Reprinted from Caribbean Net News
caribbeannetnews.com

Costa Rica's Arias presses for elections when Castro dies
08-10-2006

SAN JOSE, Costa Rica (AFP): Costa Rica's President Oscar Arias became the first Latin American leader Wednesday to demand free elections for Cuba when ailing President Fidel Castro dies.

Castro, following surgery for intestinal bleeding, on July 31 handed over power to his brother Raul, the defense chief, for the first time -- if temporarily -- in almost 48 years.

"The day that Fidel is gone -- and no one is wishing him death, we all want him to get better -- in case he one day is gone, and his brother is going to be his heir, wouldn't it be the most appropriate thing for his brother to ask the Cuban people if they should go on sacrificing for the people, for the revolution, for socialism?" Arias said in a press conference.

"After 47 years (of revolution), wouln't it be appropriate to find out what it is the Cuban people want?"

Arias, a Nobel peace laureate, cancelled a meeting he was supposed to hold Monday in Bogota with Cuban Vice President Carlos Lage, because Lage was purported to have tried to restrict the agenda of the conversation.