President Castro: Another argument for the Manifesto

Source: Cuban News Agency
June 26, 2007

Another argument for the Manifesto
Reflections by Cuban President Fidel Castro

Why did I once claim, in one of my reflections, that Bush had authorized or ordered my death?
That phrase may appear ambiguous and vague. Perhaps it would be more accurate, though even more confusing, to say that he both authorized and ordered my death.


Allow me to explain immediately:

The denunciation surrounding his plan to assassinate me was made before he snatched an electoral victory from his opponent through fraud.

As early as August 5, 2000, I denounced these plans in Pinar del Rio, before a vast congregation of combative citizens who had gathered there for the traditional July 26 festivities, held in that province, in Villa Clara and Ciudad de La Habana in recognition of their merits that year.

Attempts to identify those responsible for the hundreds of plans to
assassinate me meet with a shroud of secrecy. All direct and indirect
means have been used to bring about my removal. Following Nixon's
morally forced renunciation Ford forbade the participation of
government employees in assassination schemes.

I am convinced that Carter, bound by ethical convictions of a religious
nature, would never have ordered any such action against me. He was the
only U.S. president who had a gesture of friendship towards Cuba in
several important areas, including the establishment of the U.S.
Interests Section in Cuba.

I don't know that Clinton ever ordered my death, so I cannot accuse him
of such an action. Unquestionably, he showed respect for the law and
acted with political savvy when he accepted the judicial decision that
called for the kidnapped child's return to his father and closest
relatives, a decision by then backed by the overwhelming majority of
the U.S. people.

However, it is also a fact that, during his administration, Posada
Carriles hired Central American mercenaries to place bombs in the
hotels and recreational centers of cities like Havana and Varadero in
order to strike at Cuba's economy, hit by the blockade and the special
period. The terrorist had no reservations about declaring that the
young Italian tourist who perished in one of the explosions was "in the
wrong place at the wrong time", a phrase Bush repeated recently like
the line from a poem. The money and even the electronic materials used
to assemble those bombs were provided by the Cuban American National
Foundation (CANF), which distributed the handsome sums at its disposal
through shameless lobbying with members of different parties at the
U.S. Congress.

At the close of 1997, the 7th Latin American Summit of Heads of State
and Government, which I was obliged to attend, was to be held on Isla
Margarita, Venezuela.

On October 27 that year, a vessel called "La Esperanza" was en route to
Isla Margarita. While sailing very close to Puerto Rican coasts, it was
intercepted by a patrol boat of the Coast Guard and Customs Service of
that occupied island on suspicion of drug trafficking. On the vessel
were four Cuban-born terrorists carrying two 50-calibre Barrett
semi-automatic assault rifles with infrared-guided telescopic sights,
capable of delivering precision rounds to armor-plated vehicles and
planes in mid-air or about to take off or land from a distance of over
a thousand meters, and 7 boxes of munitions.

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