Castro Speaks in Public; Nobody Knows What It Means

Fidel Castro attacked the United States (not particularly new) and spoke of the danger of the United States unleashing a nuclear war by attacking either North Korea or Iran, two of Cuba's allies.

Writing a straight news story of Fidel Castro’s first government appearance in front of Cuba’s National Assembly Saturday in four years is easy. Castro had intestinal surgery in 2006 and turned over the presidency of Cuba to his younger brother Raúl.

After more than four years of convalescing and appearing only in photos and short video clips, the older Castro began making short appearances around Havana a few weeks ago. This time he asked that the government call for a special session of the National Assembly so he might address the faithful in person.

Castro walked on the stage with the help of aides, and delivered what for him is a short speech, less than 12 minutes. He did not talk about Cuba, its economic woes, its recent decision to release 52 political prisoners, or even if he planned to run the country himself again.

Instead he attacked the United States (not particularly new) and spoke of the danger of the United States unleashing a nuclear war by attacking either North Korea or Iran, two of Cuba’s allies. This has been a favorite topic of Castro; one on which he has written about repeatedly in recent weeks.

“At first I thought that the imminent danger of war had no solution possible,” he said. “I am sure, however, that it will not happen that way and that, on the contrary, the conditions for a solution . . . are being created at this time.”

“One man alone will have to make the decision: The President of the United States,” Castro said according to the story published by The Miami Herald, because Iran will not bow to U.S. and Israeli demands to halt its nuclear program.

The story added that if President Barack Obama approved an attack on Iran, Castro believed that would unleash a war that will spread through the Middle East and Asia and cause “the instantaneous death of hundreds of millions of people, among them an incalculable number of people in his own country.”

The “established order of the planet . . . will inevitably collapse, the reigning social order will disappear abruptly” and all currencies will be worthless, he added.

Castro noted that “as luck would have it,” Obama’s father was Muslim and his mother was Christian and added he hoped the U.S. President will become conscious of the threat to world peace.

In comparison, he called Richard Nixon a “cynic,” branded Ronald Reagan and Harry Truman as “ignorant” and called Jimmy Carter “a decent person.”

All of the above is documented. Other media have reported much the same thing.

What is harder to explain, or even understand, is the meaning of what Castro said in the realm of U.S. Cuba bilateral relations; or even what it means in terms of Cuba’s internal politics.

Castro’s speech comes at a time when newspapers in the United States report with increasing regularity that the United States government is preparing itself for a new attempt at improving relations with the island’s communist government.

Some say Congress might lift the embargo in place for almost 50 years. Others say it is more likely that the administration will ease restrictions on cultural and education trips to and from Cuba, which it has done already, or even lift the ban that prohibits American citizens from traveling to the island as tourists.

Others have even said that the United States and Cuba are preparing an exchange of political prisoners. Cuba would release all of its political prisoners, including an American, Alan P. Gross, a U.S. government contractor from Maryland, arrested last December for being a spy. Gross remains in Villa Marista jail in Havana, but he has not been charged.

The Cubans and Gross would be exchanged for five Cuban spies arrested in 1998 and convicted in 2001 of 26 counts of spying on the Cuban exile community in Miami on behalf of Fidel Castro’s government. They were arrested and sentenced when Bill Clinton was President and their convictions upheld by the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals in Atlanta in 2008.

In his recent writings, Castro had been harsh on President Obama. Now he appears willing to negotiate. Maybe the next move is up to an administration with a proclivity for reacting positively to those regimes that despise the United States.

TheAmericano/agencies