Fidel Castro: An Attack on Venezuela Would Ignite the Entire Continent
http://www.periodico26.cu/english_new/cuba/ignite060505.htm
Fidel Castro: An Attack on Venezuela Would Ignite the
Entire Continent
Havana, May 6 (RHC - Late Bulletin)-Cuban President
Fidel Castro once
again addressed the nation in a special appearance at
Havana's
International Convention Center Friday evening during
which he spoke of the very
special relationship enjoyed by Havana and Caracas and
warned that any
US attack on Venezuela would ignite the entire
continent.
The evening began with a short documentary featuring
Venezuelan
President Hugo Ch�vez speaking on the extraordinary
solidarity and cooperation
that exists between both countries. The regional
integration sought by
Cuba and Venezuela which is manifest in the Bolivarian
Alternative for
the Americas - known by it's Spanish acronym as ALBA -
is for equality,
dignity and freedom, said Ch�vez in one of his
speeches when visiting
Cuba, not the colonial integration sought by
Washington. ALBA was signed
by both nations to oppose the US Free Trade Area of
the Americas which
seeks to place the economies of Latin America at the
disposition of US
banks and corporations.
The United States campaign against Ch�vez, noted Fidel
Castro, includes
making every effort to prevent Venezuela from buying
even light arms
with which to defend itself. Venezuela, he added, has
every right to
protect itself against a possible aggressor -
especially given the history
of the United States in Latin America and the number
of nations it has
invaded and its policy of pre-emptive attack. An
attack on Venezuela
would ignite the entire continent, warned Fidel
Castro. The intention of
the White House is clear, he added - to provoke a war
that would lead
to Venezuela's rich oil fields.
The Cuban president read some of the letters on the
subject of
Venezuela and Cuba he has received recently in which
one says that ALBA is the
only possibility of putting Simon Bol�var's dream of
Latin American
integrity into practice. Another praised the
relationship between Caracas
and Havana as an example to the world of
socio-economical and political
cooperation that is the only defense of the peoples of
Latin America
against the rapacious intentions of Washington. ALBA,
said another,
proves the high humanitarian values of the Cuban
Revolution.
Fidel Castro then read a report on the case of an
Ecuadorean child who
had awaited two years for an essential eye operation
that would cost
upwards of $20,000 in the USA and for which the family
had been
desperately fundraising. He asked the President of the
Cuban Central Bank who
was present if he would arrange for the funds to be
transferred to the
child's family to enable them to fly to Cuba where the
operation would be
performed free of charge as part of the solidarity
Cuba offers to the
nations of Latin America in the spirit of Latin
American integration.
The Cuban leader then addressed criticism levelled
against him for his
remarks two days ago relating to statements made by US
Assistant
Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere Affairs
Roger Noriega in relation
to the Organization of American States in which he
openly boasted of
Washington's supposed power to influence the OAS
leadership choice.
Noriega admitted US interference in persuading the
Mexican Minister of
Foreign Affairs to withdraw his candidacy for OAS
Secretary General thereby
opening the way for Chilean candidate Jos� Miguel
Insulza to be elected.
The Cuban leader was reported by the international
press as calling
Insulza stupid and a US figurehead, when he had
actually referred to the
whole affair surrounding his election as stupid and
that the US was
seeking a figurehead in Insulza.
The Cuban president felt that his criticism of the OAS
was justified.
The regional organization has a history of bending to
the will of the US
White House - especially in relation to Cuba which it
almost
unanimously boycotted following the victory of the
Cuban Revolution in 1959 and
subsequent pressure from the USA to cut diplomatic
relations. Mexico was
the only country in all of Latin America that did not
comply.
Moving on to the subject of the international
terrorist Luis Posada
Carriles, Fidel Castro read comments made by Roger
Noriega who has so far
denied knowledge of Posada Carriles' presence in the
United States. Now
Noriega, under pressure from the press, has
effectively acknowledged
that the terrorist is in Miami by telling journalists
that the government
would be looking into his case privately.
In an interview with Miami TV station Channel 41 on
May 3rd, Posada
Carriles' terrorist partner, Orlando Bosch, said he
had spoken to Posada
Carriles and that whatever anyone said, his friend was
in the USA. Both
men were convicted by a Venezuelan court of planning
the bombing of a
Cuban airliner in 1976 with the loss of life of
everyone on board. Both
served time in a Venezuelan prison from which Bosch
managed to be
granted freedom through his CIA contacts and Posada
Carriles escaped through
similar help and money from the Miami right-wing.
Caracas has filed an
extradition request with US authorities demanding that
Posada Carriles
be deported to Venezuela to complete his prison term.
The Cuban President then read correspondence sent by a
US resident of
Chicago stating that it appears that the war against
terrorism by US
President Bush is now over in that Luis Posada
Carriles is on the point of
being granted political asylum. It was glaring that
Bush has never
condemned a single act of terrorism against Cuba and
that Posada Carriles
has never renounced terrorism.
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For every minute you are angry, you lose sixty seconds of happiness.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
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SAVAD RAHMAN
subeditor,MADHYAMAM daily,
pooppalam, perinthalmanna,kerala,
india
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