Transition group meeting prompts president's tirade

Agence France-Presse

HAVANA · Cuban President Fidel Castro on Friday called U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice "mad" after he earlier condemned the head of the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana as a "little gangster."

The communist leader's latest tirade against the United States has been in response to Rice's meeting this week with a U.S. government commission intended to prepare for a democratic transition in Cuba after Castro.

"I am going to tell you what I think about this famous commission: They are a group of s---eaters who do not deserve the world's respect," Castro, 79, told the Cuban parliament.

"In this context, it does not matter if it was the mad woman who talks of transition -- It is a circus, they are completely depraved, they should be pitied," he said.

The attack followed Castro's comments on Thursday, when he called Michael Parmly, head of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, a "little gangster" for criticizing the regime in a speech marking International Human Rights Day this month.

"The Cuban regime's hurling of angry and often violent groups against pro-democratic dissidents is particularly disgusting," Parmly said, adding that such actions were similar to the Nazis.

He condemned Castro's "outrageous crimes," pointing out that one out of every five imprisoned journalists in the world is in Cuba.

Castro said during another speech to the rubber-stamp National Assembly that he did not know who was worse -- "that little gangster," referring to Parmly, or "the previous gangster" -- Parmly's predecessor, James Cason, who Castro earlier had described as a "bully."

Castro said he at first thought Parmly was a "respectful" diplomat but his opinion changed when he heard the human rights speech.

Earlier this week, a moderator on a state television roundtable condemned "the cynical and provocative activities" of the two U.S. diplomats.

"They took Corporal Cason and left us Sergeant Parmly," the program moderator said.

The United States and Cuba broke off diplomatic relations in January 1961. The U.S. Interests Section opened on Sept. 1, 1977, re-occupying the seven-story former U.S. Embassy building.

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