HAVANA -- Roberto Alarcon, well-dressed but of unexceptional appearance, is thought to be the No. 3 man in Cuba, after only Fidel and Raul Castro. He lazily sprawled in his chair before eight American journalists, fondling his cigar.
Asked about Havana's willingness to negotiate with the United States over its embargo against his country, Alarcon said there's "no reason to consider negotiating a failing policy."
And failing it is. For more than four decades the U.S. has unsuccessfully attempted to isolate Cuba's communist regime. Fidel Castro burst onto the international stage in 1959 by deposing the corrupt Fulgencio Batista and turning Cuba into a Soviet outpost. The U.S. responded with a botched invasion by Cuban emigres and an economic embargo.