World News Tonight (ABC) - 1998-01-20
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Read a transcript preview of “World News Tonight (ABC) - 1998-01-20” from malgent, uploaded on 2026-01-21.
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Language: English (original, YouTube automatic captions)
[0:08] From [music] ABC, this is World News
[0:11] Tonight with Peter Jennings, reporting
[0:14] tonight [music] from Cuba.
[0:16] >> Good evening from the central park in
[0:18] downtown Havana. We are here this week
[0:20] to witness the rendezvous that Fidel
[0:22] Castro and the Pope are having with
[0:24] history. We are here because what
[0:26] happens on this island will also have an
[0:28] impact on the United States. Everything
[0:31] that happens in Cuba gets America's
[0:32] attention. Incidentally, we just show up
[0:34] to do the broadcast and Cubans want to
[0:38] know what we're going to tell Americans.
[0:40] In many cases, what their relatives in
[0:42] the United States are going to hear.
[0:44] Well, this is the eve of the Pope's
[0:46] visit to one of the last bastions of
[0:48] communism anywhere in the world and it
[0:50] is already causing enormous
[0:52] expectations.
[0:54] In Revolution Square, they put up a
[0:56] giant cross today.
[0:58] And right across from the Cuban
[1:00] revolutionary icon Che Guevara, they now
[1:03] have a giant portrait of Jesus. Above
[1:05] it, in Spanish, Jesus, in you we
[1:08] believe.
[1:10] Not all Cubans believe, but Castro has
[1:12] invited everyone to welcome the man who
[1:14] has been one of communism's most
[1:16] effective adversaries. And that's why
[1:19] there is suspense.
[1:20] Everyone appears to believe that somehow
[1:23] Cuba is going to change.
[1:25] Castro has said officially that it's
[1:27] okay to be enthusiastic and so people
[1:29] are increasingly enthusiastic by the
[1:32] day.
[1:34] Today, Cuban television, which clings to
[1:37] the Communist Party line, actually began
[1:39] to promote its papal coverage. [music]
[1:44] Today, hundreds of people from the US
[1:46] began to arrive, includ