Sharpe, others meet with Castro, make S.C. first with major trade deal

[Osolomia]

Sunday, January 25, 2004


Cuban President Fidel Castro, center, speaks with South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer as South Carolina Commissioner of Agriculture Charles Sharpe looks on at left. The state's trade delegation brought home a letter of intent by Cuba to purchase $10 million of South Carolina agricultural products.

By LEE HENDREN, T&D Staff Writer

The American consular officer in Havana has been trying for three years to get an appointment with Cuban dictator Fidel Castro.

South Carolina Agriculture Commissioner Charles Sharpe and Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer were granted an audience in just three days.

... Castro's gift to the delegation was -- what else? -- world-famous Cuban cigars. "He took a felt-tip pen and signed his name on the box," Sharpe said.

The trade delegation brought home a letter of intent by Cuba to buy $10 million of South Carolina agricultural products.

But it could not bring home the cigars because of a decades-old United States trade embargo.

... Even after being invited to Castro's residence for dinner that Friday evening, "we didn't know if we were going to get to meet him," Sharpe said.

"We were finishing dinner, and he came in the room" alone, leaving his security personnel outside, Sharpe said. "We talked for well over three hours. He was really interested in relations between the U.S. and Cuba."

... "None of us agree with what he's done" in terms of ruling Cuba as a dictator, Sharpe said, but Castro seems to be "not as ruthless as he used to be."

More...
http://www.thetandd.com/articles/2004/01/25/news/news1.txt

[Voltaire99]

1. LOL! I LOVE it!

"None of us agree with what he's done" in terms of ruling Cuba as a dictator, Sharpe said, but Castro seems to be "not as ruthless as he used to be."

The irony is delicious. Leave for a second the ape whose nation's armies have just invaded Iraq, yet feels he's an adequate judge of "ruthlessness."

No, there's better. After nearly half a century of vicious US economic strangulation, the US needs Cuba as badly as Cuba needs the US.

Funny how the bottom line is never fungible, quite unlike ideological purity. ;-)