[Marxism] RaÃl Castro says hopes in Obama are "excessive"

[David Thorstad <binesi@xxxxxxxxx>]

RaÃl Castro, even as his comments are restrained by requirements of 
diplomacy, makes more sense than the many who are gaga over His Hopefulness.
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*http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090103/wl_nm/us_cuba_castro_obama;_ylt=AquQBme0IeADZDQwdPTDtC5m.3QA*


 * Raul Castro says hopes too high for Obama*

   * /Reuters â The number 50 is seen on the Cuban Transport Ministry
     building in Havana January 2, 2009. //Cuba// celebrated â /

HAVANA (Reuters) â U.S. President-elect Barack Obama appears to be an 
honest and sincere man, but his election has awakened "excessive hopes" 
that the United States will change, Cuban President Raul Castro said in 
a television interview broadcast on Friday.

Castro repeated previous assertions that he is open to talks at any time 
with Obama, who takes office on January 20, but said he is not desperate 
to do so.

Obama has said he wants to ease the 46-year-old U.S. trade embargo 
against Cuba and meet with Cuban leaders as first steps toward 
normalizing relations with the Communist-run island 90 miles off U.S. 
shores.

"Now there is a president who has raised hopes in many parts of the 
world -- I think excessive hopes," Castro said in an interview on 
state-run television.

"Because even if he's an honest man -- and I believe he is -- a sincere 
man -- and I believe he is -- one man alone cannot change the destiny of 
a country and much less the United States," said Castro, who replaced 
his ailing older brother Fidel Castro as president in February.

"I hope I'm mistaken in my assessment. I hope Mr. Obama has success," he 
said.

"He can do much, he can take positive steps, he can put forth more just 
ideas, he can put a stop to the tendency of almost all U.S. presidents 
to have their war, or wars," he said.

The interview was taped on December 31, a day before Castro led 
celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the revolution that put his 
brother in power and turned Cuba to Communism at the height of the Cold War.

In a speech on Thursday, he spoke in harsh terms about U.S. treatment of 
Cuba and said the island can expect 50 years more of "incessant 
struggle" with an "enemy" that "will never cease to be aggressive, 
treacherous and dominant."

In the interview, he said Cuba would talk with the United States 
whenever the U.S. wants, but only as equals, "without the smallest 
shadow over our sovereignty."

"We're willing to do it when they say, without intermediaries, directly, 
but we're in no hurry, we're not desperate," Castro said.

(Reporting by Jeff Franks)

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