Fidel Castro is now trying to weasel out of his unguarded criticisms of the Cuban model of state socialism--which he made to Atlantic Monthly reporter Jeffrey Goldberg.

 Though he admits that the reporter quotes him accurately--"The Cuban model doesn't even work for us anymore--"  he then claims that his words were "misinterpreted." What he meant to say was something diametrically opposite: "the capitalist system no longer serves either the Unites States or the rest of the world."

That is what he WISHES he said, because it would be politically convenient and conform to the official line of the Communist Party.

 But that's not what he said. Or meant. 

The initial interpretation by American specialists was that Fidel intended, when making the statement,  to provide room for his brother Raul Castro to make some modest reforms in Cuban economic organization. Venezuelan critics now claim that a call from Hugo Chavez may have been behind Fidel Castro's disavowal of his own words. Chavez, in the midst of an election campaign precisely about the applicability of the "Cuban model" to Venezuela, could only feel undercut by the statement. Did he make a call, using Venezuelan support and assistance as his carrot and stick? We won't find out till after the Cuban state collapses, but the theory makes sense.