investment under raul

[Ken Gargett]

Raul Castro Presents Plans for Cuba's Future

By Manuel Roig-Franzia

Washington Post Foreign Service

Thursday, July 26, 2007; 11:52 AM

CAMAGUEY, Cuba, July 26 -- Interim President Raul Castro announced Thursday that his government will seek to open Cuba to more foreign investment, the clearest indication yet of his plans for ruling this island nation.

Castro's ailing brother Fidel Castro did not appear at an event commemorating the opening shots of the Cuban Revolution in 1953, raising more questions about the state of his health.

Cuban President Fidel Castro, a nemesis of the U.S. government for more than four decades, relinquishes power because of poor health.

But his name was invoked repeatedly, both by his younger brother and by tens of thousands who gathered in this central Cuban city chanting "Viva Fidel" and waving small Cuban flags.

Today is the 1-year anniversary of Fidel Castro's last public appearances. He made speeches last year in the cities of Bayamo and Holguin to commemorate his quixotic raid on the Moncada Barracks 54 years ago.

Five days later, Fidel Castro underwent the first of several surgeries, temporarily relinquished power and disappeared from public view.

During last year's speeches, "we could hardly even suspect what a hard blow was awaiting us," Raul Castro said in the opening line of his one--hour speech Thursday.

The younger Castro, in his trademark tinted glasses and khaki military uniform, gave no specifics about his brother's condition, but said that "to the delight of our people he is taking on more and more intense and highly valuable activities, as evidenced by his reflections, which are published in the press."

In recent months, Fidel Castro has written more than two dozen editorials for the Communist Party newspapers, Granma and Juventud Rebelde. In those pieces, he first revealed that he had undergone more than one surgery. He also mocked President Bush's European visit, saying the "Tyrant visited Tirana," and railed about using corn for ethanol rather than food.

Cuba suffers from severe food shortages and imports much of its food. Raul Castro chastised his countrymen for failing to improve production of milk and said he is taking steps to end "absurd and inefficient" distribution of Cuban-produced milk, which he said has often been trucked across the island instead of being delivered locally.

"To have more, we have to begin by producing more," Castro said.

Castro also said his government is studying ways of increasing foreign investment without "repeating the mistakes of the past," a reference to the oft-heard complaint that U.S. and other foreign companies dominated Cuba before the 1959 victory of Castro's revolutionary forces.

Castro said business alliances would be sought with "serious entrepreneurs, upon well-defined legal bases which preserve the role of the state and the predominance of socialist property." Cuba, he said, wants investment "of the kind that can provide us with capital, technology or markets."

Angel Morel, a 56-year-old dairy manager who watched the speech wearing the same red t-shirt donned by thousands of Communist Party loyalists, said afterward that more foreign investment is a good idea "as long as those countries respect us."

"It depends on what the other countries come up with," he said. "We'll have to see."

During his remarks, Castro also repeated a common refrain here, blaming the U.S. trade embargo for many of Cuba's economic woes and accusing the Bush administration of a "hostile" stance toward Cuba. He said Cuba is increasing its military defenses and will hold a large-scale exercise in 2008.

"By that time," he said, "the elections will also have taken place in the United States and the mandate of the current president of that country will have concluded along with his erratic and dangerous administration."