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Wed Jun 12, 2:58 Pm Et . By Vivian Sequera, Associated Press Writer
HAVANA (AP) - Defying calls here and in Washington for democratic reforms,
Fidel Castro led a march of hundreds of thousands of people Wednesday to ratify
as "untouchable" the one-party socialist system that has ruled this
Caribbean island for four decades.
Surrounded by security men and other top communist officials, the Cuban
leader, who celebrates his 76th birthday in August, started out with a slow, but
firm step down the Malecon coastal boulevard. He walked for about a mile, about
the distance he usually does in such events, before leaving the march.
Wearing his traditional olive green uniform and cap and the black high-top
athletic style shoes he now favors, Castro waved a small red, white and blue
Cuban flag as the sea of people marched toward the U.S. Interests Section, the
American mission.
"Long live socialism! Down with the lies!" Castro shouted —
referring to President Bush ( news - web sites)'s May 20 Cuba policy speeches,
in which Bush promised not to lift American trade and travel restrictions until
Cuba holds competitive elections and undertakes other democratic reforms.
Castro's younger brother and designated successor, 71-year-old Defense
Minister Raul Castro, headed a contingent of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces
in the Havana march.
The Havana event coincided with about 800 marches around the island
involving several million of the nation's 11 million citizens, the government
said. Fidel Castro said 1 million people — about half the capital's
population — were expected to participate in Havana alone.
Not everyone was happy about the march.
"There is no petroleum ... but there is petroleum to talk trash,"
was among the reactions from citizens that the Cuban president read during a
Tuesday night television program discussing mobilization plans.
State television, which carried the Havana march live, also showed images of
large marches in the central and eastern provincial capitals of Matanzas, Ciego
de Avila, Camaguey, Holguin, Santiago and Las Tunas, the Isle of Youth off the
main island's southern coast, and in the western provincial capital of Pinar del
Rio.
"This is democracy," said one sign carried in the Havana march. "Fascism,
no! Revolution, yes!" read another, referring to Castro's recent
description of Bush's international policies in the war against terrorism as "fascist."
Castro called for a massive march here and in cities across the island to
support the amendment, announced one month after activists submitted a proposed
referendum for deep reforms in the socialist system.
The proposed constitutional amendment declaring Cuba's socialist system to
be "untouchable," and the mobilization, appear to be Castro's response
to the Varela Project, the proposed reform referendum.
"If Castro is serious about his constitution, he would hold a
referendum on reforms outlined in the Varela Project," said U.S. Rep. Jeff
Flake, a member of the House International Relations Committee and of the newly
formed House Cuba Working Group, which favors easing sanctions against the
island.
"The idea that Cubans enjoy living under Castro's repressive regime and
want to make it stronger is preposterous," Flake said in Washington. The
congressman is chief Republican co-sponsor of a House resolution that praises
Cubans who signed the Varela Project. The Senate unanimously passed the
resolution Monday.
Varela Project organizers submitted more than 11,000 signatures to Cuba's
National Assembly on May 10, demanding a referendum asking voters if they favor
civil liberties, such as freedom of speech and assembly, the right to own a
business, electoral reform and amnesty for political prisoners.
Most Cubans first heard of Project Varela in mid-May when former President
Jimmy Carter mentioned it in his live, uncensored television address to the
Cuban people.
"What's untouchable is liberty," Varela Project organizers said in
a written statement about the government's proposed constitutional amendment.
"We warn that this anti-civic attempt against the same constitution,
against the people's intelligence, is a very grave act against popular
sovereignty," said the statement, faxed Tuesday to international news
organizations.
Castro has said nothing publicly about Project Varela.
In comments to international media, communist officials have accused project
organizers of being on the U.S. government payroll. They also have described
what they say are legal and technical problems with the demands.
The leadership of Cuba's popular organizations, which form the pillars
supporting Cuba's one-party system, unanimously agreed Monday to ask the
National Assembly to consider approving the proposed amendment.
The proposal asks lawmakers to ratify that "Cuba is a socialist state
of workers, independent and sovereign, organized with all and for the good of
all, as a unified and democratic republic, for the enjoyment of political
liberty, social justice, individual and collective well-being, and human
solidarity." | 
