Bylined to: EFE News Service
Cuba's Fidel Castro defends Hugo Chavez' "devastating criticism" of Europe
EFE News Service: In a commentary published Sunday, Cuban leader Fidel
Castro has defended the "devastating criticism" of Europe made by
Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez at the Ibero-American Summit without
directly referring to the confrontation between the South American
leader and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and King
Juan Carlos.
"Chavez criticism of Europe was devastating ... the Europe that intended
to give guiding lectures at that Ibero-American Summit," Castro said in
his latest commentary.
The Venezuelan President renewed his criticism Saturday during the final
session of the summit in Santiago by taking on former Spanish Prime
Minister Jose Maria Aznar, whom he called a "fascist," a remark that
provoked Zapatero and the Spanish King to personally reproach him.
Castro said that, also in the remarks of Nicaraguan President Daniel
Ortega and Bolivian leader Evo Morales, "the voices of Sandino and of
the thousand-year-old cultures of this hemisphere were heard."
To devote the next summit to Latin American youth is "an indigestible
mixture of cynicism and lies to sew conditioned reflexes in the mind of
the peoples," said the Cuban leader, who has been convalescing from a
serious intestinal ailment that in July 2006 forced him to hand over
power, supposedly temporarily, to his younger brother Raul.
Castro said that guerrilla leader Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the 40th year
of whose death was commemorated this year, would "feel pride at the
pronouncements of several revolutionary and valiant leaders."
"With profound sadness I heard the speeches that were given from
traditional positions on the left at the Ibero-American Summit in
Santiago," Castro said. "Those on the right took equally traditional
positions, making intelligent concessions to the ... left!"
Castro also criticized the speech of Salvadoran President Tony Saca, who
defended the free trade agreements his country had signed. "The speech
made by the President of El Salvador ... provoked nausea," Castro said,
adding that "capitalism is a system governed by blind, destructive and
tyrannical laws imposed on the human species."
The 81-year-old Castro has not appeared in public since July 26, 2006,
and the last time images of him were broadcast on television was in the
middle of last month on Chavez' weekly show, which he was hosting from
the Cuban city of Santa Clara.
On that occasion, Castro spoke by telephone live with the Venezuelan
President for more than an hour.
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