AP: Castro Once Advised Morales to Shun Arms

[Eugene]

Castro Once Advised Morales to Shun Arms

By CARLOS VALDEZ
The Associated Press
Friday, December 29, 2006; 11:40 PM

LA PAZ, Bolivia -- President Evo Morales said Friday that his close ally Fidel
Castro once advised him to shun arms for his populist cause and change Bolivia
through democratic means.

The Cuban president, who once tried to spread armed revolt throughout South
America, "never told me that you have to take up arms, never," Morales said
in an interview Friday with Bolivian radio network Fides.

Morales, who was democratically elected in 2005, said Castro urged him three
years ago not to follow his own example of rising to power through armed
revolution. Instead, Castro urged Morales to pursue a democratic revolution
similar to the one Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez claims to be leading.

"At the beginning of 2003, when I was invited to a big conference in Cuba,
(Castro) said, 'Don't do what I did; don't have an armed uprising,'" said
Morales. "'Lead a democratic revolution, like Chavez's, with a constitutional
assembly.'"

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Full article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/12/29/AR2006122902043.html