Castro invites Jackson to call

Press, 26 June 1984, Page 8

Castro invites Jackson to call

NZPA-Reuter Havana

The American Democratic Presidential contender, the Rev. Jesse Jackson, is in Havana today on a landmark visit after 25 years of strained relations between Dr Fidel Castro’s Cuba and the United States. Dr Castro invited the black civil rights leader after learning that he planned a tour of Central America to discuss ways of ending the political violence which has killed tens of thousands of people in recent years. Western diplomats believe that Dr Castro will use the occasion to put the Cuban point of view to the American people. “Castro handles the media very well and Jackson’s visit could give him an ideal opportunity to share the stage with an influential American whose views on U.S. involvement in Central America are similar to his own,” one European diplomat said. Cuban officials would not confirm whether he planned a press conference after his talks with Mr Jackson, who is accompanied by more than 100 journalists. Havana and Washington have been at odds since the revolution which swept Dr Castro to power in 1959. America believes that Cuba is behind much of the political upheavel which led to a Leftist Government in Nicaragua and powerful revolutionary movements in El Salvador and Guatemala.

Diplomats in Havana said that the unprecedented invitation had probably been because of several radical proposals made by Mr Jackson during his campaign to win the Democratic Party’s nomination to challenge President Ronald Reagan in the American elections on November 6. These include an end to United States military aid to El Salvador and a dialogue with Dr Castro aimed at resuming full diplomatic relations.

“Jackson will perhaps gain from being seen with a

leader of such stature as Castro while Castro will show he is willing to look for peaceful solutions,” a Latin American diplomat said.

Mr Jackson’s mission has already produced a result. Officials of guerrilla forces fighting the Ameri-can-backed government of El Salvador said in Panama yesterday that they were prepared to meet the President, Mr Jose Napoleon Duarte, to discuss a ceasefire.

After two meetings with the guerrilla representatives in his Panama City hotel, Mr Jackson told a news conference that the Costa Rican Embassy in the Salvadorean capital had been made available for the discussions.

The leadership of the Farabundo Marti Liberation Front and the Democratic and Revolutionary Front were willing to go to San Salvador “even tomorrow” to meet Mr Duarte. A Farabundo official, Dr Ruben Zamora, seated with three colleagues beside Mr Jackson, said that the president had hitherto insisted that the guerrillas must lay down their arms before negotiations. “We are saying that before we arrange a ceasefire, we need a meeting between the two parties.

“We are for a political and global solution,” Dr Zamora said. “Part of this solution is to be able to implement a cease-fire. “We are considering this with extreme seriousness and responsibility,” he said. Mr Jackson, who seeks the Democratic nomination against the Colorado senator, Gary Hart, and the former Vice-President, Walter Mondale, urged the Reagan Administration to allow rebel leaders to visit Washington and explain their case to congress. He said the rebels were concerned that the United States maintain a “non-in-tervention policy in El Salvador to allow the process of negotiation to take place.”