U.S. Needn’t Fear Cuba, Castro Says

Cuban President Fidel Castro told a crowd Saturday that the United States should never fear an attack by Cuba and can always count on the Communist country’s support in the war against terrorism.

In his first public comments since President Bush’s hard-line, anti-Castro speech Monday, the Cuban leader told a large rally that his nation does not fault Americans for their government’s restrictions on the Communist island and recognizes that many U.S. citizens support improved relations.

“Our struggle is not and never will be against the people of the United States,” Castro said during the morning rally in the city of Sancti Spiritus, about 215 miles southeast of Havana.

“Cuba will never place blame or sow hate against the people of the United States for the aggressions that we have suffered because of their governments,” Castro told a crowd the government estimated at 300,000.

Americans should never fear that Cuba would attack their country, Castro said.

The speech seemed designed to engage Americans who support changes in U.S. policy toward Cuba. It also seemed aimed at assuaging fears Americans may have after recent charges by the Bush administration that Cuba sponsors terrorism and could be developing germ warfare.

Bush said in his speech Monday that trade sanctions against Cuba would not be lifted until Castro agrees to free all political prisoners, allow independently monitored elections and adopt other conditions for a “new government that is fully democratic.”

Castro said he was “hurt” to think Americans would believe that Cuba supported terrorism or could be involved in any way with weapons of mass destruction.