Cuba's Fidel Castro says he'll stop sending military aid to Nicaragua when the ruling Sandinistas turn over the government to the U.S.-backed opposition next month, Cuba's official news agency said.
The Communist president, increasingly isolated after the fall of hard-line Communists in Eastern Europe last year, also accused four former East bloc allies of becoming U.S. puppets.The four countries - Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Bulgaria - supported a U.N. resolution this week that criticized Cuba's human rights record.
The Cuban news agency Prensa Latina, monitored in Mexico City, quoted Castro at a speech Wednesday before a Cuban women's organization in Havana.
Castro had close ties with Nicaragua - ruled by the leftist Sandinistas for a decade - until the general elections Feb. 25, when Violeta Barrios de Chamorro and her opposition coalition defeated President Daniel Ortega.
"Our military cooperation will be withdrawn when the new government takes office. It would not be possible to maintain our presence with a government which has shown its dislike for the Cuban revolution," Castro said.
"It is possible we could leave earlier if the Sandinistas agree to it." Chamorro is due to take office April 25.
Castro said Cuban assistance in housing construction and health care could continue if Nicaragua's new government desires. Cuba has sent doctors, technicians and brigades of volunteers to help build houses. It is generally believed some of these are military personnel, but neither Havana nor Managua have disclosed any figures on Cuban workers in Nicaragua.
The Cuban president said his country would no longer supply Nicaragua with petroleum and food. In recent days, the United States and Britain have promised aid to Nicaragua.
Exact figures on Cuban military aid have never been announced by Havana or Managua. However, the U.S. State Department said in a report last year that Moscow provided about $500 million in military aid to Nicaragua in 1988.
The Soviet Union has since said it would stop sending military aid to Managua. Most observers believe Moscow has been providing the military hardware to Nicaragua, while Cuba's aid has been more in terms of military advisers.