CUBA . . . CASTRO RECOGNIZES EXILES

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Meetings in Madrid last night and this morning between Cuba's foreign minister and leaders of the Cuban exile community in the U.S. could lead to "concrete political changes," the exiles said. The talks between Cuban Foreign Minister Roberto Robaina and the leaders, first reported by TIME Daily yesterday, marked Fidel Castro's first recognition of his opposition during three decades in power. Robaina met with Ramon Cernuda of the Cuban Committee for Human Rights and Reconciliation, Alfredo Duran, a Cuban-born former chairman of the Florida Democratic Party and longtime Miami-area political activist, and Eloy Gutierrez Menoyo, a guerrilla commander during the revolution. "The Cuban government has taken a step that they hadn't taken for 35 years -- to sit down and talk with the opposition and recognize its legitimacy," Cernuda said. Neither side went into details of the talks, which concerned acceleration of free-market reforms in Cuba and exiles' demands for multiparty democracy on the