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Castro: I Warned Saddam to Leave Kuwait
CARACAS, Venezuela, 23 - Cuban leader Fidel
Castro said he repeatedly warned Saddam
Hussein to leave Kuwait after the 1990 invasion
but that the former Iraqi dictator's "mistakes"
did not justify the U.S.-led war.
Castro, who was in Venezuela for one day
to meet with leftist President Hugo Chavez,
said he tried on numerous occasions to persuade
Saddam to withdraw from Kuwait, warning
the Iraqi leader that, not just Western
countries, but also Arab nations, would
turn against him.
Castro called Saddam's invasion of Iran
"absolutely unjust," during an
interview late Monday with Venezuela's state-run
television station, Venezolana de Television.
"The other big mistake that never
should have been made was the occupation
of Kuwait," he added, wearing his olive-green
fatigues for the interview on Venezuela's
La Orchila island.
"We made great efforts (to persuade
Saddam) to rectify," he said.
Castro said he sent two letters to Saddam
to try to "persuade him that it was
a mistake and he should withdraw" from
Kuwait "or there would be a war with
a coalition (of) Arabs, NATO, Muslims, everyone
because Kuwait was a country recognized
by the United Nations."
In the 1980s, Saddam waged an eight-year
war against Iran that killed hundreds of
soldiers on both sides. He invaded Kuwait
in 1990 but a U.S-led coalition drove his
army out.
But Castro said the American-led pre-emptive
strike had imposed an international "law
of the jungle."
"What protection is there for medium,
small countries?" said the communist
leader, who has accused the United States
of seeking a pretext to invade Cuba. "They
haven't even found weapons of mass destruction."
Chavez sat in on the interview, hugging
and thanking Castro at the end.
In a visit surrounded by secrecy, Chavez
and Castro discussed joint initiatives to
provide health care and education for the
poor. Until the interview, there had been
no official confirmation of where the two
leaders met.
"The encounter was very lovely. We
ate Cuban food for lunch and had a Venezuelan
breakfast," Chavez told reporters.
"There wasn't an important issue we
didn't touch."
It was Castro's fourth visit to Venezuela
since Chavez took office in 1999. Previous
visits between Chavez and Castro had been
more public, with the two leaders playing
baseball together, hosting a talk show and
celebrating birthdays.
Mexico, Cuba to patch old ties after
2002 tiff
MEXICO CITY, 22 (AFP) - Mexico and Cuba,
whose historic ties suffered a war of words
in 2002, would like a meeting between Presidents
Vicente Fox and Fidel Castro to usher in
renewed relations, a top official said.
"We both have decided to work from
top to bottom," Mexican vice minister
of foreign relations Miguel Hakim told Formato
21 radio.
"When we see improvement and the level
has risen, we will think about a meeting
between the leaders."
Hakim said that Mexican foreign minister
Luis Derbez and his Cuban counterpart Felipe
Perez Roque would meet in the first half
of next year. After evaluating those meetings,
they would determine whether Fox and Castro
should meet.
Mexico and Cuba have long enjoyed warm
relations as Latin American neighbors across
a narrow stretch of the Gulf of Mexico --
especially in light of the four-decade US
embargo of the island.
But in 2002, Castro revealed that Fox had
asked him to keep his participation to a
minimum at a UN-sponsored conference in
Monterrey, Mexico that year. Fox also asked
Castro not rub US President George W. Bush
the wrong way at the development meeting.
Mexico's vote against Cuba at the UN Human
Rights Commission in Geneva sank relations
even further.
Since that time, Mexico's warm relations
with the United States have also cooled.
Chavez, Castro meet on Venezuela's La
Orchila island: TV
CARACAS, 23 (AFP) - Venezuelan President
Hugo Chavez and Cuban President Fidel Castro
met on La Orchila island in the Caribbean
to discuss issues of "common interest"
in an unofficial visit, state television
reported.
The Cuban leader's latest visit to Venezuela
was veiled in secrecy with no hints until
later as to where the meeting would be held.
In Havana, a letter from Castro published
in the official newspaper Granma, datelined
Venezuela, congratulated Cuban teachers.
"The Revolution has no greater wealth
than education and intelligence cultivated
as its best fruit," said the letter,
to mark Teachers' Day.
"The importance of education is increasingly
significant," Castro said later, speaking
on Cuban state television from the island.
Noting that in 1959 around 420,000 citizens
had only elementary school education, he
took a veiled swipe at US policies in the
interview.
"How is someone who only has elementary
education going to understand problems ...
globalization, neoliberalism, sophisticated
ways of plundering that exist against our
nations," Castro quipped.
Chavez made no comment, having noted Sunday
Castro's visit during his weekly radio program.
He said the two leaders would analyze a
joint medical aid project with 10,000 Cuban
doctors attending patients in some of Venezuela's
poorest neighborhoods.
Venezuela is also introducing an aggressive
literacy program, also with Cuban input.
The Venezuelan opposition is critical of
Chavez's social programs saying they seek
to introduce communist ideology, confirming
Castro's influence on Venezuela's "revolutionary"
government.
Castro in Venezuela for Informal Talks
CARACAS, Venezuela, 22 - In a visit surrounded
by secrecy, Cuban leader Fidel Castro met
with his Venezuelan counterpart Monday to
discuss joint efforts to bring health care
and education to the poor.
Cuban and Venezuelan authorities declined
to provide details about Castro's visit,
including where in Venezuela the two leaders
met.
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Roy Chaderton
confirmed Castro was in the country but
said he didn't know exactly where.
"It's an informal and swift visit
to exchange ideas about the program of cooperation
that we have with the republic of Cuba,"
Chaderton said after meeting with Russian
Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.
Chavez announced Sunday that Castro would
visit Venezuela for one day Monday. He said
the two would discuss an initiative to bring
more than 10,000 Cuban doctors to poor Venezuelan
communities and a literacy campaign inspired
by Cuban methods.
Chavez critics say those initiatives form
part of a plan to move Venezuela toward
a Cuba-inspired dictatorship. Chavez dismisses
the charges but says strong ties with Cuba
are key to his efforts to strike a balance
between free market policies and socialism.
Castro's visit comes as Chavez is facing
a petition for a recall referendum on his
rule.
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