CNN. From staff and wire reports. July 29, 2000. Web posted at: 6:35 p.m. EDT (2235 GMT)
SANTA CLARA, Cuba -- Cuban President Fidel Castro challenged the United States on Saturday to "play fair" with his country, alleging that the Clinton administration was trying to destroy his social revolution by increasing contacts between Americans and Cubans.
More than 200,000 people gathered in the central Cuban city of Santa Clara to hear Castro deliver an hour-long speech standing below a huge statue of Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The speech is one of a series of major national events to commemorate the start of the revolution that swept
Castro to power in 1959.
He said the increased push by Washington for more people-to-people contact between the two countries was really aimed at weakening the Cuban political system.
"We accept the challenge," Castro said. "Let's see if they can destroy the Cuban revolution" which, he claimed, could not be destroyed, "not by force or seduction."
Castro demands end to trade embargo
The Cuban leader said he did not mind the contacts, "but first they (the U.S.) have to play clean."
He demanded that the U.S. get rid of the trade embargo as well as migration policies Havana says encourage illegal immigration. The U.S. should also allow Americans to visit, do business and invest in Cuba without restrictions, "without ridiculous fear."
Government leaders, as well as Juan Miguel Gonzalez, father of Elian Gonzalez, were in the front row. Among other attendees was Oakland, California, Mayor Jerry Brown, a former California governor who last week visited Santiago, Cuba, the sister city to Oakland.
The speech was the second of three major events to honor the attack in 1953 by Castro on an army barracks that launched the Cuban Revolution. The attack was against the dictatorship of President Fulgencia Batista. Although the attackers were either killed or jailed, the movement later regained
strength and triumphed after Batista fled Cuba.
Demonstrations keep pressure on U.S. to change policies
The first of the events this year, a march last Wednesday in the capital Havana, drew a crowd estimated at more than 1 million.
The third and final event will be in the eastern city of Pinar del Rio on August 5.
The demonstrations are part of a national campaign to maintain pressure on the United States to change its policies towards Cuba after Elian Gonzalez's return to the island a month ago.
The message comes at a time when there are unprecedented moves in the U.S. Congress to ease the 40-year economic embargo against Cuba. Last week the House of Representatives voted to ease the ban on U.S. food and drug sales to Cuba and allow Americans to travel freely in that country.
CNN Havana Bureau Chief Lucia Newman and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
© 2000 Cable News Network. All Rights Reserved. |