Weather | Sports | Forums | Comics | Classifieds | Calendar | Movies
January 20, 2002
GUANTANAMO, Cuba -- Gen. Raul Castro, Fidel Castro's younger brother and Cuba's Defense Minister, looked out Saturday over the U.S. naval base where prisoners from the war in Afghanistan are being held.
"Relations with the United States are unpredictable," Castro told a small group of international journalists at the Malones lookout. It has a spectacular panorama of the American installation in southeastern Cuba.
He said for now the Cuban government would not object to the use of the base to hold the prisoners -- even though for decades Havana has protested the American presence. Raul Castro is his brother's chosen successor as head of state.
The younger Castro made his unannounced stop at the lookout after leading a political rally in the nearby town of San Antonio, in Guantanamo province.
The rally was held to protest American policies toward Cuba and demand the release of five Cuban men convicted of espionage charges in Miami last year.
Castro repeated earlier assurances by other Cuban military officials that the presence of Taliban and al-Qaida prisoners at the base did not represent a threat to Cuba's national security and that Cuba did not plan any extra security measures.
In the unlikely event that any prisoner escapes and makes it over the fence and into Cuban territory, Cuba would capture and return the prisoner to the U.S. military, Castro said.
Since the first flight carrying prisoners arrived, the Cuban military has been offering journalists unusual access to the Cuban-controlled zone around Guantanamo.