-DATE- 19911202 -YEAR- 1991 -DOCUMENT TYPE- -AUTHOR- -HEADLINE- Castro Interviewed by EL SOL DE MEXICO -PLACE- CARIBBEAN / Cuba -SOURCE- Mexico City NOTIMEX -REPORT NO.- FBIS-LAT-91-238 -REPORT DATE- 19911211 -HEADER- ********************* Report Type: Daily Report AFS Number: PA1012200091 Report Number: FBIS-LAT-91-238 Report Date: 11 Dec 91 Report Series: Daily Report Start Page: 1 Report Division: CARIBBEAN End Page: 1 Report Subdivision: Cuba AG File Flag: Classification: UNCLASSIFIED Language: Spanish Document Date: 02 Dec 91 Report Volume: Wednesday Vol VI No 238 Dissemination: City/Source of Document: Mexico City NOTIMEX Report Name: Latin America Headline: Castro Interviewed by EL SOL DE MEXICO Subheadline: Criticizes Gorbachev Author(s): Mexico City newspaper EL SOL DE MEXICO; place and date of interview not given] Source Line: PA1012200091 Mexico City NOTIMEX in Spanish 1757 GMT 2 Dec 91 Subslug: [Report on first part of interview with President Fidel Castro by Mexico City newspaper EL SOL DE MEXICO; place and date of interview not given] -TEXT- FULL TEXT OF ARTICLE: 1. [Report on first part of interview with President Fidel Castro by Mexico City newspaper EL SOL DE MEXICO; place and date of interview not given] 2. [Text] Mexico City, 2 Dec (NOTIMEX)-The Cuban people will experience ``very difficult'' times because of the changes taking place in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, Cuban President Fidel Castro has admitted. 3. In an interview with the local daily EL SOL DE MEXICO, the Cuban president said that there will be very harsh times as a result of the socialist disaster in Europe, ``but we will know how to endure them and in the end we will emerge victorious.'' 4. Cuba will not ``fall apart because we are not fragile and we uphold our ideas on very firm and solid bases,'' Castro said in the first part of an interview published here on 2 December. 5. Castro criticized Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev and the perestroyka he created because ``instead of improving the socialist system, he destroyed it.'' 6. He added that Cuba will therefore continue with its own line inasmuch as the changes experienced in the country following the Fourth Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba ``are satisfactory''. 7. He pointed out that ``our task,'' is to discard everything ``that is not good for the progress of our country and its economic and social development, as well as for the cultural, material, and spiritual well-being of the fatherland.'' 8. He emphasized the land reforms proposed by Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari and the negotiations in which Mexico is taking toward a free trade treaty with the United States and Canada. 9. Referring to the discrediting of historical figures in the former socialist countries and the destruction of monuments to them, he pointed out that to the contrary, in Mexico ``he has not seen the destruction of revolutionary monuments in honor of Obregon, Zapata, Madero, or Villa.'' 10. The Cuban president also said that his country is confronting a difficult economic situation as a result of the U.S. blockade and the reduction of trade with the Soviet Union. 11. Referring to how he will cope with that situation, he said that in Cuba ``we are not closing any doors and we are studying certain possibilities.'' 12. He said that the economic crises must be confronted with ``a more humane criteria, without leaving the people unprotected in the midst of poverty and unemployment.'' 13. He pointed out that ``despite all the material restrictions, we have worked to prevent such situations and the countries must notice what we are doing.'' 14. The president added that ``the great changes in Cuba have already taken place, and the only changes that we could make would be setbacks and would mean backsliding and returning to the capitalist system and the revolutionary era.'' -END-