It's said that your policies in Cuba, Dr. Castro, are leading to conditions of great economic difficulty. Is this so?

When you have a traveling across Cuba, what have you seen during the travel? Everybody working, everybody happy. Have you seen the economical difficulty?

Well, I haven't seen any, and everybody seemed happy. But are there not shortages, nonetheless? People can still look happy, and there'll be many shortages which may become serious.

Will not be difficult because we are rising our production. You have seen all the fields, a lot of work, a lot of machinery. And we have increased the agricultural production very much. That is why we have all the things that we need. If we have difficulty, are now small difficulties. But in the short future, we will have all the things necessary because what we need is to work, and what we need is peace to work.

You obviously have a great deal of support among the people of Cuba, Dr. Castro. Why in that case do you not hold elections on a democratic basis?

We ask it to the people, people said, We don't want political now because we are working. And political was good only for robbers and for criminals. And the people is working. People don't worry now. In the future, we solve our institutional problems because now we are building a new society that is the most important. We are building the house. After build the house, we will buy the house and we'll organize the house.

Dr. Castro, some people say, some of your Cuban enemies say-Who says that? Yes. People in Miami, Americans, say that you started a revolution to bring in democracy, and you have not done so.

Do you believe that there is no democracy here? I'm not sure there is more democracy- I'm not sure. I'm asking your question. Than that in the United States, because here, what was a labor? What was a peasant? Was oppressed by authority, by owners of the lands. Now they organize their work. They organize their cooperative. The most free man you can find in all America is the Cuban man.

You are regarded in many quarters, Dr. Castro, as a Communist. Is this true?

We have said that we are Socialistic.

Mr. Khrushchev says he is a Socialist, too.

But he says that he is going now to be Communist because he is building the Communists Associated, and we are building a Socialistic Associated. That is before Communism.

Do you regard yourself as a neutral in the Cold War, like India or Egypt? Or do you regard yourself as aligned with the Communists powers?

Why are you thinking in war? I think that the best thing for peace is thinking in peace. I am with the peace.