Yahoo! November 7, 2000
Cuba Bored by U.S. Elections
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 7 (AP) - Cubans yawned over the U.S. presidential election on
Tuesday, saying it really doesn't matter who wins because the outcome is
unlikely to change the country's relations with the United States.
The communist workers weekly Trabajadores called the contest ``the most
boring election of all time,'' saying Texas Gov. George Bush and Vice President
Al Gore (news - web sites) were so similar that it was difficult to tell them
apart.
President Fidel Castro said Monday he couldn't decide if he would rather
work Tuesday or go to the beach - as he has suggested Americans do on Election
Day.
Castro made his suggestion last week during a news conference capping a
five-day state visit to Venezuela.
``Neither of them interests me in the least,'' Castro said of the
candidates. ``I don't expect anything from either of them.''
Regardless of the outcome, Castro has promised to continue resisting U.S.
pressure, and has said he does not believe the four-decade trade embargo against
Cuba can last forever.
Wayne Smith, who served as chief U.S. diplomat in Havana during the Reagan
and Carter administrations, agreed on Monday that neither candidate is expected
to do much with U.S.-Cuba policy.
Both Gore and Bush have said they would insist on democratic change in Cuba
before supporting an end to trade sanctions.
If any real change in U.S-Cuba policy occurs in the next four years, it is
more likely to come from Capitol Hill than the White House, Smith said.
Although President Clinton (news - web sites) has moved to increase contact
between Cuban and American citizens, all proposals for more substantial change
in relations between the two countries have originated in Congress, he noted.
U.S. lawmakers have made numerous proposals to ease the trade sanctions over
the past year, only to have them narrowly defeated or watered down amid concerns
about the Cuban-American vote in the months leading up to the general elections.
Cuban officials complain the only legislative proposal that became law - the
agricultural appropriation bill, which permits the export of food and medicine
to Cuba - makes the import of U.S. food too difficult to be practical.
Castro Extends Friendship to Mexico
By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA, 6 (AP) - President Fidel Castro made a surprise appearance at the
unveiling Monday of a new statue of Mexican hero Benito Juarez - a gesture of
friendship just three weeks before the inauguration of a new Mexican government.
Castro's unannounced appearance at the morning ceremony on the Avenue of the
Presidents was welcomed by Mexican senators who were winding up a four-day visit
to Cuba.
``It is one more example ... of the friendship between our nations,''
Mexican Sen. Enrique Jackson told reporters before the ceremony. He later
expressed thanks for ``the difference that has been made today by the presence
of President Fidel Castro.''
Castro also saw the senators during a six-hour meeting that ended around
3:30 a.m. Monday, said Jackson, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or
PRI, which ruled Mexico for more than seven decades.
Although there has been no official confirmation, Castro is expected to
attend the Dec. 1 inauguration of President-elect Vicente Fox, an opposition
candidate whose administration will end the PRI's long hold on power in Mexico.
Castro did not speak during the ceremony inaugurating the towering bronze
statue of Juarez, an Indian lawyer who during his presidency in the 1860s
initiated reforms in the Mexican government and halted France's attempts to
establish a Mexican empire.
The statue, a gift to Cuba from Mexico, is a copy of one in Juarez's
hometown, the southern state capital of Oaxaca. It bears his best-known saying:
``Between individuals, as between nations, respect for each other's rights is
peace.''
Mexico has historically adopted that philosophy in its dealings with Cuba.
It was only Latin American country that refused to break diplomatic relations
with the communist country despite pressure from the United States after the
1959 revolution that brought Castro to power.
Mexico also has been one of Cuba's most important trading partners.
While relations between the nations remain good, the administration of
outgoing Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo irritated Cuban officials by having
senior officials meet with Cuban dissidents on several occasions.
There has been much speculation about future relations between the countries
under an administration led by Fox, a former rancher and Coca-Cola executive who
was the candidate of the decidedly pro-business, center-right National Action
Party.
Fox has expressed hopes for a democratic transition in Cuba, but has
rejected the U.S. policy of trying to isolate the communist island.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Friday that his country hopes
to strengthen its historical ties with Mexico during Fox's six-year term.
``We do not expect a cooling of relations,'' Perez Roque told reporters. Fox
has offered every indication that ``under his administration, relations between
Mexico and Cuba will be increased,'' the foreign minister said.
When Fox was governor of the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, he visited
Cuba and praised the communist government's advances in health and other social
services, Perez Roque noted. Fox met with Castro during that February 1999
visit.
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