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CNN Live At Daybreak

Castro Makes Public Private Telephone Conversation With Mexican President

Aired April 23, 2002 - 05:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And there's a diplomatic fear in our own backyard. Cuban President Fidel Castro has made public a private telephone conversation he had with Mexican President Vicente Fox. The Cuban president is calling Mexico's leader a liar and cynic for his handling of a United Nations conference on finances.

From Havana, our Lucia Newman has details for you.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): "Liars and cynics," those were among the softer adjectives employed by President Fidel Castro to describe his Mexican counterpart, Vicente Fox, and his foreign minister, Jorge Castanella (ph).

In an unprecedented televised presentation, Castro revealed a recorded version of what he conceded was a private telephone conversation with Fox two days before the finance and development summit in Monterrey, Mexico. During the call, Mexico's leader tells Castro that his presence in Monterrey will be problematic, and he asks the Cuban if he can leave after lunch on the first day, apparently to avoid running into President George Bush, who wanted no contact with Castro.

"Where should I go, to the hotel? To the Island of Cuba?" asks Castro. "Correct," answers President Fox, "that way I'll be free. That's what I ask you to do for me. That you free me on Friday so you don't complicate Friday for me." Friday was the day President Bush addressed the summit.

For more than a month, Fox and his foreign minister have repeatedly denied Cuban claims that Castro was asked to leave the finance and development conference early. "They all lied left and right," says President Castro.

Why reveal the phone conversation now, further poisoning relations between Cuba and Mexico? For decades, unconditional allies. According to Castro, the last straw came last Friday, when Mexico voted against Cuba at the U.N. human rights commission in Geneva. "The promise not to sponsor, promote or support a resolution against Cuba, made by both Castanella (ph) and President Fox during his visit to Cuba, has been despicably betrayed," says Castro. The Cuban leader's revenge aims to hurt Fox's reputation at home, depicting him as a president willing to do Washington's dirty work, while sacrificing an old friend.

(on camera): President Castro went so far as to offer to resign if it could be proven that the taped conversation with President Fox never took place. He also added that if revealing it means an end to bilateral relations with Mexico, then so be it.

Lucia Newman, CNN, Havana.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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