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Castro, nearly 80, jokes that he won't
be in power at 100
BAYAMO, Cuba, 26 (AFP) - Cuban President
Fidel Castro, who turns 80 next month and
has been in power for almost 48 years, has
joked that he did not plan to be leading
Cuba if and when he hits the 100-year mark.
"There are already I don't know how
many thousands of citizens of this country,
and there will be more and more, who become
centenarians. But to our little neighbors
to the north, don't be alarmed: I am not
thinking about being in office at that age,"
Castro told a national holiday crowd of
about 100,000 on Wednesday.
But Cuba's communist leader was not revealing
retirement plans, either.
"I will fight, as long as I live,
until the last second I have use of my facilities,
to do something good, to do something useful.
... Human beings rise in stature when we
do something for others," he said.
Castro, who leads the only communist, one-party
regime in the Americas, also lashed out
at a US plan to "assist" in a
transition once he no longer holds power.
Mentioning Cuban educational and health
programs, Castro said: "We have today
what the United States does not."
Earlier this month, National Assembly speaker
Ricardo Alarcon told AFP Castro "has
been given this privilege: He is an extraordinarily
healthy man. He has always been and remains
healthy, although that angers (US President)
George W. Bush."
Speculation about Castro's health peaked
after his 2004 fall, during which he injured
his right arm and left knee. Last November,
the Cuban leader, who stopped smoking cigars
in 1985 and now exercises every day, said
he had recovered from these injuries.
He has named his 75-year-old brother, defense
chief and regime number-two official Raul
Castro, as his official successor.
The revamped US plan unveiled earlier this
month, called a "Compact with the People
of Cuba," adds 80 million dollars to
the more than 70 million dollars already
slated over 2007-2008 to "build support
for transition to a legitimate, democratic
government," a White House statement
said.
Some of the money, which must gain approval
from the US Congress, would provide "uncensored
information" via conventional and satellite
radio and television broadcasts as well
as the Internet.
Funds will also be used for "strengthening
democratic movements," the US statement
said, and to "undermine regime finances
and survival strategies."
"We face a real threat of aggression,"
Alarcon said at the time.
Alarcon suggested that the plan may have
a secret annex, calling for anything from
plots against Castro to a military invasion.
The official Communist Party newspaper
Granma said "the document reflects
the US desire to sooner or later annex Cuba."
Roots of Cuban Revolution lie in the
east
By Vanessa Arrington, Associated
Press Writer, July 25, 2006.
SIBONEY, Cuba - It was the summer of 1953,
and dozens of young men and women huddled
before dawn in a red-and-white farmhouse
listening to a young Fidel Castro detail
their impossible mission.
The Cuban revolution was born that July
26 when the group attacked the Moncada military
barracks in the eastern city of Santiago.
Though the assault failed and many militants
died, Castro went on to oust his nemesis,
dictator Fulgencio Batista.
Fifty-three years later and just weeks
from his 80th birthday, President Castro
is returning to eastern Cuba with his legacy
very much in mind. His mission now is to
remind Cubans of the sacrifices that brought
them this far, and show the revolution lives
on.
Talk of what will happen after Fidel is
gone is creeping into public discussion
here as his Aug. 13 birthday nears. Cuban
officials are strengthening the Communist
Party to ensure the system survives far
into the future.
The president's designated successor is
his 75-year-old brother, Defense Minister
Raul Castro, who also participated in the
Moncada attack.
Fidel Castro is expected to commemorate
the roots of the revolution Wednesday in
Bayamo by honoring another key event: It
was 50 years ago that an overloaded yacht
- called Granma in honor of a previous owner's
grandmother - landed in eastern Cuba.
On board were the Castro brothers and 80
other men who had formed a rebel army in
Mexico after being freed from prison in
an amnesty following Moncada.
Like Moncada, the Granma landing at first
seemed a disaster. Of the 82 people aboard,
only 12 survived the landing and initial
skirmishes with Batista's forces in December
1956. Among the survivors were the two Castro
brothers and Ernesto "Che" Guevara,
who headed for the hills to build a command
post for the revolution that drove Batista
from power and out of Cuba on Jan. 1, 1959.
Castro now lives and governs far to the
west in Havana, but it was here in Cuba's
east that he was born, reared and began
the revolution that reshaped the country
into a communist state.
Even now, he represents the eastern city
of Santiago in Cuba's parliament.
Cuba's eastern cities are dotted with statues
of heroes of the revolution, and of men
who fought and died here for Cuba's independence
from Spain. Known as Oriente Province at
the time of Castro's revolution, it has
since been renamed Granma, and Bayamo is
its capital.
The Moncada itself now houses a museum
and an elementary school, where children
laugh and play outside an exhibit showing
implements used to torture political prisoners.
The Siboney farm, too, is a museum. Exhibits
show how Castro's No. 2 man, Abel Santamaria,
turned the property into a fake chicken
farm, building coops to hide cars used in
the attack. Weapons were smuggled in chicken
feed bags, then stored in the farmhouse's
ceilings and a well outside.
Castro planned to lead a group in storming
the Moncada barracks and seizing weapons
while two other groups fired on the building
from a nearby hospital and the Palace of
Justice.
Dozens of recruits traveled to eastern
Cuba by bus and train from Havana, posing
as revelers headed to Santiago's summer
carnival. Most didn't know the mission's
details until the night before the attack.
Of the 129 gathered at the farmhouse the
night of July 25, 10 opted out after hearing
Castro's plan.
The morning's first error came as some
of the cars mistakenly took the road toward
Havana instead of Santiago.
The assailants who arrived at Moncada surprised
the first guard post, but a guard spotted
them and rang the alarm, rousing troops
to face the outnumbered and outgunned rebels.
Castro aborted the attack, and many assailants
retreated to the farmhouse and surrounding
mountains.
But others, unaware of the order to retreat,
kept fighting and were either killed or
captured. Santamaria was tortured and killed.
Castro and his brother were imprisoned.
Former combatant Francisco Betancourt,
now 71, was stoic during a recent visit
to the jail cell where he was held temporarily
at Moncada. But tears welled up when he
talked about comrades picked up by police
and never seen again.
Betancourt didn't participate in the Moncada
attack, but like many Cubans, he was inspired
by the assault.
With Castro behind bars, Betancourt was
among the students, peasants and workers
who gathered under the leadership of Frank
Pais to continue the July 26 fight.
Santiago residents hid Betancourt after
he helped attack a police station on Nov.
30, 1956. He was eventually caught and tortured.
Pais was gunned down by police in Santiago
on July 30, 1957.
Betancourt and many older Cubans still
embrace the ideals of justice and equality
that inspired the militants that July 26.
Others disillusioned with what became of
those ideals fled to Florida.
Fifty years on, Betancourt said he is saddened
by Cubans who fail to recognize the revolution's
advances toward racial and social equality.
Many younger Cubans focus on what they don't
have - such as big salaries - even while
embracing free education and universal health
care.
"The benefits we have today didn't
fall out of the sky, they were won,"
said Betancourt.
"Many people died for this,"
he said. "And those who always look
for the negative, well, it's like giving
someone a plate of food and having your
hand bitten."
Castro, Chavez Malign U.S. Trade Policies
By Bill Cormier, Associated
Press Writer. July 22, 2006.
Castro, Chavez Rail Against U.S.-Backed
Free Market Policies at South American Trade
Summit
CORDOBA, Argentina (AP) -- Fidel Castro
and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez rallied
thousands of leftist sympathizers after
a South American trade summit in Argentina,
railing against U.S.-backed free market
policies they blame for many of Latin America's
woes.
Addressing 15,000 people, Castro praised
Venezuela's entry into Mercosur, a move
that gave the South American trade bloc
a hard push to the left.
"Ole! Ole! Fidel!" the crowd
chanted Friday night, as some waved red
flags emblazoned with the image of Argentine-born
Ernesto "Che" Guevara, who spent
several boyhood years in Cordoba before
joining Cuba's revolution.
"Mercosur once was just four countries.
Now it is improved and is expanding,"
Castro declared on a stage beneath a banner
reading "integration is our flag."
Flags of Cuba, Venezuela and Argentina flapped
nearby.
Leftist labor, student and jobless protest
groups took part in the rally, a rare chance
for Argentines to see the 79-year-old Cuban
leader, who last visited in May 2003 for
the inauguration of moderate leftist President
Nestor Kirchner.
Also present were leaders of the Mothers
of the Plaza de Mayo, the famously kerchiefed
human rights activists whose sons and daughters
disappeared during Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship.
Castro vowed his communist nation would
continue to survive a more than four-decade-old
U.S. trade embargo.
He added that "in the neoliberal world
everyone is talking about globalization,
about the globalization of goods and services.
But nobody is talking about the globalization
of solidarity" among nations.
He lauded Chavez for emulating Cuba's programs
to send doctors to Latin America's poor
with free medical care and train teachers
to boost literacy in a struggling region.
Earlier Friday, Kirchner welcomed the addition
of oil-rich Venezuela, the continent's No.
3 economy after Brazil and Argentina, into
the once-sleepy customs union.
Chavez, who openly admires Castro as his
leftist ally and political mentor, urged
Mercosur to put aside internal squabbles
and stand against the U.S.-backed free-market
policies he says have enslaved the region.
He said a Free Trade Area of the Americas,
A U.S.-backed proposal blocked by Venezuela
and the Mercosur nations last year, was
"dead."
Chavez said Mercosur would be the engine
for Latin American growth, adding he hoped
Bolivia, whose leftist President Evo Morales
took office in January, and Cuba might one
day become full members of the trade bloc.
The addition of Venezuela gives Mercosur
a combined market of 250 million people
and a combined output of $1 trillion in
goods and services annually, said Brazilian
President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva during
Friday's summit. The other members are Paraguay
and Uruguay.
NAFTA, combining the markets of the United
States, Canada and Mexico, has 450 million
consumers and a combined gross product of
about $14 trillion.
Michael Shifter, an analyst at the Inter-American
Dialogue in Washington, said Venezuela's
entry should be a "wake-up call"
for U.S. officials distracted by conflict
in the Middle East.
"Mercosur seems to have less and less
to do with free trade and more to do with
politics," he said.
Mercosur trade summit opens with Cuba's
Castro as guest
Olivier Baube, July 21,
2006.
CORDOBA, Argentina (AFP) - Cuban leader
Fidel Castro and Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez threatened to steal the show at the
Mercosur trade summit, attended for the
first time by newest member Venezuela.
Summit host and Argentine President Nestor
Kirchner, at a gala dinner late Thursday,
called on his fellow Mercosur members -
Brazil, Uruguay, Paraguay and Venezuela
-- to take stock of their differences "and
turn them into a common agenda."
He also urged them to make sure the summit
"translates into real decisions."
Castro, nearly 80, appeared in an olive
military uniform at the door of a Cubana
airliner when he arrived here Thursday.
"Mercosur is important for all of us,"
he told reporters later outside his hotel.
Chavez arrived earlier at Argentina's second-largest
city in the Andes foothills promising that
"Mercosur will enter a new phase"
raising "the banner of social concerns."
The two leaders and were greeted with banners
and huge signs draped over balconies and
on building walls welcoming them to Argentina's
second largest city, some 600 kilometers
(375 miles) northwest of Buenos Aires.
With all five Mercosur presidents politically
left of center, the timing "could not
be more favorable for Castro's visit,"
an Argentine diplomat told AFP before the
Cuban president's arrival was confirmed.
Castro, who turns 80 on August 13, rarely
travels outside of Cuba. Although his country
is not a Mercosur member, he is expected
to sign an agreement easing trade with the
South American free-trade zone.
Chavez joined the presidents of Mercosur's
founding members -- Kirchner, Brazil's Luiz
Inacio Lula Da Silva, Paraguay's Nicanor
Duarte and Uruguay's Tabare Vazquez -- along
with Chavez, Michelle Bachelet of Chile
and Evo Morales of Bolivia, leaders of Mercosur's
associate members.
Mexican Foreign Minister Ernesto Derbez
will also attend as an observer.
Castro last traveled to Argentina in 2003
for Kirchner's presidential inauguration.
At the time he was the keynote speaker at
a vast rally at the law faculty at the University
of Buenos Aires.
Leftist militants here plan to hold a rally
at the local university headlining Chavez,
Morales and possibly Kirchner. They now
hope that Castro will join the speakers.
Some 2,000 people on Thursday marched through
Cordoba demanding Mercosur leaders do more
to provide jobs, health care, education
and housing for its people.
But Castro's presence, still larger than
life in Latin America, threatens to eclipse
what was supposed to be the main event,
Venezuela's first-time summit appearance
as a full member.
Venezuela is the world's eighth largest
oil producer and fifth largest oil exporter.
It became the fifth Mercosur member at a
special July 4 summit.
With its new member, the bloc now has a
total population of more than 250 million
people, a gross regional product of over
one trillion dollars and regional trade
surpassing 300 billion dollars.
Non-governmental organizations are on hand
as well, hoping for a more sympathetic ear
from the left-leaning heads of state.
"Within Mercosur we need a space to
discuss our problems as do the heads of
state and to have the right to participate
in the design of public policy," said
Gabriela Pereira, of the International Network
of Environmental Clubs, which operates in
28 countries.
Chavez said Venezuela would be better off
in Mercosur than in the Andean Community,
and recently quit that trade bloc comprising
Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.
Under the agreement granting Venezuela's
membership, the Argentine and Brazilian
markets will be open to Venezuela in 2010,
while the more fragile markets of Uruguay
and Paraguay will open in 2013. In turn,
Mercosur partners would have access to Venezuela's
market by 2012.
Morales, another leftist leader, is to
meet privately with the leaders of Brazil,
Argentina and Chile during the summit, his
spokesman said in La Paz.
Morales will also lobby Chile's socialist
president Bachelet, about granting landlocked
Bolivia access to the Pacific, which it
lost in an 1879-1881 war to Chile.
He will also discuss possible natural gas
exports to Mexico with Derbez, the spokesman
said.
Morales, elected by a landslide in December,
has an 81 percent popularity rating in Bolivia,
while Argentina's Kirchner has 80 percent
support and Venezuela's Chavez have 70 percent,
according to Mexico's Consulta-Mitofsky
pollsters, based on data from each country.
Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay
formed Mercosur in 1991 with the aim of
creating a South American common market.
Chile and Bolivia became associate members
in 1996.
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