Fidel: We demand respect, not betrayal

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Granma Internacional Digital - April 24, 2002

WE DEMAND RESPECT, NOT BETRAYAL

Cuban president refutes Mexican government's response to his
political statement. After hearing of Uruguay's decision to break off
diplomatic relations, he reaffirms that the 800,000 doses of Cuban
meningitis vaccine needed in that country will still be sent.

by Joaquin Rivery Tur

"WE live on the truth and the world's trust in what we are saying,"
affirmed President Fidel Castro during a profound analysis refuting
aspects of the Mexican government response to his political statement
of Monday, April 22.

In the TV studio used for the Roundtable programs, accompanied by
journalists Randy Alonso, Rogelio Polanco (editor-in-chief of
Juventud Rebelde newspaper) and Lázaro Barredo, Fidel began by
stating that he had been surprised at the rapidity of the Mexican
response and that, in his opinion, it was not well thought out or
analyzed, given that it was impossible to make a decision within the
space of one hour and seriously analyze it.

"It contains a series of hurried affirmations lacking in any
substance or argumentation," he added, explaining that the Cuban
reaction came after a lot of hard work on the content.

Fidel went on to read the communiqué from the Mexican presidential
spokesperson and noted the most important detail: its recognition
that there wasn't an atom of falsehood in the Cuban statement, that
the Mexican government did not attempt to refute the veracity of the
phone conversation - not questioning even a comma - which is a
positive aspect that needs no further comment.

Saying he would leave until later points two and three, the most
essential, Fidel affirmed that on the day of Fox's telephone call he
didn't know to what degree the conversation was going to be wounding,
disrespectful and humiliating, asking how else one could judge the
phrase referring to his "proposed" visit to Monterrey, and going on
to point out that "I don't understand how I could have rejected those
[Fox's] proposals, or that I had any alternative but to accept them."

Fox talked about security, and in every summit that has taken place
there have been one, two, or three attempts on his life, Fidel
stressed. "I would be going to a country when it was evident that its
president didn't want me to, and neither did the powerful neighbor to
the North."

He explained that he couldn't accept the security argument as a
reason to stay away, and the argument about the lack of hotel rooms
was laughable. In Panama, during the Ibero-American Summit, he
argued, it was known that an attempt on his life had been planned and
the Cuban decision was to try and catch the perpetrators. The mafia
has key posts there, he detailed, and played its part in the
elections. "Today, Posada Carriles and his accomplices are imprisoned
there," he added, "and virtually absolved, and the Madam President of
Panama cosponsored the condemnation of Cuba at the Human Rights
Commission."

The Cuban president went on to recall the wave of terrorist acts
committed against Cuba on the orders of the Cuban-American National
Foundation and a series of assassination attempts organized against
him, with total impunity.

Fidel affirmed that Vicente Fox is a sincere person with whom it is
easy to talk, and that he feels no animosity toward him. He recalled
passages in the history of Mexico, how Mexican land was snatched
away, and the heroism of the children of Chapultepec, reiterating
that Fox is a good man, lacking in political experience and under the
influence of the Chicago Boys, with a total dependency above all on
his Foreign Minister Castañeda, and nobody knows why that man is
there.

He emphasized that Mexico occupies first place in terms of
neoliberalism in the hemisphere and that its agricultural situation
is disastrous, given that it is unable to compete with U.S. farmers'
extremely high production rates, which is wrecking corn cultivation;
and without corn, Mexican culture itself is endangered.

Fidel related that although Fox stated that he would formally receive
him in Monterrey, the president was not there when he arrived and
didn't even call the hotel where the Cuban delegation had set aside
20 of the 40 rooms in the building, which had been offered by the
central administration, because to book them would have been to
announce his journey in advance.

Recalling the conversation with Fox, he noted that right from the
beginning the Mexican president's intention was that he shouldn't
attend the summit, and Fidel asked how the Mexicans could possibly
say that they were under no pressure when, despite his right to
attend, he had to take into account what the president of the host
country had to say. And 20 seconds before the end of the
conversation, Fox reiterated that Fidel had to leave after the
luncheon. "What alternative did I have, what option did I have?" he
asked, adding that it could be said that whoever wrote the response
clearly hadn't read what Fidel had said.

The leader of the Revolution affirmed that for that reason, after the
conversation, he related its contents to National Assembly President
Ricardo Alarcón, telling him that he should head the Cuban
delegation. Never before had he arrived at an event, delivered his
speech, and left. He clarified that he agreed to that in order to
avoid conflict.

In relation to Alarcón, he explained that he had been told by Mexico
that if there was another person leading the delegation, he could
participate in the famous closed-door meeting, but in the end that
was not permitted either.

Speaking of the courtesy that, according to the Mexican communiqué,
the Mexican president had requested of him, the Cuban head of state
noted he didn't know of anyone of whom that had been asked, and that
he would particularly like to know "if President Fox had asked Bush,
the president of a country that has blockaded Cuba for 43 years and
has sworn to maintain that blockade, to act in a courteous way with
me." Such courtesy is elemental, he commented.

GENUFLECTING JUDAS BREAKS OFF RELATIONS

Recalling the Monterrey Summit, Fidel explained that when Fox left,
Fox went to talk with Jorge Batlle. Moderator Randy Alonso proceeded
to read a press cable reporting that the Uruguayan president had
decided to break off diplomatic relations with Cuba. Panel member
Lázaro Barredo noted that the announcement that same day that the
meningitis vaccination program with Cuban-donated medicines was
starting.

The Cuban president revealed that his criticism of Batlle was not in
the statement, but recalled at that juncture the despicable act that
he had committed.

Describing his activities that day in Monterrey, Fidel related that
he later met with Chávez and told him what had happened, but
discovered that nobody had had given the Venezuelan president any
warning about Bush.

In this part of his speech, Fidel referred to the problem of the
U.S.-manufactured draft resolutions and documents for the Human
Rights Commission (HRC), mentioning five documents, three of them in
English, and all linked by the same umbilical cord to the authorship
of the government that was excluded from the HRC by secret vote and
which returned to it without being elected, thanks to the gesture of
its friend Aznar, who gave up his seat.

Fidel's analysis made it clear that all of this is a consequence of
the manipulations of Mexican Foreign Minister Jorge Castañeda which
date back to the very first U.S. maneuvers against Cuba.

He described the first of the five documents, dating back to October
of last year, as simple, short and non-confrontational, but in
typically imperial sibylline language. The first draft resolution,
Fidel argued, was sent to Castañeda, who was already having secret
discussions with the U.S. ambassador in Mexico. The foreign minister
set to work immediately.

Castañeda had been planning to present the first resolution to Cuban
Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque as something positive, but during
official talks when Fox was visiting Cuba, Fidel directly broached
the matter of his journey to Monterrey at the invitation of the
United Nations, and then sharply attacked Washington's maneuvers in
Geneva, which caused Fox to change his mind.

FOX WAS NOT WELL INFORMED ON THE ANTI-CUBA RESOLUTION

Fidel explained that, in his opinion, President Fox was not very well
informed on this resolution and that it was Castañeda who had thought
up the meeting with the so-called dissidents during the visit to the
island. He added: "Over there [in Mexico], we talk with absolutely
legal institutions and organizations, and they come to Cuba and then
do something else."

Recalling the visit of the Mexican president and foreign minister,
Fidel said that Fox had commented on the matter in the morning to
Felipe and asked him if he had been presented with a document that
could be favorable to Cuba. Felipe replied that nobody had the
document and asked to be given a copy. Although Castañeda was not in
favor of the idea, Felipe received it, put it in an envelope and
folded it. When he reached his office, he discovered that it was in
English.

Given that Castañeda was restrained by the Cuban positions, Fidel
explained, the United States had to look for another government to
present the resolution and turned to Peru, which agreed and began to
work on it, but Felipe exposed the game and the Peruvian government
alleged that it was not its document. Moreover, that country's
Congress rejected the condemnation of Cuba by 67 votes in favor, two
against and four abstentions, meaning that Alejandro Toledo's
administration was unable to present the text to the HRC.

800,000 VACCINES ASSURED FOR THE URUGUAYAN PEOPLE

With this new failure, Fidel explained, in the early hours the mighty
State Department moved in search of a genuflecting Judas and
persuaded Jorge Batlle of Uruguay, Mr. Purer-Than-Pure who has broken
off relations with our country, to present the resolution. In spite
of that, the 800,000 meningitis vaccines still needed for the
Uruguayan people are assured, because Cuba will not allow children to
die. "We are not helping governments but peoples, and will never feel
disdain for the people of Uruguay."

Refuting the points expressed in the communiqué, one by one, the
president observed that the spokesperson alluded to the fact that it
is up to Mexico to make its own decisions on relations. Fidel asked
what decisions he meant, as Congress has a different position to that
of the foreign minister, who doesn't even belong to the ruling party,
but goes off in search of things, cooks up documents and presents
them to the president. Fidel also questioned the importance of the
fact that the vast majority of the Mexican Congress called for Mexico
to abstain at the HRC.

The final part of the Mexican response to the Cuban charges is
intelligent, Fidel argued, as it expresses that relations with Cuba
are to be maintained with the same respect as for other countries.
"It is respect we demand and not betrayal, respect and fulfilling
commitments given and words pledged." He recalled how Cuba has
condemned the atrocities committed along that murderous wall on the
Mexican and U.S. border, denouncing each death from bullets or
thirst. "Calling for unity to face up to Cuba is pure demagogy based
on lies and deceit," he added.

NOBODY IS OBLIGED TO REMAIN LOYAL TO SOMETHING INCORRECT, IMMORAL AND
UNJUST

Fidel described as key points in the Mexican government communiqué
those noting that the phone conversation was recorded and divulged.
In the first place, he said, one cannot talk of a protocol that Cuba
accepted in advance or previously agreed to, because when Fox talked
in a personal capacity, he had already mentioned the "proposed" visit
to Monterrey.

Moreover, he continued, it was a conversation between two heads of
state, and diplomacy commenced in Ancient Greece, and even before,
throughout the centuries, rulers of countries have communicated via
diplomatic messages and notes, and some version of them always
remains.

Then coded communications came on the scene, of which there is also
lasting evidence, and there are the talks between heads of state and
government with ambassadors and all of that. All governments record
conversations, he argued, going on to maintain that diplomacy
wouldn't exist if no written version of the exchange remained, and
neither would history.

Governments have needs, he explained, and to deny that is
hypocritical. This should not be presented as if a trick were pulled
on Fox. Moreover, he clarified that a conversation between two heads
of state is not a love letter or a secret of the confessional, asking
if President Fox doesn't leave a written version of what he has said.

He commented that the neighbor to the North has the best technology
in the world and the United States has recorded every conversation he
has had, both in normal and emergency situations. They record from
all cell phones, and thus there is no security even when talking on a
normal line, since goodness knows how many apparatuses there are in
the U.S. Interest Section.

He clarified that Cuba has never recorded conversations between other
heads of state and the United States records all of them. "We are not
interested in what Moscoso talks about with the president of El
Salvador, we are only interested in having evidence of what we do and
say. We make recordings," he emphasized, "because it is a working
necessity and a historical necessity. Lamentably, it is the only time
that we have had to use a recording, but the recording was not aimed
at Fox personally."

He reaffirmed that Cuba is a country of principles that "lives with
the truth, in the confidence that we never tell lies." He did not
want to use that evidence out of consideration for Mexico, and for
that reason was very patient. He likewise called philosophers to
check if it would be ethical or not to use the recording of that
conversation.

Lázaro Barredo quoted a cable in which Miguel de la Madrid, the
former Mexican president, noted that recording conversations is a
habit of all heads of state and affirmed that Fidel had to make the
recording public because Fox had refused to acknowledge that he had
been pressured.

Fidel then asked to whom he owed his loyalty, to Fox or to the 11
million Cubans, or the 100 million Mexicans or the 500 million
deceived Latin Americans; or to the thousands of people in the world
who did not receive truthful information.

"Nobody is obliged to remain loyal to something that is incorrect,
immoral and unjust," he said.

Referring to references to democracy in the Mexican communiqué, Fidel
observed that even the United States talks of human rights abuses in
Mexico: extra-judicial deaths, torture, police corruption, abuses,
confessions obtained through torture, drug-related murders, enforced
sterilization in indigenous areas and the sexual exploitation of
children. He asked if any of those things had occurred in Cuba in the
last 43 years.

The Cuban president went on to compare Mexican and Cuban indicators
such as illiteracy, which is marginal on the island and 47 times
higher in Mexico. He then asked how an illiterate person could know
how to vote, while being bombarded by commercial advertising and
publicity inciting consumerism.

In that context, he compared infant mortality rates, school
attendance, maternal mortality, enrollment rates in elementary and
high schools, and other indices that reflect an abysmal gap between
Mexico's and Cuba's achievements, and this in a country which is not
the most backward on the continent, nor does it have the fewest
resources.

CUBA, A MORAL GIANT

Speaking about freedom of the press and political pluralism, as cited
in the Mexican communiqué, the Cuban president affirmed that there is
no private ownership of media on the island, and the press is at the
service of all the society in noble causes.

He reiterated that there is only one party in Cuba, but the Party
does not elect or nominate any candidates for the National Assembly,
nor any of the levels of People's Power, and that the country is
proud of a system that has allowed popular unity to be maintained.

In contrast, he highlighted the dangerous outbreaks of fascism,
including in Europe.

"We have pride in our system, where the electorate votes with
enthusiasm," he affirmed, adding that the much vaunted representative
democracies long for such high voting figures.

He likewise upbraided rampant corruption in the region and in the
world, defined by Fidel as an act of genocide that costs millions of
lives on the planet, and challenged those alleged democracies to
propose that the UN make embezzlement a crime against humanity.

He recommended that the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights travel
to the United States and visit its slums, asking why so much drug
abuse, violence and delinquency exist in that society.

He questioned the extremely high death toll among Mexican immigrants
on the U.S.-Mexican border, despite the latter nation being rich in
oil.

He reiterated that the world is beginning to become aware of all
those ills and perceives Cuba as the hope of the Third World, due to
its privilege of having many dreams, some of them already a reality.

Finally, Fidel mentioned that certain fools are attempting to expel
Cuba from the Latin American Parliament, and wondered how they could
think that, when they are precisely the parliaments that have behaved
the best and have opposed all the disgraceful actions taken against
the Cuban people.

"These days they are fighting against a moral giant," he stated in
reference to Cuba, adding: "We are ready to talk on any issue with
anyone who wishes to do so."

(c) 2002 Granma International Digital. All rights reserved.

 
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