Chávez: Fidel Castro should return to power
MANTECAL, Venezuela --
(AP) -- President Hugo Chávez expressed hope for better relations with
Washington and suggested that it is time for Fidel Castro to return to
power in a wide-ranging interview with The Associated Press on Saturday.
Here are some of his remarks.
• On whether U.S.-Venezuelan relations could improve once President Bush
leaves the White House:
``At least I would hope for a government with which it's possible to
talk, a government with which differences can be discussed, to at least
recover the level of relations we had during the era of [former
President Bill] Clinton. . . . [Relations] will never be easy, neither
with Democrats nor Republicans. We hope to have normal relations.''
• On when he thinks his close friend and ally Fidel Castro might return
to power in Cuba:
``When I went to visit him, he was coming out of the hardest part he
lived through. . . . Imagine an 80-year-old man having an operation, and
two days later going back to the operating room again, and two days
later back to the operating room again. . . . Fidel is quite recovered
right now. And I know he isn't totally out in front, but he is sharing
the functions of government with [his brother] Raúl and with his team of
vice presidents. . . . I think the time has come for him to put on his
uniform.''
• On his decision to force opposition-aligned TV station Radio Caracas
Television off the air:
``After the dust settles, and I think it is settling, things come back
into place, and people realize what really happened. . . . A government,
within its authority . . . decided not to renew the concession of a
television channel run by the elite.''
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