Havana - President Fidel Castro (71) said yesterday Cuba's communist system passed the test of Pope John Paul's visit to the island, and the intense foreign media scrutiny that went with it, with flying colours.
The Cuban leader went on state television on Monday evening and talked for four hours into early yesterday, stressing the success of the January visit. For nearly a week, the Cuban leader said, the country was "in the hands of the Pope and in the hands of thousands of journalists . . . Who looked after the revolution during that week?" he asked rhetorically. "The people."