Cuban President Fidel Castro said that "no act of terrorism is justified, no matter who does it," referring to last week's terrorist attacks in Madrid that killed 200 people.
"I am stunned by what happened in Spain," Castro said, "it is terrible that Spaniards have been victims of this attack because the people of Spain were the ones that most protested" the war in Iraq. Castro said he sent his condolences to the Spanish king last Thursday, but no Cuban officials attended the Mass held in the Havana Cathedral in memory of the victims of the Madrid commuter train attacks.
Castro's statements were made Friday night to Chilevision and broadcast Saturday by Cuban television. In his statements, Castro accused the US and Spanish governments of "knowing very well" the origin of the Madrid attacks, "lying" to the Spanish people for "electoral purposes" and "deceiving" the United Nations.
"I am stunned at what happened in Spain. They know very well the origin of the attack in Spain... The US government knows it perfectly well and the Spanish government more than anyone knows it perfectly; but they are lying to the Spanish people, they are deceiving them," Castro said.
"No act of terrorism is justified, no matter who does it, but for reasons of a strictly political nature, it is in the interests of some and not others because everyone knows that more than 90 percent of the Spanish people opposed that war in Iraq," he said.
The only way to fight terrorism, according to Castro, is "to seek sincere cooperation" because war "is not going to put an end to it, it is going to make it worse and worse, it is going to sow ever more hatred, more dissatisfaction, more tragedy."
(Description of Source: Panama City ACAN-EFE in English -- Independent Central American press agency that is a joint concern of Panama City ACAN (Agencia Centroamericana de Noticias) and Madrid EFE)
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