Castro receives some faint praise

Published Monday, March 9, 1998, in the Miami Herald

Castro receives some faint praise

NEW YORK -- (AFP) -- A senior U.S. diplomat praised Cuban President Fidel Castro as ``intelligent, well informed, intellectually very capable'' -- but expressed doubt he was flexible enough to negotiate a detente with Washington.

``He's a guy that's not going to change,'' Bill Richardson, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, said in a televised interview.

``If [Castro] did a little bit to advance in democracy in the areas that are important to us and to the Cuban Americans in this country, then maybe President Clinton would do some changes in this policy toward Cuba,'' Richardson said.

``But Castro wants everything under his own terms,'' Richardson said.