Communist Economic Model Loses a Stalwart Defender

Cuba:
Communist Economic Model Loses a Stalwart Defender
By REUTERS
Published: September 8, 2010

Fidel Castro said Cuba's economic model no longer worked, an American
journalist reported Wednesday. Jeffrey Goldberg wrote in his blog for
Atlantic magazine that he asked Mr. Castro, left, last week if Cuba's
model of Soviet-style Communism was still worth exporting to other
countries. "The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore," Mr.
Castro said, according to the report. Mr. Goldberg said that Julia
Sweig, a Cuba expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, thought Mr.
Castro's answer was an acknowledgment that the state played too big a
role in the economy. The comment appeared to reflect Mr. Castro's
support for the economic reforms instituted by his younger brother,
President Raúl Castro. In the interview, Mr. Castro, 84, also criticized
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran for anti-Semitism and denying the
Holocaust. He also criticized his own actions during the 1962 Cuban
Missile Crisis when he urged the Soviet Union to launch nuclear weapons
against the United States, saying "it wasn't worth it at all."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/09/world/americas/09briefs-Cuba.html