Mexico Accuses Cuba of Blackmail ****"The problem was not Bush," Castaneda said. "The problem was that Castro had threatened, through his acts, to dedicate himself to internal politics in Mexico." Castaneda cited planned meetings with Mexican news media and anti-globalization protesters. Castaneda said Fox also wanted to avoid having Castro disrupt the summit by squabbling with the United States or protesting the "Consensus of Monterrey," an agreement on financial aid for poor nations that had been signed by virtually all of the nations at the event. Castaneda claimed that while Cuba had accepted the document without major protests two months earlier, Castro planned to "make a scandal" over it in Monterrey.
In nightly state television broadcasts this week, Cuban officials have showered Castaneda with insults, calling him "diabolical." Castro has suggested that Fox is a "decent" but naive dupe of Castaneda. Fox said Wednesday he has changed his country's foreign policy "in a radical way" since becoming the first opposition party candidate to win Mexico's presidency. In addition to Mexico's traditional focus on noninterference in other nations' affairs, Fox said Thursday that human rights "are universal and are above political and ideological interests."***
…. o Has prison changed you from a human and political point of view?
It's impossible for someone to go through prison and not change his way of acting or thinking. What needs to be specified is in what direction: for good or for bad? It's an extraordinary experience. Politically speaking, imprisonment has strengthened my convictions about the justice of my struggle to achieve democratic changes in Cuba. In prison, one gets to know in depth the system's injustice and true measure. On the human side, my faith in God has increased. He has opened my eyes to the struggle that we must wage to change the material and spiritual conditions of prison life. This element must be incorporated into the struggle for democratic changes.****