Raul hints Cuba ready to dialogue with U.S.

Raul hints Cuba ready to dialogue with U.S.
August 20, 2006
BY ANITA SNOW

HAVANA -- Acting President Raul Castro said Cuba remains open to
normalized relations with the United States, but warned the Bush
administration in his first comments since assuming power that it will
get nowhere with threats or pressure.

Raul Castro also said in Friday editions of the island's newspaper that
he had mobilized tens of thousands of troops in response to what he
called aggressive U.S. acts, including stepped-up radio and television
broadcasts to the island, and an $80 million plan to hasten the end of
the Castros' rule.

''Some of the empire's war hawks thought that the moment had come to
destroy the Revolution this past July 31,'' the day his brother Fidel
Castro's illness was announced, Raul Castro said. ''We could not rule
out the risk of somebody going crazy, or even crazier, within the U.S.
government.''

'Dynastic succession'

State Department spokesman Tom Casey declined to respond specifically to
Raul Castro's comment but said, ''I don't think we're particularly
enamored of the first words we heard from 'Fidel Light.' ''

The 75-year-old Cuban defense minister said his 80-year-old brother is
undergoing a ''satisfactory and gradual recovery'' from intestinal
surgery. The interview in Friday's newspaper seemed aimed at answering
questions about Raul Castro's whereabouts and activities.

Raul Castro's comments essentially restated his brother's long-standing
position of favoring normalized diplomatic and trade ties with the
United States.

In Washington, the U.S. State Department characterized the temporary
leadership handover as a ''dynastic succession,'' saying it is not
acceptable to the United States and would be rejected by the Cuban
people in the long run.

In another move likely to be seen as an aggression by Havana, U.S.
National Intelligence Director John Negroponte announced Friday he was
creating a ''mission manager'' for Cuba and Venezuela to oversee the
American spy community's efforts to collect and analyze intelligence on
the two countries.

AP

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