[Marxism] Perez Roque interview with Associated Press

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

(Even from these incomplete excerpts we can see this
is an excellent interview with the Foreign Minister.
He's due to address the General Assembly Friday.)
======================================================

September 23, 2004 6:48 p.m. EDT

Cuba Sure Its Govt Will Last,
US Friendship To Return-Min

DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
September 23, 2004 6:48 p.m.

UNITED NATIONS (AP)--Despite U.S. efforts to topple Fidel
Castro, Cuba is certain that its Communist government will
be preserved and is optimistic that once the four-decade
U.S. embargo is lifted, Cubans and U.S. citizens can once
again be friends, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque told
The Associated Press on Thursday.

In an interview during his visit to the U.N. General
Assembly, Perez Roque made a sharp distinction between the
U.S. government's hard line toward the Cuban leader and the
support for easing the sanctions among the U.S. public and
the U.S. Congress.

"We rely on the nobility and the sense of justice of the
American people," he said. "We don't hold them accountable
for our suffering. We believe that just like us they have
fallen victims to a policy that has been designed to serve
the interests of a small minority."

Perez Roque said if Democratic presidential candidate John
Kerry defeats U.S. President George W. Bush in November and
"lifts some of the blockade measures that would be
positive, but it would not be enough."

"What needs to be done is to lift the blockade completely
because it is rejected by the United Nations, both houses
of the U.S. Congress, by the American people -and it
affects the interests and the rights of all the Cubans
living in the United States," he said.

Kerry, like Bush, supports the U.S. embargo but has said he
wants a review of U.S. policy toward the island, including
a long-standing travel ban.

The Bush administration tightened restrictions on travel to
Cuba in June among other measures aimed at squeezing the
communist country's economy and driving Castro from office.
Cuban authorities called it an electoral ploy to placate
anti-Castro Cuban exiles in Florida.

Perez Roque said the new measures were having a "tremendous
impact," especially on Cuban families in both countries.

"However, they are useless in trying to defeat the Cuban
people," he said. "They will not meet their objectives.
They are an indication of a failed policy that has no
future."

The Cuban minister called this week's votes by the U.S.
House of Representatives to nullify the U.S.
administration's new rules restricting family travel to
Cuba and removing barriers to agriculture sales and student
exchanges "a positive decision." It shows the embargo is
only supported by the U.S. government "and by a small
portion of the Cuban-born extremist right wing in the
United States," he said.

As in past years, actions by both houses of the U.S.
Congress to ease economic and social sanctions are expected
to make little headway against the Bush administration's
determination not to make life easier for the Castro
government. It has threatened to veto a $90 billion
spending bill if it contains any language weakening
sanctions.

Despite Bush's policy of working for regime change, Perez
Roque said, "we feel optimistic and we are certain about
our future."

"We believe that we have the strength, the unity and the
passion to preserve our country, to continue building a
more just society than we have now," he said. "We feel
optimistic about the fact that when the blockade will be
lifted, both the people of Cuba and the people of the
United States will be friends once again."

Taking aim at the Bush administration, Perez Roque said he
wondered how 40 million people in the U.S. have no health
insurance while in a small, much less affluent country like
Cuba there is free health care.

Over the weekend, before returning to Havana, he said he
would meet with different groups representing wide sectors
of the Cuban community in the U.S. that are in favor of
normalizing relations - both U.S. and Cuban-born.

"We have been saying during a lot of years that we are in
favor of the normalization of relations between Cuba and
the United States," the Cuban minister said. "We are not
against the American people. We don't feel that the
American people are our enemy. On the contrary, we admire
(their) culture."

Perez Roque also discussed another difficult relationship -
with Panama.

Cuba broke diplomatic relations with Panama last month
after outgoing President Mireya Moscoso pardoned four Cuban
exiles who had been accused of trying to kill Castro in
2000.

President Martin Torrijos, who took office Sept. 1, told
the General Assembly on Wednesday that he hoped to restore
relations with Cuba as soon as possible.

But Perez Roque, while calling Torrijos' statement
"positive," said "the situation was very serious."

"We broke the relations with the Panamanian state, and I
think it will be very difficult to find a path to try to
reestablish the situation," Perez Roque said. "He's not
guilty of this issue, but our decision, taken before he was
in charge in Panama, is not easy to change in this moment."

He also denounced the Bush administration, which is
committed to fighting terrorism, for giving political
asylum to three of the Cuban exiles, whom he called
"terrorists."

On other issues, he said Cuba was considering a Colombian
request for the extradition of Luis Hernando Gomez
Bustamante, reputed to be one of Colombia's top drug cartel
leaders who was arrested on the island in July with a false
passport.

"We may end up prosecuting him in Cuba for the crimes that
he has committed, and also taking into account the
international commitments that Cuba has entered into,"
Perez Roque said.

Last week, the International Committee for Democracy in
Cuba, which is examining ways to encourage resistance to
Castro's regime, called for the release of dozens of
inmates imprisoned in Cuba.

Perez Roque called the committee's meeting in the Czech
capital, Prague, "a show put together by some unemployed
politicians" such as former Spanish Prime Minister Jose
Maria Aznar and former Czech President Vaclav Havel.

They "have no support and recognition in their respective
countries and try to find some entertainment for
themselves," he said. "We laugh at that. And we feel sorry
for them."


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