HAVANA -- (EFE) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro said Sunday that he offered the United States ''a
 24-hour truce,'' but now ''life is back to what it has been for the past 41 years'' without any progress in
 bilateral relations.

 Castro had told reporters on the eve of the Bay of Pigs invasion anniversary that Saturday would be ''a
 day of truce, maybe the only one in 41 years'' between Cuba and the United States.

 ''I meant to say that I did not want to make harsh criticisms of the U.S. government, it did not seem
 appropriate at a time when it had done something just,'' Castro said concerning the Saturday morning
 operation that snatched Elian Gonzalez from his Miami relatives.

 Castro said, however, that the United States ''was the driving force behind something that we are
 discussing, like the resolution'' approved last week by the U.N. Human Rights Commission against
 Cuba.

 Still in effect are the Cuban Adjustment Act, which benefits Cuban immigrants, the Torricelli law, which
 reinforces the economic embargo, as well as ''the blockade, the economic war and the harassment,''
 Castro added.

 ''I offered a 24-hour truce, although yesterday we remembered an invasion that was organized in the
 United States and of which we can talk a great deal but opted not to.''

 Castro said he had changed the speech he had in mind after what happened in Miami, adding that there
 was no intention of calling the boy's case a ''victory.''

 Asked whether Cuban-U.S. relations had improved, Castro said, ''No, absolutely not.''

                     Copyright 2000 Miami Herald