Newspaper asks how exiles will influence the Bush administration
HAVANA -- (AP) -- A Cuban newspaper expressed concern Thursday
at George
W. Bush's presidential victory, asking how much Cuban exiles
in Florida would
influence the new administration.
``How much power will he give the mafia of Miami?'' asked a lengthy
article in
Juventud Rebelde, the daily of Cuba's Union of Young Communists.
``What will
happen to foreign policy?''
There was no official government reaction. President Fidel Castro
spent the day in
talks with visiting Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Communist Cuba has been subject to a U.S. trade embargo for nearly
four
decades, and the U.S. presidential contest was of great interest
on the island.
Castro has said he didn't expect any changes under either Bush
or Al Gore, but
the vice president was generally seen as the lesser of two evils.
Gore Surrendered, read the headline of Juventud Rebelde's article,
accompanied
by a cartoon of a sad-looking Gore holding up a white flag.
``The odyssey and the chaos in the North American presidential
elections has
ended,'' the article read. `` `Democracy' is adrift.''
Written by Juana Carrasco Martín, a frequent participant
in nightly discussions on
state television, the article said the post-election process
-- marked by recounts
and court battles -- ``exposed the fallaciousness of a system
and of a nation that,
up to now, had considered itself the omnipotent judge'' of other
countries'
elections.