By Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer. Yahoo! May 2, 2001.
HAVANA, 1 (AP) - Fidel Castro led hundreds of thousands of Cuban workers in
a noisy May Day march outside the U.S. mission Tuesday and lambasted a
hemisphere-wide trade agreement he said would bring Latin America more
Disneylands but impoverish its people.
"No to annexation! Yes to plebiscite!'' the marchers chanted as the
74-year-old Cuban president, wearing an olive drab uniform and white athletic
shoes, trekked almost two miles from Havana's Plaza of the Revolution to the
American government's mission.
Castro has condemned the hemispheric free trade zone as a U.S. "annexation''
of Latin America and proposed that the region's population be able to vote in a
plebiscite on whether to join. Castro was the region's only head of state not
invited to a Quebec summit last month that agreed to create the zone by 2005.
Castro railed against the plan as he addressed the mass of flag-waving
Cubans in the plaza before the march began.
Under the plan, he said, the United States will grow richer and control
commerce and culture across the hemisphere, while Latin American nations will
grow poorer, relegated to providing raw materials and cheap labor.
"How marvelous! Surely two or three Disneylands will be built in
Central and South America!'' Castro said. "Commerce will pass into North
American hands, from the great commercial chains to pizza sales and
McDonald's.''
Castro also mocked the leaders of several countries that voted last month to
censure Cuba for its human rights record.
To the beat of Caribbean carnival music, Castro introduced the masses to a
group of "pygmy presidents'' - seven life-sized carnival style puppets with
satirical heads fashioned to look like President Bush (news - web sites) and the
heads of state of Canada, Argentina, Uruguay, Costa Rica, Guatemala and the
Czech Republic.
A Czech proposal to condemn Cuba, supported by the United States, was
narrowly approved by the U.N. Human Rights Commission in Geneva on April 18. The
final vote was 22-20 in favor, with another 10 nations abstaining.
Castro was angered by the censure and galled at the participation of fellow
Latin American nations.
The Cuban president seemed almost as equally irritated with the Americas'
free trade proposal, which he said "would mean more neoliberalism, less
protection for industry and national interests, and more unemployment and social
problems.''
Under such a plan, national currencies would disappear to be replaced by the
dollar, and all monetary policy across the region would be dictated by the U.S.
Federal Reserve (news - web sites), he said.
This was the second year in a row that Castro participated in the May Day
march, rather than silently watch from a reviewing stand as workers march, as he
did in the past.
Castro deviated from traditional May Day celebrations last year, during
Cuba's fight for the return of the castaway boy Elian Gonzalez. The celebrations
last May Day ended in a call to Elian's father, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, who was
then in the United States to retrieve his son. At this year's festivities, the
elder Gonzalez stood at Castro's right.
Elian and his father returned to Cuba on June 28, 2000, but the massive
political gatherings that began during the fight for the boy have continued,
with participants protesting U.S. policies toward the island. | 