Posted on 06/14/2003 12:47:11 PM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
HAVANA - After leading a march of hundreds of thousands of people outside the Spanish Embassy, Fidel Castro continued his criticisms of the European Union in a televised speech that stretched into the early hours of Friday.
Speaking to an international cultural conference Thursday evening, Castro said the 15-nation European bloc should stop being "tugged along by the United States" when it comes to Cuba.
Castro's willingness to alienate Cuba's most important source of trade and tourism alarmed some of the island's dissidents, who warned that the Caribbean nation is growing more isolated than ever from the international community.
"This is an unacceptable situation that greatly reduces the possibilities of communication and insertion of our country into the international arena," the opposition group Arco Progresista said in a statement news organizations.
"It is important to reverse this course of action that can provoke a spiral of undesirable events," the dissident group added.
The European Union on Friday repeated its demand for democratic reforms in Cuba.
In Brussels, Belgium, spokesman Diego de Ojeda said the EU wants closer economic and political relations with the communist government but only if Cuba becomes more democratic.
During his Thursday evening address, Castro said President Bush (news - web sites) is ignorant about Europe and was using EU members for his political agenda.
"He just realized that Europe exists, and that it exists to obey," said Castro. "He does not understand any other concept of Europe."
Earlier in the day, Castro led hundreds of thousands of people in a march outside the Spanish Embassy to protest European support of U.S. policies aimed at nurturing pro-democracy activism in Cuba. His brother and designated successor, Defense Minister Gen. Raul Castro, led a similar march outside the Italian mission.
A day after the marches, it was business as usual at both embassies.
More than 100 Cubans waited outside Spain's mission in Old Havana for visas to visit or emigrate to the European country with the closest historical ties to the Caribbean country.
Europe's commercial ties to Cuba are also important, with about 80 percent of the island's imports and half the tourists coming the 15-member European Union.
In Rome, Italy's Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned the Cuban ambassador to express indignation over Castro's personal criticism of Premier Silvio Berlusconi and the rally outside the Italian Embassy.
A senior Italian Foreign Ministry official expressed to Cuban Ambassador Maria de los Angeles Florez Prida "the deep indignation caused by offensive expressions used by President Fidel Castro regarding the Italian premier," said a ministry statement.
During an impromptu talk on state television Wednesday night, Castro mockingly referred several times to the Italian premier as "Burlesconi," essentially likening him to clown.
On signs carried by marchers Thursday, the Italian leader was portrayed as a marionette and compared to fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
In Madrid, the Spanish government declined to comment further on the protests, during which Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar was mocked as a "little Fuhrer." Instead, Deputy Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy expressed his government's "solidarity and closeness with the Cuban people, with whom we feel united."
Cuba's protests come a week after the EU announced it was reviewing its policies toward Cuba following the sentencing of 75 dissidents to long prison terms and the firing-squad executions of three men who hijacked a ferry.
The European Union said in last week's statement it was "deeply concerned about the continuing flagrant violation of human rights and of fundamental freedoms of members of the Cuban opposition and of independent journalists."
EU members unanimously agreed to reduce high-level governmental visits and participation in cultural events on the island.
The European nations also agreed to invite dissidents to national holiday celebrations at their embassies in Havana as a sign of support for the island's internal opposition.
Cuba Takes Control of Spanish Center M ***
HAVANA - Fidel Castro's communist government took its first major step in its anti-Europe campaign Saturday, taking control of the Spanish Embassy's cultural center - a showcase of Iberian tradition Havana says was used to nurture the opposition.
The Foreign Ministry announcement came two days after Castro led hundreds of thousands of people on marches outside the Spanish and Italian embassies in the capital to protest European alignment with U.S. policies supporting pro-democracy dissidents.
Havana was responding to the 15-member European Union's announcement last week that it would review its relations with the island after a crackdown on the opposition and the firing-squad executions of three men who tried to hijack a ferry to South Florida.
A government statement Saturday said Cuba was canceling its agreement with the Spanish Embassy, first signed in 1995 and renewed in September, to operate the cultural center in a renovated historic building facing the ocean in the capital's Old Havana district. ***
EU Commies to Fidel: You go out hurling insults at selected (conservative) EU members. Get the crowd real riled up....wanting to shift left....using anti Bush sentiment...milk this baby.
Fidel to EU Commies: My pleasure, amigos.
Why are there no arrest warrants for this man? They bagged Pinochet? /sarc
Yeah, President Bush made him arrest dozens of journalists, librarians, and human rights activists and charge them with sedition. Pres. Bush also made Castro deny the accused the fundamental rights of due process and sentence them to prison terms ranging from 15 to 28. 78 journalists, librarians, and dissidents were sentenced to a collective total of more than 1,400 years in Cuba's gulag, according to AP and James Taranto.
Meanwhile, President Bush believes in Jesus Christ, loving his neighbor and freeing a people oppressed and abused for decades. Yeah, Castro's words are worth nothing.
Italian Prime minister Silvio Berlusconi became "Benito Berlusconi," in reference to Italian fascist leader Benito Mussolini.
Seventy-five dissidents were jailed in April for up to 28 years, and three men who had tried to hijack a commuter ferry to Florida were summarily executed, ending a moratorium on the death penalty.
The EU decided to review its Cuba policy and restrict political and cultural contact with the communist island and released a statement on June 5.
"It must have been written in a drunken state, if not with alcohol, in a state of Eurocentric drunkenness," Castro said late Wednesday.
He branded Aznar and Berlusconi "fascists" and "bandits" as the brains behind the EU's Cuba policy, which he called "useless ... lacking seriousness ... gross and insolent."
"What bothers us most in all this, is that those who signed on to this statement are cooperating with the US government's Nazi-fascist policy," Castro said, adding that he would hold the EU leaders responsible for any possible US military attack on Cuba.
Castro also ordered three statues be placed outside Spain's embassy: of Spanish poet and playwright Federico Garcia Lorca who was executed under dictator Francisco Franco; of Spanish poet Antonio Machado who was killed in exile; and of Pablo de la Torrente Brau, a Cuban journalist killed fighting with the international brigades against the Fascists.***
Yeah, I figured we'd be in there somewhere. Fidel, Fidel, where's the love, baby? And who are you going to blame after we've been Raptured?
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