Castro: Obama seeking to topple Cuban communism

Raul Castro gave the strongest signal yet his government's would-be honeymoon with the Obama administration is over, delivering a harshly worded speech Sunday charging that the White House endorses efforts to topple the island's communist system.

Offering Cuba's first public acknowledgment of the arrest of an American contractor, Castro said the case shows "the United States won't quit trying to destroy the revolution and bring a change to our economic and social regime."

"In the last few weeks we have witnessed the stepping up of the new administration's efforts in this area," he told parliament. "They are giving new breath to open and undercover subversion against Cuba."

Castro gave no specific charges against the U.S. citizen, but said he was "working to illegally distribute sophisticated methods of satellite communication to members of the 'civil society' which they hope to form against our people."

The U.S. State Department previously confirmed the Dec. 5 arrest but has not released the name of the person involved, citing privacy issues. American diplomats in Havana have asked for but not received access to the detainee, who was working for a Maryland-based development organization.

Castro said this year's U.S. federal budget allocated "almost $55 million to support a supposed democracy, the defense of human rights and aggression by radio and television against Cuba" — a reference to Radio and TV Marti, which broadcast from U.S. territory to Cuba to provide an alternative to state-run media.

Castro again repeated his offer to sit down with President Barack Obama and discuss relations that have been ice cold for nearly a half century, since an armed revolution put his brother Fidel in power on New Year's Day 1959.

But he strongly criticized the Obama administration, saying Washington has begun "exclaiming cynically that we have returned to Cold War and anti-American discourse."

(Via AP)