THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, September 1, 1994 TAG: 9409010548
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A10 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MASON PETERS, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: ELIZABETH CITY LENGTH: Short : 30 lines
Fidel Castro should be ``surgically'' removed from power in Cuba, Republican Sen. Jesse A. Helms, the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Wednesday.
``The problem in Cuba is Castro and, unlike Noriega, he hasn't anyplace to run. We should remove him, and I think we can do it surgically,'' Helms said while campaigning for a Republican candidate for Congress.
``I will say that the last thing we should do is invade Haiti, but the situation with Castro in Cuba is entirely different,'' he said.
The senior North Carolina senator refused to say whether he was advocating full-dress U.S. military action in Cuba to oust Castro.
``It wouldn't be proper for me to go into details because of my position on the Foreign Affairs Committee,'' Helms said.
``I don't mean we have to kill him, but I do think we can get Castro out of there and get him out surgically.''
Helms was in Elizabeth City during a political tour of northeastern North Carolina on behalf of Walter B. Jones Jr., who is running against U.S. Rep. H. Martin Lancaster, D-Goldsboro, in the 3rd Congressional District. by CNB