Fidel Castro: My Life by Fidel Castro Ignacio Ramonet

Author:Fidel Castro, Ignacio Ramonet
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2016-08-04T16:00:00+00:00

20

President Jimmy Carter’s Visit

Torrijos and the Panama Canal issue - Carter and the Mariel crisis -

First encounters - Presidents of the United States - The Varela Project -

Change the constitution? - The response

In 2002 you invited former American president Jimmy Carter, who later won the Nobel Peace Prize, to visit Cuba. What was it that motivated that invitation?

First, I had always had a high opinion of Carter as a man of honour, an ethical man. His policies towards Cuba were constructive, and he was one of that country’s most honest presidents. He was ethical, moral. I was remembering the time, back in 1976, when he had that famous interview in Playboy magazine,1 in which he answered in a very healthy way.

Are you a reader of Playboy?

No, but since a very interesting interview with Carter came out in it, I read it. They asked him about everything, even whether he had always been faithful to his wife or had ever strayed, and he answered, ‘Well, in my mind ...’2 He was honest enough to say that. Carter was incapable of inventing a lie. So, I’ll tell you, I sensed in Carter, even before he was elected, a man of ethical principles based on sincere religious beliefs.

During his presidency, from 1977 to 1981, were there no particular crises?

No ... When I realized that he was going to win the election in 1976, there were important problems pending, such as Panama and the risk that Torrijos,3 who was a very determined man, a very patriotic man, might take some action, because more than once he had said publicly that if the Canal was not returned to Panama he was going to take it by force. I perfectly understood the consequences that such an action might have had - I had great sympathy for Torrijos’ patriotic struggle, and we were in contact. He was one of those who, with the support of several Caribbean states, fought to help Cuba break out of its isolation when all relations were broken off.

Torrijos was demanding the return of the Canal and a fair agreement on the issue. I realized from Carter’s statements, his speech - I didn’t know him well at all, but you get used to sizing up people from a distance, from certain traits - that the possible future president of the United States was an honourable man. But I also saw that Torrijos, with those statements of his, might find himself committed to some drastic action that would’ve been a disaster for a country as small as Panama ... So I took the liberty of suggesting that he wait for the results of the elections in the US, that he be patient.

Ford4 was still the president of the United States. Gerald Ford was not aggressive [i.e., combative or anti-Cuban], but he was there temporarily, so to speak - provisionally, after Nixon. Actually, I told Torrijos two things: ‘I’m convinced that Carter is going to win the election’ - you could draw that conclusion from

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