Wednesday, April 29, 2009

With a Rebel Yell, He Cries "More, More, More"

At the inauguration of today's meeting of the Countries of the Non-Aligned Movement, Raul Castro responded to Obama's recent Cuba comments.

He considers the lifting of restrictions on trips and remittances to be positive, but that they will have a minimal reach. In other words, he wants more concessions from the U.S.

Raul also stated that he will not be giving any concessions: "Cuba has not imposed any sanctions against the U.S. or against its citizens...Cuba is not the one that needs to make gestures."

Restating what he had said during the ALBA conference, Raul said, "We have reiterated that we are willing to talk with the U.S. government, in conditions of equality, but not to negotiate our sovereignty or our political or social systems, our right to self determination, or our internal affairs."

Reading between the lines, we know he means, you can talk about anything, but we will not do anything that we think will jeopardize our system.

To me, this is no different than what he had said during the ALBA meeting, although what he had said was interpretted very differently in the press.

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