Fidel Castro does not see any immediate prospect for improvemnt in U,S. Cuba relations, despite current negotiations between the two governments over the departure of Cuban emigres, This was reported by New York Times correspond-= ent, Richard Eder, after a November 1 interview with the Cuban premier in Havana. Two other U.S. journalists and one from Spain participated in a five hour discussion with Dr. Castro.
Castro said U.S. aggression throughout the world was the principal barrier to a thaw in U.S. Cuban relations. 'There can be no general improvement,! he said, 'until U.S, relations with other parts of the world improve.' He cited U.S. intervention in Vietnam and the Dominican Republic as ' a more agsressive, more interventionalist policy against national liberation movements.! While keeping the door open for any further specific’ agreements that his country and the U.S. might possibly arrive at in the days ahead, Castro indicated that he did not think there would be many such cases,
Fidel also dwelt on some of the specific measures being taken to cut down Cuba's expensive and often obstacleecreating administrative bureaucracy, a theme that has figured prominently in several recent speeches to the Cuban people. According to Fder, Fidel said that the Finance Ministry will be abolished, with its functions spread over several existing agencies, A number of middleman agencies involved in the distribution of food will also be abolished. He reportedly announced that the agency responsible for the collection of urban rents would be dissolved, and that 80% of the Cuban people will no lowce pay rents. Under Cuba's urban reform laws, rents had first been slashed in half and later multiple dwellings were taken over by the Government and further reductions instituted. Abolition of the various agencies will reportedly elliminate 25,000 jobs. The campaign to reduce the size of the Goverment bureaucracy involves not hiring new people for a ten year period and providing training for new occupations at regular wages for those whose jobs are eliminated.
Citing moves to reduce tendencies towards bureaucratisation and the stiffling of free thought, Eder reported that Fidel had said they would seek to make the Cuban press'less asphyxiated! with more discussion and controversy and with a more objective presentation of foreign news, As the revolution becomes more sure of itself, he reports Fidel as saying, ' We must work towards the most absolute latitude in what is printed.! Eder adds, ' There has also been an effort to stimulate more independent thinking among party members, he said, with less reliance on a manual of instruction borrowed from the Soviet bloc countries,!
Replying to rumours in the international press that Che Guevara was dead, Fidel said that he knew where Guevara was but would not disclose the place and that he was ‘in the best of health.!
Other points in the interview dealt with the prospects for Cuba's sugar crop and the negotiations surrounding those who wanted to leave Cuba for.the U.S. Fidel said it would be a 'tight squeeze! to fulfil this year's sugar crop quota of 6.5M tons because of lack of rain in several key areas. However, he added, extensive new plantings and increased fertilization will bring the 1967 crop to a record 7.5M tons. On the arrangements for those wishing to leave for the U,S., Fidel said that doctors and certain technicians might be delayed for a period, but that Cuba would expedite exit visas for all others. He said that, ' Our principle is that the revolution should be a free association of people who want to live here.' Asked by his interviewers if he didn't consider it unusual that Cubans wanted to go to the UsSe, Fidel replied: 'Men have always wanted to go to your country from all parts of the world. Let me ask you how many Brazilians do you think would go to the United States, if the United States told them it would pay all expenses and make all arrangements, as it is doing here.!