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American Morning

Fidel Castro Turns 75

Aired August 13, 2001 - 11:20   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.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's a special day today for Cuban President Fidel Castro. He is celebrating his 75th birthday. President Castro has ruled the communist island for more than four decades. Over the weekend, he visited Venezuela. It was his first trip abroad since he fainted during a speech on June 23. the Cuban leader says he's in robust health. But that recent fainting spell did raise some doubts, though, and there is speculation about what will happen to Cuba after Castro.

Joining us from Washington to talk more about that issue is Sally Groomes Cowal. She is with the Cuba Policy Foundation. The group supports democratic reform in Cuba. And on the phone from the Cuban capital, our Havana bureau chief Lucia Newman. Ladies, good morning to both of you.

SALLY GROOMES COWAL, CUBA POLICY FOUNDATION: Good morning, Lucia. Good morning, Daryn.

KAGAN: Good morning all the way around.

Lucia, let's start with you from Havana. What is Fidel Castro doing today?

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's actually not even here. He's still in Venezuela...

KAGAN: Still there.

NEWMAN: Now, we're celebrating his birthday just over midnight, after midnight here, time they blew out some candles. He is, it's believed he may be coming back here today but it's a state secret.

KAGAN: Any indication of his health since that day in June when he fainted? Lucia?

NEWMAN: Well, he has gone out of his way to try and prove that he's as robust, or at least that his stamina is as strong as ever. In fact, he's been giving more speeches than ever. Many of them last three or four hours and sometimes he makes them several times a day. He's traveling. He's moving around. He does tend to look tired at times. He is 75 years old. But if he is suffering from any grave illness, he's going out of his way not to show it and it doesn't show very much. For a man his age, he does have a lot of energy -- Daryn. KAGAN: Sally, let's bring you in here. Of course, inevitably one day Fidel Castro will pass on and the next era of Cuban politics will come about. What are the possibilities?

GROOMES COWAL: Well, I think the possibilities are that there's a transition or there's a succession. And certainly from the point of view of the United States, it would be better to have a transition to a more democratic government.

KAGAN: Let's talk succession first. If there was a succession, who would be -- hasn't he appointed his brother as his likely successor or who he would like to see succeed him?

GROOMES COWAL: Yes. He's appointed his brother Raul. He's made that very clear. But there are other certainly younger members of his close cabinet who will be very much involved, as well.

KAGAN: And what kind of forces will be at work that will decide if it, indeed, is a succession or a transition, Sally?

GROOMES COWAL: Well, I think one of the most important things that the United States can do is to begin to engage now and by engaging now I mean by ending the travel ban and by ending the embargo because, as we've seen all around the world, democracy is best brought about by openness, not by this embargo, which has failed for 40 years.

KAGAN: I think that there are those, too, that would see perhaps some kind of chaos that could happen when Castro does die, both those from Cuba who want to get out and those who have migrated to this country who want to go back.

GROOMES COWAL: Well, I think you're absolutely right and that's the other reason why we should begin to be involved right now in a peaceful transition for what comes after Castro. If that transition were to come about now when we have this embargo in place, I think the tendency for refugees to come out rather than investment flowing in in a seamless way is very likely.

KAGAN: But, Sally, there are those who have very strong feelings against that, against lifting the embargo, that think that the U.S. must be strong against Castro and against Cuba and send a very difficult message to that country.

GROOMES COWAL: Well, I think we've tried for 40 years to shut him out and to not engage in any way and that hasn't brought about democracy in Cuba 40 years later and Fidel Castro is still there. And meanwhile that's causing increasing hardship for Americans and for -- particularly for American business and American farmers.

KAGAN: And Lucia, let's bring you back in here. If you can just kind of give us a feel for the Cuban people. Is the death, the impending death one day of Fidel Castro something they worry about or is this a people who just, like many people around the world, just go about their daily business?

NEWMAN: No, Daryn. I think that people here are very worried and it's very interesting that even his staunchest opponents, members of the dissident movement who have been imprisoned for many, many years, even they, most of them, anyway, are saying that they do not want a quick, rapid, traumatic changeover, that they would like to see change in Cuba, of course, but they'd like Fidel Castro himself to be the one to initiate it and for the United States to make that possible for him by also opening up.

They don't want to see happen here what we saw happening in the former Soviet Republics, for example. So they want to have a smooth change. They want change, many people, different sorts of change. It depends who you ask. Some people want to keep some of the aspects of socialist revolutionary Cuba even after President Castro is gone and others would like to have a complete return to capitalism.

KAGAN: But as of today, still very much in charge of the nation of Cuba.

Lucia Newman in Havana, thank you very much. Also, our thanks to Sally Groomes Cowal in Washington.

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