[Cincinatus' Wife]

With timeline of Casto's increased isolation - Cuba's Castro Calls Mexico's Fox a Liar*** HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba's relations with long- time ally Mexico reached a new low on Monday after President Fidel Castro repeatedly called President Vicente Fox a liar, and made public a private conversation between them to prove it. Mexico reacted swiftly, with Fox's spokesman, Rodolfo Elizondo, decrying the playing of a recording of the two presidents talking confidentially as "unacceptable" but saying Mexico would maintain diplomatic relations with Cuba.

Castro, speaking before a national TV audience, insisted Fox lied about the Cuban leader's hasty departure last month from a U.N. aid summit in Monterrey, Mexico. Cuba said at the time that Mexico, working on behalf of the United States, pressured Castro to either stay away from the summit or make himself scarce before President Bush (news - web sites) arrived. Mexican President Vicente Fox and Foreign Minister Jorge Castaneda both denied pressuring Castro to leave. "They were all lying left and right," Castro said.

The Cuban president played a tape of a private telephone conversation he had with Fox on the eve of the summit, in which Fox clearly urged Castro to leave the meeting early and urged him "not to attack the United States or President Bush." On the tape Fox asks Castro to make his presentation at the summit and to return to Cuba on Thursday "so that you don't make Friday complicated for me." Bush was scheduled to arrive on Friday. Making public the tape was a clear break with presidential protocol. Castro said the aftermath "of telling these truths could be that diplomatic relations are severed." ***

[Cincinatus' Wife]

Castro Hints at Mexican Pressure--(Fox tells Fidel :Mi casa no es su casa!)***Cuban officials at the time insisted that Mexican officials pressured Castro to leave early at the insistence of the Bush administration. Both Mexican and U.S. officials have denied that. During his two-hour presentation to reporters Monday night, Castro acknowledged that the men had agreed that the conversation would be private, but Mexico's decision to join the Friday U.N. Human Relations Commission vote targeting Cuba "was the last straw."

"If anyone could prove that such a conversation never took place, and that those were not President Fox's words, I would firmly offer my immediate resignation to all my positions and responsibilities at the head of the Cuban state and revolution," Castro declared. "My honor would not permit me to continue at the head of this country," he added to the statement, which was broadcast live on state radio and television across the island.***