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Title : standard furniture tobago
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who do you think is your worst enemy? my worst enemy, i think i donâ´t have a worst enemy, because i think that all enemies can be defeated. in what mood are you leaving the u.s.? what do you consider are the outcomes of this visit? what is the importance of your visit to new york? and what are the benefits of it? would you have liked to stay
for a couple of more days? and what would you done in those days? iâ´m happy of going back, but , maybe i should have accepted some meetings requests, invitations that have been made, but iâ´m satisfied, i think it was satisfactory. is there anything you would have liked to do, and you didnâ´t do?
go to a restaurant, to eat, because iâ´ve gone hungry in new york where iâ´ve been invited to so many meals where i wasnâ´t able to eat. thank you very much commander, for talking to the hispanic tv for the first time. thank you for giving me this opportunity, i’ve done it
with great pleasure, even though we had a short period of time, but i still can go away, at the time i should go away, thatâ´s around midnight in new york or 1 am in cuba, because iâ´ll be traveling abroad till the 25th but the return time have not been defined. fidel castro is the latin american president that have spent more time in power, 37 years in charge of the cuban government.
five years ago, it’s most important trading partner, the soviet union, collapsed. as a result of that, the cuban economy lost 50 per cent cent of its gross domestic product and 75 percent of its imports. cubans have not seen a worse economic situation in 37 years of socialism. today the government of havana
is looking for new business partners in latin america and specifically in the big us market, still closed by the trade embargo. cuba represents one of the last communist strongholds in the world and the only authoritarian government in the americas. but as commander castro
himself says times change and the next years suggests a new economic and social panorama for the island. what kind of changes will they be? that remains to be seen. thank you for your audience and for your interest in this america speaks, special program. iâ´m marãa elvira salazar.
what are you most afraid of, commander? to dishonor. could you expand a little more what you want to tell me, in what sense, to dishonor? every betrayal of my principles, the abandonment of my ideas, is something that i would never resign myself to. to sell our country, to accept changes in cuba, in exchange for political concessions related
to the revolution, to the independence and sovereignty, thatâ´s what i fear, nothing more. and donâ´t you believe, returning to that question.. and donâ´t you believe, that the arrival of foreign capital can somehow undermine what you are telling me? yes, we have to resign ourselves to that. but these are the vices that comes along
with capitalism and the so-called market economy. that's why we are socialists but nevertheless, they are going to have to open the door to that ... invasion, to put it that way. if it’s an invasion, we can not open the door. no, we are protected by the united states, because the united states do not want anyone to invest a penny,
then no one protects socialism today in cuba more than the united states, they do not want investments in cuba. but that could change and according to my information, which is shared by many people, with the clinton administration, if he is reelected president, that could change in a few months after the new administration. no, if clinton says he will reinforce the blockade, he has never stated that. it could be that he is saying it now
because he is in the re-election period. after that period, it could be a different picture. the only change that can happen is that all the presidents in their first four years are thinking about the next election, and they feel more free. it has happened to us that we wait for four years,
because when the second year arrives they don’t get elected, well, reagan was elected twice. and those who get elected are those who are determined not to suppress the so-called embargo of cuba i hope weâ´ll have better luck next time all the journalists you've spoken to mention vesco oh, what a famous character he is being acussed
of tax fraud and i don’t know what else, pilo benzora is famous and vesco went to cuba for humanitarian reasons he was sick of health, very delicate, and there he was treated and he was healed he wanted to stay to live, it does not imply any obligation to send him to the united states anyway, who does not mention him? but well according to the us department of state, there are another 70 fugitives
from justice in cuba, , acussed of terrorism, of drug trafficking don’t you mind, commander?. you know more than i do, because i have not heard of fugitives from united states justice and of people involved with drugs. i do not know, what i do know is that recently someone stole a boat here, it was a german citizen and we send him back
to the united states. now if they are americans, there would be no reciprocity, because here there are thousands who committed robbery, crimes, horrors of all kinds and they never send us back, any of those people, there is no treaty. assuming it was so, wouldn’t it bother you that cuba .. 70 ainâ´t that much, in the united states there must be like millions of that kind of people.
doesn’t it bother you that they accuse us of that and they don’t say a word about what happens here? it does not bother you it would not bother you, commander, that if in fact, as the state department says, these fugitives are in cuba, it would not bother you, that this will damage the image of the island? i think that number is false
and that they incorrectly classify certain people. there may be political refugees in cuba, of one type or another. people who got there. there might be people from other countries in cuba, people they have been chasing in other countries, revolutionaries from other countries because calling them them fugitives, drug traffickers…
drug traffickers? there are no drug traffickers there. vesco is being accused of that, but vesco is arrested, not because he violated u.s. laws, but because of violations of cuban laws, no one is unpunished in cuba, and we do not have that kind of people there, but they have a list, the way they want,
and at the state department they feel free to publish all the names they want, in colombia, in venezuela and everywhere. they are the judges of the world, everyone knows. they say that there are 70 in cuba. i am surprised, because our country does not receive criminals, it may have received revolutionaries, who have participated in armed struggles, but not delinquents.
and they are as exiled as the exiles they may have here for participating in armed struggles, because at giron (bay of pigs episode), we sent back 1300 people who had invaded the country at the service of a foreign power, these are crimes that are punished very seriously, what would we say of those who are here, although, a part of it, has changed.
what would we say about war criminals, “batistianosâ€, who came here after killing twenty thousand cubans and stealing millions and millions of pesos, why don’t we talk about that? and if we have seventy, really ... and if you were aware that there are refugee terrorists on the island, accused of drug trafficking? well, real terrorists… a real terrorist is someone who blew up
a bomb, in a public place. we would have no legal obligation because there is no extradition treaty. look for the list of airplane hijackers who have been sanctioned in cuba with long years of jail and you will see how our conduct is guided by ethic and moral principles. the meeting that you, commander,
the meeting that you had with members of the press, yesterday… among them was mike wallace, a well-known journalist in the american press and he reminded you, in that interview, in that meeting that you had, he reminded you about an interview that you had with him in 1959, the first time you came here to new york city,
and in that interview you told him, according to mr. wallace, that the cuban revolution was looking for participatory democracy and regular elections with several political parties, i am quoting you. that was 37 years ago... what happened commander? that’s right, that was our idea, what we thought we were going to do at that moment, but very soon a struggle began, a near-life or death
confrontation between the united states and cuba, the revolution became radicalized and the same day we were burying the dead, killed by a fierce attack, of aircrafts with cuban badges, and part came from central america and the other part from the united states.. on that day we declared the socialist nature of the revolution.
we did not fool anyone, when we thought the things we were thinking to do. but the process became radicalized and the rules changed. it became a struggle of life or death, in which those forms of organization did not fit the need that our country had to defend itself and to survive.
it was not representative democracy, the radicalization led us to marxism, leninism and other forms. of state organization. and to other forms of organization of the popular government, that is essentially what happened. well, based on this statement, itâ´s clear to me that, in a certain way, the debate exists.
if you already came from the sierra with the idea of implementing socialist marxism on the island or the other school of thought… i was a socialist, along with a few of us, and i was a preacher of socialism, marxism and leninism, because i saw in that a scientific theory, an explanation of society .and the world’s problems.
at first i was an utopian communist, who believed in goodwill, generosity, but my contact with that literature made me evolve towards those positions , but i did not conceive that as the program that could be applied in our country, at that moment. i dreamed about socialism, someday, but those were not the ideas
we were struggling for. it is in the program, history will absolve me because they are very clear and are quite advanced. but the struggle against us does not begin with socialism, it begins with the law of agrarian reform, which gives rise to a plan of invasion like the one that took place in guatemala, which has cost a hundred thousand disappeared.
how many would have cost in cuba? where there were hundreds of thousands of armed people, a victorious counterrevolution in giron and, fortunately, the combative spirit of our people… thanks to the firmness it has maintained, we are still free of that.. and after all these years, is willing to keep getting rid of it.
we do not want a fascist regime!. actually, the adversaries of the revolution were inspired by the policy of hostility and aggression against cuba and they were the allies of the united states. that is the real truth!. it is a situation that has been maintained until today. what future generations
will do, it will be their thing, not our thing. but then i ask you, commander, that original idea, as you told that journalist, to have a representative democracy and political parties and regular elections every four years, every six, you believe, you see that for the future of cuba? i don’t see it, now i ...
you ask me. also, i don’t believe on it, it has not solved any problem, what we have are 4.5 billion people in the third world, living in the most incredible poverty and then capitalism has not been able to solve this problem. parties have less and less prestige everywhere. there are even
independent candidates, who run and wins, in many countries that i don’t want to mention. people believe less and less in parties. in those parties, that you defend so much. why go back to that? and why fragment our country into a pile of pieces, weaken the country, for the benefit of whom?
you said on monday, before the puerto rican gala, and i must mention that puerto ricans are a large part of our audience, that is seeing us, that the cuban revolution had been extremely benevolent. that there had not been torture victims, that there had not been people imprisoned and that there had not been humans rights violations. on the other hand, you have america's watch,
you have france liberte, who are friends of cuba, who point out in their reports that in fact there are human rights violations in cuba and there also exists some kind of repression. yes, but none of them have been able to tell that there have been tortured victims, that there have been missing people, murdered people. death squads. and for them, that concept
is very broad. every time it becomes broader, they include newer and newer things, but the traditional problems that arose around human rights were about the respect to the physical integrity of people. the question that arises now a days is if they must be in the same prison, or not, who is a political prisoner, or not. we usually call them
counterrevolutionary prisoners. but, well, we have no objection of them being called political prisoners, that is, people who fight against the state, against the social system, we have people like that in all parts of the world. in the united states there are a number of puerto ricans imprisoned, there are also many prisoners who have had terrible social needs, who have been forced to commit crimes.
in mexico there are prisoners, in venezuela, in colombia, in spain, in italy, in germany, the red brigades, everywhere. but they only claim for the rights of the prisoners in cuba, the country that has had to defend itself for 35 years against the most powerful nation in the world and history. no, but they don’t just mention cuba, commander. they also mention saudi arabia,
kuwait, peru. yes, but they are not blocked. but then, how could we reconcile, how could we reconcile your word, commander? of what? that you recognize what you said, this has been a benevolent revolution. yes. that there have been no human rights violations,
in despite of these reports indicating that there have been violations. how can you reconcile those two positions? but about what human rights are they talking about? they can’t talk about torture. they won’t be able to talk about crimes, they won’t be able to talk about abuses, about violations to the integrity of people. they widen the field, that field is expanding more and more. and i have in mind that one of the things
they raise is the question of whether they should be separated or not. the ones sanctioned for a type of common action, called common, and the sanctioned for actions, for acts against the state. i remember some of those things. and some other requests, i received, i spoke, i talked, like ... france liberte?
yes, but france liberte, thatâ´s related to to france, to madame miterrand. we discussed about that quite a bit. they asked us to send a delegation, then american watch came, the ones from american watch really pushed hard, all they could, to influence the report. we did not agree with the report. and we discuss it with them, i do not know if they have made it public.
and other institutions are traditional enemies of cuba. although i understand that in other places, they worry about their problems. but against no country in the world there has been as much propaganda as against cuba. thatâ´s an unquestionable truth. what do you think about minorities? you mentioned the minorities, who is this dissidence, commander? what minority are you talking about, who is this dissidence?
they are people who already support the blockade as a general rule. who support the hostile policy of the united states against cuba, who defend the thought of the united states, our adversary, who wanted to destroy the revolution, that is the dissidence, in general terms, although there can be some exceptions, some of them that are not in favor of the blockade and
some of them who make a living of the dissidence. a profession, dissence is a profession. and they are supported by the united states… money, resources, political support. son enemigos del paãs.they are enemies of the country. but considering that difference… within that dissent, those who do not support the american embargo, could they have a broader political space?
what do you mean by political space? in the sense that they can have a greater political activity ... they have it, very large! explain how? well, a thousand phone calls are made every day between the united states and cuba. a thousand hours of radio, weekly, are transmited from the united states to cuba.
television... then there are no dissidents, no opposition in the world that has more means of disclosure, and more means of exposing their point of view, than them, through these resources. but you are talking about comunnication with the united states, i asking you about communication inside the island do they have access to radio, to rebel radios? no, they don’t have access, no.
frankly, we will not give them access, because we will not give access to those who want to destroy the revolution. in a few minutes we return with this exclusive join us. every cuban who works for a foreign company in cuba has to be hired through the government.
in cuba there is no free hiring of employees. for example, if a company pays 400 dollars to the state for a worker, on a monthly basis, that employee receives less than the equivalent of 50 dollars in cuban pesos. those who manage to work for a joint venture with foreign capital, half foreign and half the cuban state, are the minority
in the labor force, although it represents the dream of every worker. the dollarization of the economy has created a growing social inequality in cuba and with this issue about why there is no free hiring, we begin the next segment of this interview with commander fidel castro. another situation, commander, that creates
debate in cuban society, is the hiring of labor. you have heard it many times, you know very well, that the state receives dollars from the foreigns companies, while the cuban employee receives pesos. thatâ´s something that cuban employees dislikes, in a certain way. don’t you think that can facilitate
an exploitation of the cuban labor force by the foreign investors? no, i don’t agree with that. our peso was very devalued, thanks to the measures we have taken, we have managed to revalorize the peso.. seven times 15 months ago, there were paid 150 pesos for a dollar. now there are paid… 10? 15? 25?
25, that’s right, you know a lot. and this has been a great success, as it has been a great success the collection of the 25% of the circulating, with this measure that, as i told you, we discussed with the people. the reduction of the fiscal deficit, from the 33 percent of gross domestic product to 7,4 per cent, has really been a colossal success.
these measures that we have taken, has been improving people’s lives, people are more interested in work, have more need for money, in fact, we have no foreign exchange, we have many free services. education, health, social security. we don’t. have currency enough to match the peso to the dollar. someday and as a consequence of ,the evolution of our economy,
we could be, perhaps, like china. now we have the convertible peso .. and we hope that the value of the peso and the dollar will be equated with our measures, but it would be an economic impossibility, today, that a foreign company pays in pesos to the country, that is, foreign companies pays in dollars to the country ... for the work of the cuban workers that they contract.
but a part of the cubans, if not we would establish a tremendous difference! between the 97, 98 percent of cubans who recieves in pesos, and the 3% who would be recieveing in dollars… but that 3% that recieves in dollars, thinking about its ..... no, those don’t recieve in dollar, their salaries are paid in dollars. their salaries, but they know that this foreign company for which they work, is paying for them
in dollars to the cuban state. they know they are working for the country. because those companies are joint ventures. we don’t have any all foreign capital companies yet, but even if whe have it, it is part of our job to persuade, to appeal to the spirit of the workers, to understand that the country
can not accept another formula. because the country needs foreign exchange, for food, for medicine, for all of that. but then i make an observation. could not that worker, who knows that his work is being paid in dollars, could not he receive those dollars and pay a tax to the state? a tax of 30, 40, 50% of those dollars.
because in that way, he recieves the dollars. it is a formula that you are proposing. maybe we consider it someday, we analyze it. so far, there was really such a difference between pesos and dollars, that was impossible. it seems to me that our effort must be to fight to equate the peso and that at any given moment
people get paid in a single currency. in your interview, commander, in your interview to cnn last sunday, you told the interviewer that at this time there was no space inside cuban society for other political parties than the communist, the only party that exists at the moment. and i ask you:
not even for cambio cubano? you had a meeting with menoyo recently, for a few hours, he’s a respectful opponent of the revolution, a man who has publicly said that he wants a peaceful transition inside the island, could cambio cubano eventually open offices in cuba? that a subject they have been talking about,
a subject that we have been discussing, is not an agreed topic. and really, for now, i want to say that in our current generation, of leaders, of cuban politicians, the people do not want multipartyism. explain also that in cuba there is no party system, that the party does not postulate or elect and that our entire electoral system cames
from the people, from the base, and they suppose to represent the majority of the population, because if the adversaries of the revolution had the majority, the power will be lost. in cuba, more than 95% of the population votes, and the population knows how to read and write and understands well how the system works and what it does and has no plans to change it. there may be some small minority that
is actually against it, but it is not what the people thinks. commander fidel castro, along with yasser arafat, is the president who received the most rigorous security device on the united nations 50th anniversary festivities. in the same way that the press followed him everywhere, the demonstrations against him
made by cuban exiles, many of them from miami and new jersey, also followed his footsteps. the largest demonstration was on sunday, the day castro took the lead microphone of the united nations assembly. among them, was his natural daughter, alina fernandez revuelta.
with fidel there can be no dialogue. i don’t see myself as fidel's daughter, i see myself as a cuban. and you're going to protest here ? how? what are you asking fidel? to leave, to leave cuba, to leave cuba. the message is for latin america, do not continue to believe that castro did nothing , that revolution or nothing, all the revolution has done is destroy cuba.
and a few weeks ago, the us house of representatives approved a bill called helms-burton, by the surname of its authors. the intention of the law is to intensify the us commercial embargo against the island. according to this bill, americans and exiled cubans,
who are now us citizens, could file a lawsuit in a united states court, against any company buying a property that was confiscated by the revolution. the helms-burton bill was also approved by the american senate now we have to wait for the two
versions to be reconciled and a law is sent to to the office of president clinton, who has already said that he will veto it. the helms-burton law, if signed by president clinton, could be disastrous for the efforts of the havana regime in its plan to re-enter the world economy and attract foreign investment.
this next segment begins by talking about that law speaking a little of the helms-burton law that comes with the investment part, if this law, if the helms-burton bill becomes law, even if it did not have the fangs as sharp as it originally had, how can this hinder the strategy that your government has to reintegrate
into the world economy? i can assure that the number of countries that are interested in investing in cuba is increasing. but we have to be realistic. the helms-burton act is likely to be passed. the elements of the cuban extreme right have concentrated their efforts .on this and they have concentrated their resources. you are saying if its approved. it has already been aproved in the senate in one version and
in the house of representatives in another version yes, i think they took something from it. yes, they took away their fangs, a little. what do they have to .. fangs? they have not taken away anything! well, some teeth are left! everyone, including the cuban side who came, clinton himself said that
it would raise demand from $ 6 billion, $ 8 billion to $ 100 billion. turning it into an absurd, an impossible one. it is not clear what the final version will be, you know that now it have to go to the two chambers, the senate and the house of representatives, who have to sit down to discuss what will be the final version that is going to be sent to the president's desk. whatever the version,
what do you think?, in what way can that hinder your plan to reinsert the island in the world, to attract investors. whatever the final version, it will never be the end of the revolution. difficulties will multiply, but we will multiply our efforts. not for reintegration, but for survival
and also for developement, for preserving the sovereignty and independence of our country. and above all, to preserve the achievements of socialism. you are dressed in civilian clothes, talking about trade and economy, i was personally in trinidad and tobago, at the summit, and i heard you talking about tourism and ecology. you, commander, the man who captured
the social imagination in the 60’s, in the whole world. you, the revolutionary par excellence. this new role, let’s say, this new job that you have, isn’t it a little boring? very technical?, talking about revolution is a far more romantic. it is new thing, and new things has always something attractive.
but this suit issue has its story. i always felt very good in my uniform. it had nothing to do with fashion, nothing, no tie, nothing. only a very modest suit, no decorations, no medals and all of that. this stars in cartagena, at the summit of cartagena, they told everyone to use a guayabera, and i realized that i don’t have a guayabera and now i have practically decided to
go to events, to summit meeting, wearing a suit. .but i've noticed some people disappointed. and a group of 40 businessmen recently visited cuba and i'm going to make a gesture with them. i'm going to wear this suit. they passed by me, greeted me and said, "where is your uniform?" they wanted me in uniform. and i have meet a lot of people, who have told me that they prefer the uniform. the foreign investment law, commander, opens
the door, this law that was recently promulgated, opens the door to foreign capital as never before in 37 years of revolution i know that within the internal forum of the party, there are supporters who likes the idea, and there are people who do not like the ideia of foreign capital
entering the island. the challenge that you and your government are facing, is to raise the standard of living for cubans don’t you believe, commander, that this law , somehow, infinitely favors mexican investors, canadians, spanish, the powerful people, much more than the owner
of a cuban restaurant that has only 12 chairs? and that he does not have the power of that spaniard and that mexican? 12 chairs was the name of a movie. it was the name of a movie that was made long ago. we started with 12 chairs, like the twelve apostles. there were twelve of them, too. i can’t say anything, but that law ...
don’t you think that it favors the foreign investor much more than the poor cuban? no, we have had to persuade the people, of the necessity of this economic opening and this measure. like the decriminalization of the dollar and a set of steps that have been taken, towards a common goal, we have explained to them,
and this includes self-employment, where there are more than 200.000 people registered. although it existed before, but more limitedly. now it has been expanded, because it was necessary for the country. to defend the achievements of socialism, we have not said that it was in order to build socialism, the objective today is to defend the achievements, to defend
the sovereignty and to defend the independence i of the country. we have had to talk about this things to many people, talk a lot to people about it. because we thought that this special period had to produce some tension, that’s inevitable. so, back to the essence of what you are telling me, do you believe there have been inequalities?
there are inequalities ... we believed that with these measures, so associated with the measures of market economy, that we have introduced ... how are you? welcome to america habla, this is maria elvira salazar. for the next hour, we will present an interview with the cuban head of state, commander fidel castro. it is the first time that the
cuban president talks to a hispanic television network within the united states. the interview was made in the cuban mission building at the united nations, a few hours before the end of his five-day trip to that city. castro, along with other 130 leaders, was invited to participate in the
celebrations of the 50th anniversary of that international organization. the commander used a large part of his trip to reach all sectors of american society, especially businessmen, journalists and academics. all the forums he visited were closed to the press, including the powerful council of foreign
affairs, where he met with the most important businessmen of the united states. at each of those meetings, castro filed his complaint about the us trade embargo, that lasts for 33 years . hereâ´s the first part of the interview. allow me, first of all, to ask you to forgive me for the fact
that it has been a busy day and that i am a bit tired, but i still keep my word, to give you the interview with pleasure. and we thank you, forgive me for interrupting you, very much, for speaking for the first time with an hispanic network in the united states. as i explained, this program reaches the 30 millions of hispanics in the united states,
including central and south americans, the mexicans of los angeles, the puerto ricans of new york, the salvadorans of san francisco, all of them.. and we truly thank you for taking an interest in talking to us. i thank you for the opportunity and i send my greetings to everyone!.
you asked me about the trip, its importance. it is essential to attend this united nations 50th anniversary meeting. in the united nations we have had very strong, almost unanimous support against the blockade. it was my duty to participate, not only because of my high concept of the institution and the need of its existence, but also to affirm some things that were indispensable to say, some truths.
not everything could be commemoration, euphoria, forgetting the serious problems that the world has today. and in which the united nations has a very important role to play, that's why i came. i had more than 200 invitations, meetings, interviews with institutions of all kinds with which we have established relationships or some new ones. some selection had to be made, of course. but the program has been very strong, very, very strong. although they gave me permission
only until the 25th. they had asked until the 27th. maybe we would have had more time for your interview. you asked for a 5 days extension, i understand ? well, it started on the 21st and to have a reservation, 26th and 27th and they denied the stay? well, first came news that it was until january 25th, because someone made a mistake.
what would i do in new york for so long? they are going to have me for an exile! well, now i'm grateful, because if the program organizers prepare a program for me for ten more days, a home, with journalists, publishing houses, they all prepare a meal. and you can never eat? wonderful meals!, but i start with a speech, i have a microphone next to me, and after that there is no time of trying anything,
so i've been hungry in new york. and the meeting with the businessmen? they are against the blockade, in a defined way. not only because of economic interest, cuba is not in big country, it is not china. i think that is because of a question of principles, they don’t like to be excluded from the struggle, from competition. and they have interests that can be met. but that is an interest seen
in the last two or three years, commander, because in the 37 years of revolution, that pressure on the part of investors, did not seem to be as euphoric as it is now. the world has changed. notice how many investments they make, for example, in china, and in vietnam, everywhere. there is a terrible, growing competition
between the different countries and the different blocks of countries. and the question of free trade has become a very strong principle. they like to compete just like the boxer, the baseball player, and no one likes to be excluded. naturally they feel offended.