Fox Apologizes for Misleading Nation Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit Fox Speaks! Apologizes for Misleading the Nation; Castaneda Owns Up to US Pressure source - Milt Shapiro Fox apologizes for misleading nation, Castaņeda admits U.S. pressure EFE - 4/26/2002 President Vicente Fox apologized for his role in the row with Cuba in which he asked Cuban leader Fidel Castro to leave a UN summit early. For the first time in three days, Fox late Wednesday referred to the diplomatic conflict that arose after the Cuban president divulged contents of a private phone conversation. In the tape, Fox is heard asking Castro to leave the UN development conference in Monterrey so he wouldn't "complicate" things and to not make any remarks about the United States. The Cuban government has accused Mexico of caving in to U.S. pressure and asking Castro to leave to avoid running into George W. Bush. In his address, Fox apologized to Mexicans "who might have felt deceived" by his behavior. But he insisted "there had been no deceit," but only an effort on his part to work for the good of the country. Fox said the type of conversation he had with Castro was a common occurrence between heads of state and "did not represent deceit of any kind, on the contrary, it had all the transparency, all the clarity that you yourselves heard and saw." Until the release of the tape, the government had denied knowing why Castro left. Fox said he had not previously divulged the conversation with Castro because "there was a commitment, and because I respect myself, I respect all Mexicans, and more than anything, I respect my word." "That's why it was not made public. Not because I'm ashamed in any way of anything that was said," insisted Fox, who blasted opposition lawmakers who went to Cuba last Friday to "make amends" for Mexico's vote to censure the island regime at the UN Human Rights Commission. For his part, Foreign Relations Secretary Jorge Castaņeda, whom Castro has accused of being subservient to the U.S., admitted during preparatory talks for the March summit, U.S. officials requested any encounter between Bush and Castro be avoided. "During one of the many conversations between officials of different levels who were preparing President Bush's trip, they said, 'Listen, if Castro comes ... we've got to ask that you find a way to prevent them from meeting,' Castaņeda told Monitor radio. Castaņeda added Castro's presence at the Monterrey conference "is a reason for concern to everybody, because every time he goes to a summit, Fidel Castro triggers a scandal. That's what he lives for, and that's not just now, he's been doing this for the past 43 years." Several opposition party legislators have demanded Castaņeda resign over this and other incidents involving Cuba. In late February, a group of Cubans rammed a bus through the gates of Mexico's embassy in Havana looking for asylum. They were responding to statements Castaņeda made to the media in Miami that "the doors of the Mexican embassy are open to all Cubans." The official insisted his comments were taken out of context and manipulated by "radicals in Miami." ================================================================= NY Transfer News Collective * A Service of Blythe Systems Since 1985 - Information for the Rest of Us 339 Lafayette St., New York, NY 10012 http://www.blythe.org e-mail: nyt@blythe.org ================================================================= nytcamer-04.26.02-19:44:49-855