Yahoo! March 19, 2001
Castro: Cuban System Will Survive
HAVANA, 18 (AP) - President Fidel Castro told Tribune Co. executives and
reporters in an interview published Sunday that the future of Cuba's one-party
socialism will be safe after he dies and that no successor could change the
system against the will of the island's citizens.
"The pope can't turn his followers into Muslims. No one has the power
in this country to change its course,'' he told members of a visiting Tribune
Co. delegation Friday during a wide-ranging five-hour interview.
Excerpts of the interview were published in separate stories in Sunday's
Chicago Tribune and the South Florida Sun-Sentinel of Fort Lauderdale - both
Tribune Co. newspapers that will jointly operate the company's news bureau here.
The meeting was called to mark the formal opening of the bureau, which was
inaugurated with a reception Wednesday evening.
Castro offered observations on everything from lobster to the Internet
during the Friday afternoon meeting.
But he refused to talk much about what he sees for his country's future,
insisting that he does not spend much time pondering his own death.
"I have never thought much about that because I don't attach much
importance to what happens after,'' said Castro.
Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque, Cuba's foreign minister, who sat in on
Friday's talks, said Thursday that Cuba has a formal succession plan, updated
every five years. He did not disclose details.
Cuban officials in the past have said Castro's 69-year-old brother, Raul
Castro, is his likely successor.
"I trust ideas better than people,'' Fidel Castro said in the
interview. "No one has the power to change the line of the revolution
because that's what people believe in.''
During the talk, Castro said the Internet had become an invaluable resource
for him and the island. "The Internet has been one of your best creations
in the United States, really,'' he said.
Later, discussing the subject of expensive seafood, Castro said: "We
need to deprive ourselves of lobsters'' to pay for government-provided medical
care, education and other services.
The Tribune Co. earlier this year became the third U.S. media organization
to have permanent offices in Cuba. The Dallas Morning News also recently began
operating here.
Those media companies join The Associated Press and CNN as the only American
news organizations permanently operating in Havana.
While the Sun-Sentinel and the Tribune will jointly operate the Tribune Co.
offices in Havana, reporters from the organization's nine other papers,
including the Los Angeles Times, Orlando Sentinel and Baltimore Sun, will
sometimes visit the bureau.
Tribune Formally Opens News Bureau in Cuba, Company Executives Meet With
President Fidel Castro
Press Release. SOURCE: Tribune Company. Monday March 19,
11:57 am Eastern Time
Bureau to Provide Enhanced Editorial Content for Tribune's Newspapers,
Broadcasting and Interactive Operations
CHICAGO, March 19 /PRNewswire/ -- Company executives and government
officials formally opened Tribune's news bureau in Cuba during ceremonies last
week that included a meeting with President Fidel Castro.
"Millions of Cuban-Americans live in Florida, Chicago, Los Angeles and
New York and the other major markets served by our newspapers, television
stations and web sites,'' said John W. Madigan, Tribune chairman, president and
chief executive officer. "This bureau will allow us to continue to enhance
our editorial content for the readers and viewers who depend on Tribune for news
and information. The Cuba story is fascinating and is one that needs to be told
from Havana.''
The news bureau will serve Tribune's 11 newspapers, 22 television stations
and more than 50 web sites. Tribune is one of only two newspaper publishers to
be invited to operate a news bureau in Cuba.
"Our decision to invite the Tribune Company to Cuba is an indication of
respect for its work,'' Felipe Perez Roque the foreign minister of Cuba said
during a private meeting held at the foreign ministry. He praised the paper's "consistent,
serious and respectable'' work on Cuba in the past, and said "it is our
hope you will be able to undertake in Cuba serious, responsible coverage, always
committed to the truth.''
Tribune's delegation of company executives also met with Cuba's economic
minister and with Vicki Huddleston, the top U.S. diplomat in Cuba and head of
the U.S. Interests Section. Both were guests at the Tribune bureau's opening
ceremony. Also attending the ceremony were dignitaries from the Cuban National
Assembly, the Council of State and the International Press Center.
Tribune representatives at the ceremony included Madigan; Ray Jansen, senior
vice president of Tribune Publishing and publisher of Newsday; Howard Tyner,
vice president/editorial of Tribune Publishing; Chicago Tribune publisher Scott
Smith; Cissy Baker, Co-Bureau Chief of Tribune's Washington Media Center; and
editors and correspondents from the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, Newsday,
South Florida Sun-Sentinel and Tribune Broadcasting.
TRIBUNE (NYSE: TRB - news) is one of the country's premier media companies,
operating businesses in broadcasting, publishing and on the Internet. It reaches
more than 80 percent of U.S. households, and is the only media company with
television stations, newspapers and Web sites in the nation's top three markets.
Tribune's annual revenues total $6 billion and the company employs more than
22,000 people nationwide.
More information about Tribune can be found on www.tribune.com.
U.S. Seeks Censure of China, Cuba
By George Gedda, Associated Press Writer.
WASHINGTON, 17 (AP) - The Bush administration prepares for a difficult
struggle as it seeks support for resolutions condemning repression in China and
Cuba at a meeting of the United Nation's Commission on Human Rights.
The commission convenes its annual meeting in Geneva on Monday.
Officials say the human rights situation has deteriorated in both countries
over the past year but acknowledge that commission membership changes have
altered the political balance and could help China and Cuba.
All told, there are 53 members. Fourteen departing countries were replaced
by 14 new members.
A year ago, a U.S.-backed resolution on Cuba that was introduced by Poland
and the Czech Republic won by a three-vote margin, while a China resolution
proposed by the United States was defeated on a procedural vote.
There will be no votes until the third week in April, but the jockeying for
support has been going on for weeks. The success of the U.S. effort could hinge
on how European allies vote.
Last week, Secretary of State Colin Powell (news - web sites) sought
European support on the China resolution in a meeting with Swedish Foreign
Minister Anna Lindh, whose country now holds the European Union (news - web
sites) presidency.
Powell on Friday asked for Spain's support for the anti-Cuba resolution when
he met with Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Pique.
Taken together, commission members are an eclectic group. They include
stalwart democracies such as Norway and Canada. Members run by one-party states
include China, Cuba and Vietnam. Three countries - Cuba, Libya and Syria - are
on the U.S. terrorism list.
For China, the stakes are particularly high.
The International Olympics Committee plans to vote in June on a site for the
2008 summer games. A vote to censure China could damage Beijing's bid to host
the games. China sees the American emphasis on rights issues as interference in
its internal affairs.
Chinese officials say they are confident of prevailing in Geneva. Almost
every year since 1990, the United States has promoted an anti-China resolution,
but has failed each time, the officials point out. China is usually able to
triumph by obtaining majority votes on preliminary "no action''
resolutions, meaning that the substantive resolution never comes to a vote.
Mike Jedrzejczyk of Human Rights Watch and T. Kumar of Amnesty International
USA agree that the fate of the China resolution this year could hinge on the
personal involvement of Powell and President Bush (news - web sites) in lobbying
foreign governments.
"If Bush starts making calls, things will turn,'' Kumar says.
The State Department's annual report on human rights conditions worldwide
said China's record deteriorated last year, with intensified crackdowns on
religion and political dissent.
It said thousands of unregistered religious institutions had either been
closed or destroyed and hundreds of leaders of the Falun Gong (news - web sites)
spiritual sect had been imprisoned
As for Cuba, the report said Cuba's overall rights record remained poor, as
the government retained tight surveillance over anyone considered a potential
opponent.
A draft Cuba resolution drawn up for this year's meeting by the Czech
Republic criticizes the island's rights record while also taking aim at the U.S.
embargo against Cuba.
In a telephone conversation last weekend with Czech President Vaclav Havel,
Powell said the reference to the embargo should be deleted because it is a
mistake to mix human rights and economic issues.
Bay of Pigs Conference in Cuba
WASHINGTON (AP) - Top Kennedy administration officials and members of the
Bay of Pigs invasion force will attend a conference in Cuba next week on the
40th anniversary of the historic three-day battle.
The event is co-sponsored by the University of Havana and several Cuban
government agencies, along with the National Security Archive, a George
Washington University affiliate that specializes in declassifying foreign policy
documentation.
An Archive communique said aides in the Kennedy White House, former CIA
(news - web sites) covert operations officials and veterans of the 2506 Brigade
force will participate in the March 22-24 conference.
Also participating will be Cuban officers who fought the invaders.
Peter Kornbluh, who heads the Archive's Cuba documentation project,
predicted the conference will "substantively advance the historical
record'' of the events of that period.
He said the conference will have access to newly declassified U.S.
government records and documents from European and Latin American nations. Cuban
documents also will be released.
In April 1961, an invading force of Cuban exiles, trained and financed by
the CIA, was routed by forces loyal to Fidel Castro (news - web sites).
On the Net: National Security Archive:
http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/
Copyright © Yahoo!
Inc.
Copyright © 2000
The Associated Press.
Copyright
@ 2000
PRNewswire. | 