Castro says Cuba survived only through 'unity and socialism'
By I.J. Toby Westerman. © 2000, WorldNetDaily.com, Inc. Sunday June 25 2000.
Cuban President Fidel Castro has declared that the fall of communism was "naive and inadvertent" and that Cuba survived the collapse of the socialist bloc only through "unity and socialism."
The Cuban dictator also stated that capitalism "has nothing to offer humanity except its self-destruction," according to official Cuban sources.
Castro's remarks were carried by Radio Habana Cuba, the official broadcasting service of the Cuban government, in a review of an article originally appearing in the Cuban daily Granma.
Radio Habana labeled as a "key response" Castro's statement that "unity and socialism" preserved the Cuban state after the fall of communism in Eastern Europe.
Castro's comments came in response to a series of questions put to the Cuban president by Federico Mayor, former Director General of UNESCO, the United Nations organization concerned with education, science and culture. Mayor, who directed UNESCO from 1987 to 1999, plans to include Castro's
responses in a soon-to-be published book.
When asked if "socialism" is still a "meaningful term," Castro responded, "without a doubt." The fall of communism a decade ago was, in Castro's estimation, "the naive and inadvertent destruction of a formidable social and historical process that should have
been perfected, but never destroyed."
Capitalism, on the other hand, according to Castro, "has nothing to offer humanity, except its self-destruction," and may also "destroy the natural conditions that provide the sustenance for human life on the planet ... "
Castro also remained firm that communism would retain its tight control over the island, even at the expense of economic development. He declared that Cuba would never accept political preconditions for the establishment of formal trade ties "with Europe and, much less, the United States."
Mayor asked Castro about the "alleged limitations on freedom of thought and expression," in Cuba. Castro responded by questioning whether "one can speak of these freedoms" in regard to the rest of Latin America where the population is "totally or functionally illiterate."
Castro also stated that "many people in the world not only lack freedom of thought but the tools for thinking have been destroyed."
In Cuba, the "tools for thinking" are a matter of dispute. In late May, an exhibition of "subversive art" was closed because it was "anti-socialist and pro-capitalist."
Castro's vocal support of socialism comes at a time when capitalist investment in Cuba is at an all-time high and giving every indication of sharply increasing.
Castro, who visited mainland China in 1995, is following a policy similar to that of China's -- the use of capital investment for the advancement of a socialist / communist regime.
I. J. Toby Westerman is a contributing editor to WorldNetDaily.com and WorldNet magazine.
Editor's note: WND's multi-lingual reporter Toby Westerman specializes in monitoring global short-wave broadcasts and reading foreign-language news journals for information not readily available from the domestic press. Each month, Westerman presents a special in-depth
report in WorldNetDaily's monthly magazine, WorldNet. Readers may subscribe to WorldNet through WND's online store.
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