Fidel Castro says Cuba can talk with Obama

[Judi Lynn]

Posted on Thursday, 12.04.08
Fidel Castro says Cuba can talk with Obama
By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press Writer

HAVANA -- Fidel Castro said Thursday that President-elect Barack Obama is a man Cuba can talk with and indicated that communist officials would be willing to meet with him wherever he wants.

But the former Cuban leader expressed disappointment with some of Obama's Cabinet choices, including Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of state and Robert Gates as defense secretary.

In his latest essay distributed to official media, the ailing 82-year-old former president wrote that with Obama "a conversation can be held wherever he wants," and that Cuban officials don't expect the new U.S. administration to be marked by violence and war.

But he added that Obama must remember that a carrot-and-stick approach won't work with Cuba.

Castro, and Cuban officials in general, have said very little about Obama since he won the U.S. presidential election. But he did describe him as intelligent in an earlier essay.

More:
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/story/799961.html