soviets. We are also exporters of important raw
materials, such as nickel and cobalt. Our exports are growing and
diversifying. This year, an extraordinary increase has occurred in the export
of high-tech medical equipment, vaccinations, and medications from Cuba to the
Soviet Union. Our products are very valuable to the Soviets, just as the
products they send us are very valuable to our economy.
22. Thus, any economic problem in the USSR will have direct repercussions on
our economic relations, despite their political willingness, just as the
problems in socialist countries in East Europe, with whom we had extensive
economic relations, may also be greatly affected by the changes that have
occurred in those countries. However, our relations with East European
countries do not bear the same weight as our economic relations with the Soviet
Union. That is why we see this as two different things. Of course, naturally,
everyone knows that all these problems could increase our economic
difficulties, but that is aside from the political relations, which are good,
and the relations of friendship that exist between the leaders of the Soviet
Union and the leaders of our country.
23. [Turner] Thank you. How do you feel about recent events in Eastern
Europe? (supplying additional information)
24. Page 4, column one, paragraph five, from sentence two reads: ...regime it
deems most appropriate. Prior to Gorbachev's visit to Cuba in April 1989, I
publicly stated this at the National Assembly: It is the right of each country
to choose the economic and social regime it feels is appropriate. If a
capitalist country wants to build socialism, that right should be respected.
If it also has to do with a capitalist country that wants to build socialism,
whether it is a developed capitalist country or a Third World capitalist
country--I have no alternative but to use that term--that country's right must
be respected. Thus, I absolutely respect the rights of those countries to
build the economic and social regime they feel is appropriate.
25. Those changes can be explained. In most of those countries, not even all
of them--I do not want to say all of them--socialism emerged as the result of
an international juncture that occurred after World War II. That is not the
case with the USSR where socialism is the result of a large revolution that
took place in 1917. In the case of China, Vietnam, Korea, or Cuba, socialism
also emerged as the result of a large revolution.
26. Cuban socialism was not imported. (supplying additional material)
27. Page 4, column one, paragraph five, from last sentence reads: ...it is,
therefore, our very own revolution. It is not the same as those that were
produced at the juncture. It came from the most profound roots of the people
and of the history of a people. That is the enormous difference that exists
between the socialist process in East Europe and in Cuba.
28. You asked about the Berlin Wall. (supplying additional information)
29. Page 4, column one, paragraph six, from sentence four reads: ...from U.S.
troops. The cold war situation emerged and because these two states that were
confronting each other had different political systems, the wall became a kind
of border that implicated Berlin because the Soviet troops were on one side and
the U.S., French, and English troops were on the other. I believe that
following East-West... (supplying additional information)
30. Page 4, column two, paragraph four, from last sentence reads: That is what
I think.
31. [Turner] Touche. Now we are going to change subjects. How do you feel
about the recent events in Central America... (rewording)
32. Page 5, column one, first incomplete paragraph, from last sentence reads:
...achieved in Nicaragua. Some progress has been made in Nicaragua regarding
political negotiations in the search for peaceful solutions. Recent news items
have reported on the talks between the FMLN [Farabundo Marti National
Liberation Front] and the Government of El Salvador, on the talks between the
Guatemalan revolutionary forces and the Guatemalan Government. The reports are
generally positive. Progress is being made toward peaceful political
solutions. We have never opposed the possibility of peaceful political
solutions, even though we favor the revolutionary forces. [new paragraph]
33. [Turner] Mr. President, what is your opinion about the student protests in
China last year? (supplying additional material)
34. Page 5, column one, paragraph five, from last sentence reads:
...reestablish order in Beijing.
35. To coldly, objectively analyze these events, we must ask ourselves: What
is going on elsewhere in the world? In a country that neighbors China, in South
Korea, the students are demonstrating in the street every day. Before the
Olympics, after the Olympics, thousands of students, tens of thousands of
students demonstrated and they are repressed every day by the police with tear
gas, with antiriot gear, with the most sophisticated methods that can be used
to repress the population. South Korea has great experience in the matter of
repressing riots or establishing order. Even though this happens every day, it
is barely mentioned.
36. Repression against students... (supplying additional material)
37. Page 5, column two, first incomplete paragraph, from last sentence reads:
...and not for violence. Many times the Chinese, even the last emperor, were
treated decently. He was reeducated. They made him write and work in a Beijing
museum. The Chinese are characterized by an Asian patience. It is not a nation
that immediately resorts to violence. That is why we must analyze the problems
that occurred in Beijing in that context. They were regrettable and it hurts
us all that this type of problem occurred, but I think the Chinese were very
inexperienced in this kind of problem. They were facing a very serious problem
of disorder. When you realize that in a country that has 1.1 billion
residents, nuclear weapons, thousands of soldiers; chaos and generalized
anarchy could lead to civil war and to catastrophic consequences, not just for
peace in China but also for peace throughout the world, and it could have cost
hundreds of thousands of lives or hundreds of millions of lives. That is why I
think they were facing a new, serious, very dangerous situation and they had no
alternative but to use the means they had to reestablish order in the country.
38. [Turner] Thank you for responding to this difficult question. Moving on to
another subject... (supplying additional material)
39. Page 5, column two, paragraph two, from sentence three reads: ...is not
new. That is why I believe in the principle of peaceful coexistance. The idea
is as old in the world as socialism. Peaceful coexistance should also include
cooperation between states with different social regimes. Socialism has never
opposed that kind of cooperation. The economic blockades and the policy of
isolation emerged, not from the socialist states, but from capitalist states,
from the October revolution to the Cuban revolution. The United States
practices a blockade against us. We are prohibited from exporting products and
trading with the United States. The United States practices a blockade against
us and it refuses to export products to us. There should be something more
than coexistence. (supplying additional material)
40. Page 5, column two, paragraph four, from sentence two reads: ...must be
planned. It cannot be produced through anarchy. Those times have passed. The
conditions under which capitalism emerged in England, Germany, Japan, and
Europe, have changed in general. They are totally different. Today, those
countries that want to develop must face the fierce competition of those large
communities. They have few resources. They do not have the luxury of
squandering their resources or allowing their resources to flee. If you have
few resources, you have to make the most of your employment and you have to
program development. We have not renounced any of... (supplying additional
material)
41. Page 5, column two, paragraph five, from sentence three reads: ...is one
of the country's natural resources. It has a tropical sun, pure air, pure
water, something everyone wants today because of the growing pollution
everywhere. We came to the conclusion that, yes, we should develop it. The
country could not enclose itself in a glass container. We have the natural and
human conditions to develop this source of wealth. If we did not have large
amounts of oil, we had this renewable resource that could be exploited. Only
recently did we take the first steps and we are now progressing in the
development of tourism, not just with our own capital, but also with foreign
capital. (supplying additional material)
42. Page 6, column one, first incomplete paragraph, from last sentence reads:
...have these conditions. We also have a population with a high level of
training and culture. Of the workers in these first hotels, the one with the
lowest level of education finished the 12th grade. There are dozens of
university workers in those institutions. We provide half of the capital. Our
capital primarily consists of the work force to build the installations. We
provide Cuban material, such as rock, sand, cement, steel for construction,
marble, certain kinds of lumber, and furniture. Between what we must import to
construct a high-quality hotel and what we must supply nationally, we supply
more or less half in terms of capital. There could be some difference and
there are rules that apply to those cases in which there is a difference.
However, we have extended this policy, not just to investments in the tourism
sector, but also in exports, where foreign capital provides the technology,
capital, and markets because, many times, there are foreign firms that will
provide these three things. Export products, even though attention could be
paid to import products in a clear and objective manner, could reduce the cost
in currency that the country must make on certain exports. [sentence as heard]
We have also stated that when it pertains to Latin American countries, we are
even willing to be more flexible when it comes to foreign investments, based on
the policy that we cannot wait for all Latin American countries to have the
same economic and social system to integrate themselves. I think that even
with different economic-social systems, we can develop a policy of economic
integration with Latin America and that is why we have declared a more flexible
policy when it pertains to Latin American capital, whether it is state or
private capital.
43. This is what we are doing. It is not new but it is gaining more momentum
now and I think that it is a good expression of the principle of peaceful
coexistance in the economic sphere.
44. [Turner] Mr. President, what do you think needs to be done... (supplying
additional material)
45. Page 6, column one, paragraph four, from last sentence reads: ...and
little purchasing power. [Words indistinct] might have been better. The thing
is that the solution to the debt was not developed when it should have been.
The countries did not unite. The creditors always fought to prevent the
countries from uniting. In the meantime, they had the Paris Club, the IMF, the
World Bank. They imposed a policy of country-by-country negotiations. This
led to long negotiations and the indefinite prolongation of the economic crisis
in Third World countries. They have tried to maintain formulas that in the
long run have done nothing more than aggravate the situation instead of
improving it. The Third World debt at this time is $1.2 billion. The Latin
American debt is $4.02. These debts are the object of all these formulas and
negotiations which have demonstrated that the debt is unpayable.
46. The economy of all these countries is worse each time and I think that
underdevelopment is among the great problems that remain throughout the world.
It is not just a matter of resolving the foreign debt problem, but also of
resolving a lot of other problems, such as unequal trade and customs tariffs
that prevent the development of international trade. On the one hand, while
creditor countries and developed capitalist countries applaud neoliberalism in
the Third World, their foreign trade policies have nothing to do with free
trade because it is destroyed by a series of tariff and nontariff measures,
subsidies, and other things that block the development of world trade. The
time will come when it becomes evident for all countries that we need the
application of a new international economic order, as was agreed upon more than
15 years ago by the United Nations and which has not been applied.
47. The overwhelming reality is that... (supplying additional material)
48. Page 6, column one, paragraph five, from last sentence reads: ...yet for
these problems. I do not want to take up more time because this topic could
become lengthy. [new paragraph]
49. [Turner] It is true, we could spend hours discussing this topic, but
thanks for giving us your views on this matter. President Castro, from your
standpoint... (supplying additional material)
50. Page 7, column one, first incomplete paragraph, from last sentence reads:
...optimistic about this.
51. [Turner] Mr. President, how do you view U.S. Government attempts...
(rewording)
52. Page 7, column one, paragraph three, from last sentence reads: ...for
organizing the games. We see the Pan-American games as an effort for the
country's social development. The housing we are constructing for the games
will later be turned over to the people. Thus, those 1,500 apartments, which we
visited yesterday, will be a very pretty neighborhood on the ocean where
working families will live after the games are over. We are also building
excellent athletic installations for swimming. We are building a velodrome. We
did not have a velodrome in the country. We are building other installations
which will be turned over to the population. We would have built those
installations anyway, sooner or later, with or without the Pan-American Games.
These installations are being built for the social development of our country.
I think the damage the United States could do to itself by refusing to allow
the U.S. people to participate and enjoy the competitions is worse than the
damage they could do to Cuba by refusing to allow the games to be broadcast.
53. The United States might also boycott the games. (supplying additional
material)
54. Page 7, column one, paragraph four, from last sentence reads:
...boycotting the Pan-American Games. Nevertheless, we will continue working to
the end and we will guarantee a high-quality competition. All these buildings
will remain forever for our people.
55. A question that the U.S. Government could be asked is: How can it justify
wanting to force television broadcasts on Cuba without any agreement with our
country, by using a balloon 3,000 meters in the air, in violation of all
international laws on broadcasting and, in turn, refuse to allow the people of
the United States to receive the broadcasts of the Pan-American Games. It is a
paradox, absolutely contradictory. I think that the problem will be resolved
one way or another and the U.S. people will be able to enjoy the Pan-American
events, just as they can observe soccer and other world sports.
56. [Turner] Thank you for answering that question. This is something that a
lot of people have been asking... (supplying additional material)
57. Page 7, column one, paragraph six, from sentence seven reads: How can a
single man bring about a revolution? He can defend his country when he has
millions of men who are willing to defend it. How can a single man create a
revolution? He can do it when millions of men and women are working on this
revolutionary task. I have never believed that the revolution depends on one
man, no matter what his role, and all men have played their roles. In the
United States, when that country was founded, George Washington played a large
role. Many other men came after Washington. There was Lincoln. He passed on,
and the country continued to develop. Throughout the world, despite leaders,
despite men, political events continue to develop.
58. The Cuban revolution does not depend on one man. We have an organized
state. We have a constitution. We have an organized party with a
constitution, with hundreds of thousands of members who have great prestige and
authority in the heart of the people. Institutions have been created.
Institutions have been created [repeats himself] and a path is being followed.
I am sure that our people will find solutions to that problem. I think that my
task is useful. I will not deny it; it would be false modesty. I think I have
accumulated many years of experience and that is useful for my country now.
Perhaps I have more experience than someone else. I would say that yes I do.
I have had no other alternative but to gain experience, a lot of experience on
many topics. There are also many other people with experience, with great
training, with great skill. The idea that I will not be around after a certain
time should not be, and is not, a concern for me. That task, that task
[repeats himself] will have to be resolved and I am certain that the state and
the party will resolve it well. I sincerely am not concerned about this. I
have never felt indispensable. All my life I have believed that the people,
not men, make history. I have read a lot of history, a lot. I read every day.
I am aware of the insignificance of a single man. [claps hands once] We had men
as extraordinary as Marti... (supplying additional material)
-END-
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