• Submitted by: manso
• Society
• 09 / 11 / 2010

---

(AFP) – HAVANA — Former Cuban president Fidel Castro said Friday he was misinterpreted when a US reporter wrote he said that the "Cuban model doesn't even work for us any more."

Castro, who left the presidency in 2006, met recently over three days for a rare interview with a reporter from The Atlantic magazine and a Cuba expert from the US Council on Foreign Relations.

According to The Atlantic, which published its account on Wednesday, the 84-year-old Cuban revolutionary icon joked about the state of the Cuban economy.

Castro said he made the statement "without anger or worry. Now I'm amused to see how (the Atlantic reporter) interpreted it literally" in consultation with a CFR expert.

My answer, Castro said, "meant exactly the opposite" of what the reporter wrote,Castro said, speaking at an event presenting the second volume of his autobiography.

In Washington, CFR expert Julia Sweig, who was at the interview, told AFP on Friday that she had a different take on Castro's quote.

Castro "wasn't joking and when I heard him saying that, I took him to mean the economic model doesn't work anymore, not the revolution, not the socialist ethos, not the independence spirit, not you know, the revolution, just the model," said Sweig.

When Castro "said the 'Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore' he was almost making reference to that kind of 'fetishized' Cuban model. 'Oh, that doesn't even work for us anymore,'" Sweig said.

Atlantic reporter Jeffrey Goldberg invited Sweig to sit in on the rare interview in Havana.

The 84-year-old former Cuban president and head of the ruling Communist Party "was in real good shape," said Sweig. "He's obviously older and has experienced a number of physical illness but you know, he's eating, talking, his conversation is witty, interested and I'd say he was 1,000 percent there."

Fidel Castro ceded the presidency to his brother Raul in 2006 after suffering a stomach illness. He met with Goldberg and Sweig about two weeks ago and spoke about Israel, Iran, tension in the Middle East, and -- as happens with Castro -- a myriad of other issues.

"We were talking about a lot of things, but you know, Fidel Castro is not running Cuba foreign policy right now," Sweig said, though he "weighs in as a public figure, a senior statesmen."

Source: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/117643