Castro makes gesture of friendship to Mexico with appearance at ceremony
By Anita Snow
Associated Press Writer
HAVANA (AP) -- President Fidel Castro made a surprise appearance at the unveiling Monday of a new statue of Mexican hero Benito Juarez -- a gesture of friendship just three weeks before the inauguration of a new Mexican government.
Castro's unannounced appearance at the morning ceremony on the Avenue of the Presidents was welcomed by Mexican senators who were winding up a four-day visit to Cuba.
``It is one more example ... of the friendship between our nations,'' Mexican Sen. Enrique Jackson told reporters before the ceremony. He later expressed thanks for ``the difference that has been made today by the presence of President Fidel Castro.''
Castro also saw the senators during a six-hour meeting that ended around 3:30 a.m. Monday, said Jackson, of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, or PRI, which ruled Mexico for more than seven decades.
Although there has been no official confirmation, Castro is expected to attend the Dec. 1 inauguration of President-elect Vicente Fox, an opposition candidate whose administration will end the PRI's long hold on power in Mexico.
Castro did not speak during the ceremony inaugurating the towering bronze statue of Juarez, an Indian lawyer who during his presidency in the 1860s initiated reforms in the Mexican government and halted France's attempts to establish a Mexican empire.
The statue, a gift to Cuba from Mexico, is a copy of one in Juarez's hometown, the southern state capital of Oaxaca. It bears his best-known saying: ``Between individuals, as between nations, respect for each other's rights is peace.''
Mexico has historically adopted that philosophy in its dealings with Cuba. It was only Latin American country that refused to break diplomatic relations with the communist country despite pressure from the United States after the 1959 revolution that brought Castro to power.
Mexico also has been one of Cuba's most important trading partners.
While relations between the nations remain good, the administration of outgoing Mexican President Ernesto Zedillo irritated Cuban officials by having senior officials meet with Cuban dissidents on several occasions.
There has been much speculation about future relations between the countries under an administration led by Fox, a former rancher and Coca-Cola executive who was the candidate of the decidedly pro-business, center-right National Action Party.
Fox has expressed hopes for a democratic transition in Cuba, but has rejected the U.S. policy of trying to isolate the communist island.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Friday that his country hopes to strengthen its historical ties with Mexico during Fox's six-year term.
``We do not expect a cooling of relations,'' Perez Roque told reporters. Fox has offered every indication that ``under his administration, relations between Mexico and Cuba will be increased,'' the foreign minister said.
When Fox was governor of the central Mexican state of Guanajuato, he visited Cuba and praised the communist government's advances in health and other social services, Perez Roque noted. Fox met with Castro during that February 1999 visit.
