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By Carol Rosenberg. rosenberg@herald.com. Posted on Sun,
May. 26, 2002 in The Miami
Herald.
Lashing back at the Bush administration's hard-line Cuba policy, Fidel
Castro told Americans on Saturday that they had nothing to fear from his country
and labeled charges that Havana has biological weapons an ''infamous slander''
meant to stir up U.S. fears of terror attacks.
''In our country, no one has ever thought of producing such weapons. Our
scientists have been educated for the sacred mission of protecting life and not
for destroying it,'' the Cuban leader said in his first public comments since
President Bush came to Miami on Monday to underscore a commitment to a tough
anti-Castro policy on the 100th anniversary of Cuban independence.
Castro's uncharacteristically short speech -- it lasted 20 minutes -- was
also significant because he pointedly addressed his remarks to Americans during
a huge morning rally of Cubans in Sancti Spiritus, 215 miles southeast of
Havana.
Cuban officials estimated attendance at 300,000 -- a figure that could not
be independently confirmed.
'TERRORIST ACTIONS'
Wielding classic Castro rhetoric, he said his country had suffered from
''thousands of terrorist actions,'' in an apparent swipe at U.S.-based exiles
who have sought to topple his four-decade-old regime.
Still, he said, Cuba sympathized with U.S. citizens still reeling from the
Sept. 11 terror attacks.
Castro cast the U.S.-Cuban antagonism as political, saying "Cuba will
never place blame or sow hate against the people of the United States for the
aggressions that we have suffered because of their governments.''
Speaking just days after a five-day visit by former President Jimmy Carter,
Castro also said relations between U.S. citizens and Cubans are ''improving
every day'' despite "a barrage of distorted and manipulated propaganda.''
Castro also said he was hurt by allegations, on the eve of Carter's visit,
by Undersecretary of State John R. Bolton that Havana had developed bio-weapons
and was cooperating in that regard with ''rogue'' nations -- a charge Castro has
flatly denied and some U.S. officials have downplayed.
''As a leader in a country that has had to defend itself, for more than four
decades, from thousands of terrorist actions, I can assure you that the constant
stirring up of panic is not the right way to proceed, since it can
psychologically affect the people and turn life in that immense country into an
unbearable nightmare,'' Castro said.
''Two weeks after the infamous slander, Cuba was arbitrarily included in a
list of states sponsors of terrorism,'' he added, referring to the release of an
annual State Department report that listed Cuba with Iran, Iraq, Libya, North
Korea, Sudan and Syria -- the same seven countries that it named last year.
"Rather than be concerned over the moral or political damage that could
derive from such an evil accusation, we are hurt to think that any American
could be misled into believing that any damage to himself, his family or his
people could come from Cuba.''
ADDRESSES AMERICANS
Castro opened his remarks with ''dear compatriots'' but said the speech was "basically
addressed to the American people.''
''Our struggle is not, and will never be, aimed against the American people.
Perhaps, no other country receives Americans with the respect and hospitality
displayed by Cuba,'' he said. "In Cuba we have never cultivated hatred
against the American people or blamed them for the aggressions perpetrated by
the governments of that country.'' | 
