INFORMATION FROM THE MINISTRY OF FOREIGN AFFAIRS

Last 7 June, a Cuban radio station passed judgments and expressed comments on the recently late former President of the United States, Ronald Reagan. Immediately, news bureaus from around the world echoed such comments, presenting them as an official statement from the Cuban authorities.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has received instructions from the Leadership of the Revolution to clarify that the comments made by such radio station are not an official statement of the Cuban authorities or express its positions.

President Ronald Reagan was a tenacious adversary of the Cuban Revolution, but the sense of ethics and honor of the Cuban revolutionaries does not harmonize with the idea of passing critical judgments or attacks at a moment of such profound grief for his relatives. That has always been and will be the behavior of the Cuban leaders and people.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Havana, 10 June 2004

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/27004 

Cuba Says Negative Editorial on Reagan
by State Radio Does Not Represent 'Official Opinion'

VOA News 11 Jun 2004, 19:34 UTC

Cuba's communist government says a negative editorial on state radio about former U.S. President Ronald Reagan does not represent any "official opinion."

On Monday, state-run Radio Reloj broadcast an editorial saying Mr. Reagan never should have been born. It also criticized his military policies.

But Friday, Cuba's state-run newspaper Granma says the editorial does not represent the government's opinion. It says the sense of ethics and honor of Cuban revolutionaries is inconsistent with criticism and attacks in moments of "profound pain."

President Reagan, who died Saturday is well-remembered for his strong stand against communism. Many credit him with accelerating the Soviet Union's collapse.

Some information for this report provided by AFP and AP. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CubaNews/message/27033 

Cuba lambasts says former President
Ronald Reagan should ``never have been born''

By Associated Press

Monday, June 7, 2004

HAVANA - Cuba harshly criticized former President Ronald Reagan and his policies on Monday, saying he should ``never have been born.''

In the first reaction to Reagan's death from the communist government, Radio Reloj said:

``As forgetful and irresponsible as he was, he forgot to take his worst works to the grave,'' the government radio station said.

``He, who never should have been born, has died,'' the radio said.

The statement did not mention Cuba's relationship with the United States under Reagan, a staunch foe of communism.

It also did not mention Reagan's decision to order U.S. forces to invade the tiny Caribbean country of Grenada on Oct. 25, 1983, because Washington feared the island had grown too close to Cuba.

Since the early 1960s, Cuba and the United States have been without diplomatic relations, and Cuba has been under a U.S. trade embargo. But relations between the two countries were especially tense when Reagan was in office from 1981-1989.

Radio Reloj lambasted Reagan's military policies, especially the ``Star Wars'' anti-missile program. The initiative, launched when the Soviet Union still existed, rejected a long-standing doctrine built on the idea that neither superpower would start a nuclear war out of fear of annihilation by the other.

The radio also criticized Reagan's policies in Central America, where Washington backed a counterrevolutionary rebel army that fought against the leftist Sandinista government in Nicaragua. The United States also supported a conservative government that battled Marxist guerrillas during El Salvador's civil war.

``His apologists characterize him as the victor of the Cold War,'' the radio said. ``Those in the know knew that the reality was not so, but rather (he was) the destroyer of policies of detente in the overall quest for peace.''

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