Latin American Network Information Center - LANIC

-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-


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