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CNN Saturday Morning News

Fidel Castro Responds to Bush's Cuba Policy

Aired May 25, 2002 - 09:50   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.
KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Cuban President Fidel Castro is speaking out today. To find out what he's saying, we turn to CNN's Havana bureau chief, Lucia Newman. Hi, Lucia.

LUCIA NEWMAN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF: Good morning, Kyra.

Here, in what was probably one of the shortest speeches of his long career, President Fidel Castro just a short while ago addressed not so much the people of Cuba but the people of the United States.

He said, "We are men of ideas, not fanatics, and we have never tried to sow hatred towards the people of the United States, like the aggressions against us by their government."

The president was obviously trying to respond to President George Bush's Cuba policy speech earlier this week. He was -- he referred to the fact that Cuba's inclusion again this week on Washington's list of nations that support or harbor terrorism. Castro said that this was a, quote, "slanderous and infamous lie," and that "never had one drop of blood of anyone in the world been shed because of an act of terrorism launched from Cuba," something he says that the United States could not boast.

And the Cuban leader went to great pains to persuade the American people that Cuba was their friend. "More than the moral and political damage of these accusations," he said, "what hurts us the most is that one single American could think that we would want to do them harm."

He made, however, no specific reference to President George Bush's speech in the sense of the main thrust of that speech, which was that Washington was not willing to even consider lifting the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba until Castro introduced sweeping economic and political changes, including free elections, Kyra.

PHILLIPS: All right, Lucia Newman live from Cuba there, thank you very much.

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