Castro offers talks with
incoming U.S.
administration
Cuba's acting leader
Raul Castro on Thursday
offered to hold talks
with Washington once the
current U.S.
administration is gone.
"If the new U.S.
administration finally
puts aside their
arrogance and decides to
talk in a civilized
fashion, that would be
very welcome," he said
while addressing the
country's traditional
National Revolutionary
Day ceremony in Camaguey,
a town some 533 km
southeast of the Cuban
capital.
"By next year the
erratic and dangerous
administration of George
W. Bush will be over,
along with its
fundamentalist and
retrograde thinking that
gives no quarter to
rational analysis on any
matter," he said during
his one-hour speech
which was broadcast
nationwide.
"The new administration
will have to decide
whether it maintains
this absurd, illegal and
failed policy against
Cuba or accepts the
olive branch we
extended," he said.
He restated Cuba's wish
to discuss its
differences with the
United States, providing
they are treated as
equals.
This is the third time
that Raul has offered to
hold such talks. The
first time was on Aug.
18 in the official
newspaper Granma and the
second was during a Dec.
2 military parade.
However, he warned that
if Washington persists
with over half acentury
of enmity, the Cubans
are well prepared to
continue their
resistance to the U.S.
blockade and attack.
The 76-year-old interim
leader also announced
that Cuba plans to allow
more foreign investment
to boost its economy.
Raul Castro said Cuba's
leader, 80-year-old
Fidel Castro, is
recovering and
increasingly active.
Fidel Castro temporarily
ceded power to his
brother, Defense
Minister Raul Castro in
July last year in order
to undergo an operation
to treat his intestinal
bleeding. He has not
been seen in public
since then.
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