Word: cuba
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...regular haunt of Fifth Avenue apartments. Uncharacteristically dressed in a suit, his beard a thinning shadow of its former self, Fidel Castro, 69, nibbled on gold-embossed cookies, told jokes and held forth on everything from elections to heaven and hell. High above Central Park, the absolute leader of Cuba was excellent company, if a little long-winded...
...very specific. He desperately wants the U.S. to end its 33-year-old trade embargo. With no more subsidies from the Soviet Union, the Cuban economy has almost ground to a halt. Normalized trade with the huge market 90 miles to the north would make all the difference in Cuba's fortunes, and the unfairness and foolishness of the embargo were the themes Castro returned to again and again. His suit, meanwhile, conveyed an aura of reasonableness that military fatigues, Castro's usual wardrobe...
...strategy seemed to work. At least five major newspapers ran editorials questioning the value of the embargo. Businessmen, many of whom are eager to go into Cuba, also seemed sold. Dwayne Andreas, head of the agricultural giant Archer Daniels Midland, attended the Rockefeller dinner and was impressed. "These communists used to be ideological crusaders," said Andreas. "But the communists of 1995 are managers of businesses. Fidel talked like the general manager of AT&T. Even his language is that of a businessman. He was talking about his working capital requirements, his depreciation problems, his repair problems...
...Jose Cardenas, the director of the Cuban-American National Foundation in Washington, said, "How dispiriting for Cubans sitting in misery and squalor to see Fidel feted in New York by the powers that be. His acceptance by them could have set back the prospects for freedom and democracy in Cuba by five years." Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms vowed to renew efforts to make the embargo even tighter...
CASTRO ON CUBA'S NEW LEADERS...