Journalist surprised Fidel Castro retracted comments
BY JUAN O. TAMAYO
jtamayo@ElNuevoHerald.com
A U.S. journalist who interviewed Fidel Castro said on Monday he was
surprised the former Cuban leader claimed that some of his comments were
misrepresented because Castro has made similar statements before.
A report by Jeffrey Goldberg of The Atlantic magazine raised eyebrows
around the world last week when it quoted Castro as saying that ``the
Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore.''
Castro later said his comments were misinterpreted and that what he had
meant to say was that it was the capitalism model that no longer works.
``Not only has he said things like this before, but the on-the-ground
reality is that . . . the Cuban model is not working, and that is why
they are starting this large-scale experiment with privatization,''
Goldberg told reporters in a news conference.
While Castro has previously attacked some of the shortcomings of Cuba's
Soviet-style system, his comment to Goldberg appeared much broader, at
least before he claimed he was misinterpreted.
The news conference came on the same day that Cuba announced it would
cut 500,000 employees from state payrolls in an effort to slash
government spending and increase productivity.
Joining the news conference was Julia Sweig, a Cuba expert at the
U.S.-based Council on Foreign Relations, who accompanied Goldberg in the
interviews with Castro.
Asked if Castro had tried to use Goldberg or her to deliver any messages
to the Obama administration, Sweig said the former Cuban leader seemed
to have a lot of other issues on his mind.
``The deep, contentious, intractable issues between the U.S. and Cuba,
although important, are not the only things on his agenda,'' she said,
adding that his brother and successor, Raúl Castro, ``runs foreign policy.''
Fidel Castro ``feels comfortable on the world stage. Cuba is too small
for him,'' she said, but ``the here-and-now of the bilateral relation .
. . is not directly in his sphere.''
Sweig added that as Cuba reforms its economy, and the U.S. embargo
continues to ban U.S. companies from taking advantage of the changes,
``we are increasingly marginal'' to Cuba's economic and political future
``We're already missing the bandwagon,'' she said.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2010/09/14/1823975/journalist-surprised-fidel-castro.html
No comments:
Post a Comment