From Prensa Latina, July 7:

Cuban Revolution leader Fidel Castro stated that he will never support the pax romana that the empire tries to impose on Latin America.

In his Cubadebate website article entitled "Pax Romana," Fidel Castro referred to the situation in Colombia.

"I have expressed, very clearly," he noted, "our position in favor of peace in Colombia; but, we are neither in favor of foreign military intervention nor of the policy of force that the United States intends to impose at all costs on that long-suffering and industrious people."

"I have honestly and strongly criticized the objectively cruel methods of kidnapping and retaining prisoners under the conditions of the jungle. But I am not suggesting that anyone laid down their arms, when everyone who did so in the last 50 years did not survive to see peace," the Cuban leader wrote [a reference to the extermination of the Unión Patriotico in the '90s].

"If I dared suggest anything to the FARC guerrillas that would simply be that they declare, by any means possible to the International Red Cross, their willingness to release the hostages and prisoners they are still holding, without any precondition. I do not intend to be heard; it is simply my duty to say what I think. Anything else would only serve to reward disloyalty and treason."