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Cuban Official Expects
Castro's Return
News
8 San Diego, September
22, 2006.
NEW YORK -- Cuba's foreign minister said
Thursday he expects Fidel Castro to be fully
back at the helm by early December and urged
U.S. intelligence chiefs to tear up their
post-Castro scenario because his illness
demonstrated Cubans' strong support for
their government.
Felipe Perez Roque said Castro's illness,
which forced him to step aside as president
on July 31, turned out to be a dress rehearsal
for the time when the leader of Cuba's revolution
dies. There were no street protests and
the country remained "at ease, but
vigilant and watchful," he said in
an interview with The Associated Press.
Asked whether he expected Fidel to be back
in power for the postponed celebration of
his 80th birthday on Dec. 2, Perez Roque
said Fidel's health is improving, "and
I have no questions in my mind that we will
be able to celebrate his birthday in December
as he deserves."
Did he expect Fidel to be back fully or
on a lighter work schedule? "I think
he will come back fully," Perez Roque
said.
"I have no doubts that his recovery
is coming along quite well, and that Fidel
will be able to fully devote his time to
his duties without any impediments whatsoever,"
he said.
But he said he expects Fidel's medical
team to try "and put things in such
a way that there will be no excesses that
will harm his health."
Perez Roque said the Pentagon and CIA strategy-makers
believed that when Fidel was not leading
the government "the Cuban revolution
would come crumbling down and our people
would take to the streets to ask for the
invasion of the Marines and to have a U.S.
ruler for Cuba," and to ask for "the
Mafia-related elite in Miami to come back."
"What has happened in Cuba over the
last couple of weeks .... has left the Pentagon
and the CIA strategy-makers without any
plans, without any strategy, and without
a single idea that is worth mentioning,"
he said.
"So I can only imagine that those
strategy-makers of President Bush must be
reassessing their choices _ which does not
make them less dangerous and reckless than
they are today," Perez Roque said.
Asked to comment on the foreign minister's
claims, Richard Grenell, spokesman for the
U.S. Mission to the United Nations, said:
"Our only plan and hope is that the
people of Cuba get to experience freedom
and democracy."
Perez Roque said the United States has
never been more isolated in Latin America
while Cuba is no longer alone "as a
beacon of dignity and solidarity,"
pointing to its close alliances with Venezuela
and Bolivia.
He also touted the success of the recent
summit of the Nonaligned Movement in Havana,
where 117 countries pledged to work together
to defend international law, oppose pre-emptive
military action, and counter U.S. efforts
"to impose its designs on the rest"
of the world.
Castro's 80th birthday on Aug. 13 came
two weeks after he temporarily ceded his
powers to his younger brother, Raul, No.
2 in the government. So the government has
decided to celebrate it on Dec. 2, the 50th
anniversary of the landing of a yacht on
Cuba's shores with a young Fidel which Perez
Roque said "ushered in the last stage
of our struggles for Cuba's independence
and democracy."
Perez Roque accused enemies of Fidel and
Raul of putting forward the "shameful
and narrow-minded idea" that Raul is
now in charge because Fidel is his brother.
"Raul has been second after Fidel.
His responsibilities have not stemmed from
his family link with Fidel. They have stemmed
from his life devoted to the revolution,
from his personal merits, from ability first
as a guerrilla chief, and later on as a
party cadre and official from the state
and from the government," Perez Roque
said.
"When Fidel goes back to fully resume
his duties, Raul will continue to be the
second man in charge in leading the state,
the government and the party," he said.
Perez Roque said Cuba stands ready to establish
relations with the United States _ as Castro
recently offered _ in the framework of respect
for the country's sovereignty.
"We stand ready to move forward, but
we're not begging to do so as a favor, and
we can spend another 1,000 years the same
way we are right now," he said. "We
have proved that you can live perfectly
well without depending on the United States.
"Besides that, we know that during
the Bush administration, there will be no
step by the administration in favor of relations,
but that doesn't hurt us that much. We're
patient, and we know that time is on our
side," he said.
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