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Cuba's Castro Welcomes US Plan to Bankroll Foes
Cuban President Fidel Castro joked on Thursday that a US plan to channel millions of dollars to dissidents inside Cuba was "excellent" and would help the embargo-hit communist-run island.
Two influential US senators on Wednesday proposed legislation to fund internal opponents to Castro, who has dominated Cuban government since leading a revolution which ousted former dictator Fulgencio Batista in 1959.
"Excellent!" Castro told a news conference in Lisbon when asked for his opinion about the US plan.
"The more mistakes they make, the weaker the US position will be," added the 74-year-old Castro after meeting with Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Guterres. "(The) better for us, who grow in the mistakes that they constantly make."
The US plan, proposed by Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman Jesse Helms and former vice presidential candidate Joseph Lieberman, would provide $100 million over four years in cash, food, medicine and other supplies to opposition and non-government groups in Cuba.
The plan, marking the first time the United States has directly supported internal groups in Cuba in more than four decades, is modelled on US support for Poland's Solidarity movement in the 1980s.
Castro was on a brief stopover in Portugal, having previously visited Libya, Algeria, Iran, Malaysia and Qatar, but avoiding Spain, a country he has often visited in the past.
He denied that relations had soured with Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar after the Cuban leader refused to sign a motion condemning Basque separatist group ETA at an Ibero-American summit in Panama last November.
"We have proposed motions against much stronger terrorism than that of ETA, in the United Nations and at international conferences," Castro said, adding he could not sign a motion that specifically condemned ETA while omitting to mention "terrorists" he said had plotted to kill him in a bomb attack.
"They were going to kill hundreds of students, because the place chosen was a university. The amount of explosives would have killed hundreds," he said.
Castro said Luis Posada, one of four men arrested in Panama on charges of trying to kill him, had US support and had committed many violent crimes over decades, including an aircraft attack in 1976 which killed 73 people.
He doubted that Panama was a suitable place to hold Posada and the other suspects, whose extradition to Cuba has been denied.
"Panama is a small country and has been under pressure. It cannot guarantee the security for them not to be rescued, or to escape," Castro said.
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