Castro

INFLAMMATORY STATEMENTS surrounding the relationship between the United States and Cuba could retard the pace at which the 47-year-old trade embargo on the communist island is lifted, Prime Minister Bruce Golding has warned.

"A lot would depend on the quality of the engagement that takes place between the United States and Cuba. A lot also will depend on the extent to which we don't torpedo it, and that inflammatory statements are not made," Golding said.

The prime minister was speaking with journalists at the Norman Manley International Airport in Kingston Sunday, shortly after returning from the Summit of the Americas in Port-of-Spain. United States President Barack Obama attended the summit where the issue of lifting the embargo was discussed.

Non-confrontational posture

Golding said that even before the summit, he advised regional leaders to adopt a non-confrontational posture to the issue of the Cuban embargo.

"What we do not want to do is to confront the United States on this issue. There is some movement, let's work with that, let's try to facilitate that, let's encourage that," the Prime Minister said.

He told journalists that he impressed on several heads of government at the summit, "let us not demand that an embargo must end today and if it does not happen then the Conference would have failed.

"This embargo is in place now for 50 years and we must not expect to have it lifted in 50 hours. It's a process, it's not an act and I believe that we have made significant progress in a matter of days and I believe that that process should be allowed to continue."

Former Cuban president Fidel Castro, in his latest column in Cuba's state-run media, described the embargo as a cruel act and called on the US president to reverse it.

Ethical principle

"I want to remind him of a basic ethical principal related to Cuba: any injustice, any crime in whatever time has no excuse to go on. The cruel blockade (embargo) against the Cuban people costs lives, costs suffering," he said.

Castro said that Obama was "abrupt and evasive" when he answered questions about the embargo in a closing news conference on Sunday.