Posted on Thursday, 07.26.12
Raul Castro: Cuba willing to sit down with US
By PETER ORSI
Associated Press
HAVANA -- Cuban President Raul Castro said Thursday that his government
is willing to mend fences with bitter Cold War foe the United States and
sit down to discuss anything, as long as it is a conversation between
equals.
At the end of a Revolution Day ceremony marking the 59th anniversary of
a failed uprising against a military barracks, Castro grabbed the
microphone for apparently impromptu remarks. He echoed previous
statements that no topic is off-limits, including U.S. concerns about
democracy, freedom of the press and human rights on the island, as long
as it is a conversation between equals.
"Any day they want, the table is set. This has already been said through
diplomatic channels," Castro said. "If they want to talk, we will talk."
"We are nobody's colony, nobody's puppet," Castro added.
Washington and Havana have not had diplomatic relations for five decades.
Castro also reminisced about the 1959 Revolution, promised that Cuba
will complete a trans-island expressway halted years ago for lack of
funds, empathized with islanders' complaints about meager salaries and
said once again that his five-year plan to overhaul Cuba's socialist
economy will not be done hastily.
"We must move ahead at the rhythm that we Cubans decide," Castro said.
The July 26 national holiday was often used to make major announcements
when Castro's older brother Fidel was president, but there were none on
Thursday.
The main celebration kicked off at sunrise with music and speeches at a
plaza in the eastern province of Guantanamo, home to the U.S. naval base
of the same name.
The American presence in Guantanamo is a sore point for Havana, which
demands the base be shut down and accuses the U.S. of torturing terror
suspects held in the military prison.
"We will continue to fight such a flagrant violation. ... We will never
stop trying to recover that piece of ground," first Vice President Jose
Ramon Machado Ventura said in the keynote address.
Musicians sang the song "Guantanamera," and a young girl read a speech
paying homage to the revolution and resistance to "Yankee" imperialism.
"We will be like 'Che,'" she said, repeating the mantra taught to
schoolchildren across the island. Argentine-born guerrilla Ernesto "Che"
Guevara is held up as a model of personal conduct in Cuba.
http://www.miamiherald.com/2012/07/26/2913296/cuba-marks-59th-anniversary-of.html
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