- HAVANA -- President Fidel
Castro led a sea of Cuban demonstrators past the American diplomatic mission
in Havana yesterday to protest against the latest American attempt to squeeze
the economy and topple his government.
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- Tens of thousands of protesters, many wearing red shirts
and waving small Cuban flags made of paper, marched along the Malecon,
Havana's harbour boulevard, in the protest organised by the Government.
-
- The Cuban leader denounced and ridiculed the US President,
George Bush, saying he was a fraudulently elected leader trying to impose
"world tyranny". He vowed that Communist Cuba would never become
a "neo-colony" of the United States.
-
- Posters portrayed Mr Bush wearing a Hitler moustache
alongside a Nazi swastika, while others carried pictures of Iraqi prisoners
allegedly abused by US soldiers, with the slogan: "This would never
happen in Cuba." Fervent demonstrators led the crowd in chants of
"Long live free Cuba! Fascist Bush!" President Castro, 77, dressed
in his trademark green military uniform and field cap, walked slowly at
the head of the march for about 750 metres, sometimes waving a small flag,
before leaving in a waiting car.
-
- The leader said the march was "an act of indignant
protest, and a denunciation of the brutal, merciless and cruel measures"
that Bush announced last week to tighten the 44-year US embargo of the
island. The measures include restrictions on money transfers and family
visits, increased efforts to transmit anti-Castro television to Cuba and
the appointment of a co-ordinator to plan a change from socialism to capitalism.
-
- "This country could be exterminated ... erased from
the face of the earth," President Castro told the crowd. He went on
to accuse the United States of fighting "wars of conquest to seize
the markets and resources of the world", insisting that President
Bush had "neither morality nor any right at all to speak of liberty,
democracy and human rights". He referred briefly to the Iraqi prisoner
abuse scandal, saying the tortures had "stupefied the world".
-
- The Cuban government said that a million people attended
yesterday's protest. The figure could not be confirmed. The demonstration
had been organised through people's workplaces and neighbourhoods, and
most state employees had been granted the day off.
-
- The march had been announced on Tuesday, a day after
the government stunned Cubans by suddenly halting most of the island's
retail sales in US dollars, which residents have come to rely on due to
the scarcity of products sold in Cuban pesos. Only food, personal hygiene
products and petrol are exempt from the ban. Officials have promised that
the measures are temporary, but said prices would rise when the dollar-only
stores reopen. They blamed the US tightening of its embargoes.
-
- The new US measures are directly intended to cut the
amount of hard currency on the island by limiting how often Cuban-Americans
can visit relatives, decreasing how much they can spend and prohibiting
money transfers to Cuban officials and Communist Party members.
-
- President Bush said the United States would also spend
$59m (£33m) over the next two years to promote the goal of a democratic
Cuba, including US$18m to counter Cuba's jamming of anti-Castro broadcasts.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=521433
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