CubaMinrex. Sitio del Ministerio de Relaciones Exteriores de Cuba

Fidel Castro: Washington is Guilty of Terrorism against Cuba

Havana, April 30, 2006. (ACN) Cuban President Fidel Castro said George W. Bush is responsible for terrorist actions against Cuba.

Addressing a rally held in Havana to mark the first anniversary of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA), a regional integration project launched by President Hugo Chavez, President Castro said that Bush is an accomplice of criminal actions undertaken against Cuba.

President Castro recalled that the US administration was behind the release of international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles from prison in Panama, where he prepared an assassination plot against the Cuban leader during the Ibero-American Summit of Heads of State in the year 2000.

Fidel Castro recalled that Washington kept silence despite reiterated denunciations by Cuba of the entry into US territory of international terrorist Luis Posada Carriles.

Bush does not want to admit that Posada Carriles is an assassin and entered US territory illegally on board the Santrina boat, which was captained by another terrorist named Santiago Alvarez, said President Castro.

Fidel Castro also warned about preparations by Washington to launch a war against Iran that would include the use of weapons of mass destruction.

In his speech, the Cuban revolutionary leader highlighted the achievements of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA) and recalled that in 2004 Cuba and Venezuela implemented 199 projects valued at 874.6 million dollars, while last year’s bilateral trade reached nearly 2.4 billion dollars.

A large portion of Venezuela’s exports to Cuba have been non-petroleum goods, something an oil-producing country always dreams of increasing. That was made possible thanks to agreements signed in 2004, said Fidel Castro.

One of major result of the Cuba-Venezuela bilateral cooperation is that the South American country has managed to wipe out illiteracy, said Fidel, who also noted that the Operacion Milagro eye-surgery program has returned the sight to 220 571 patients from 25 countries of the region, most of them Venezuelans. He said that 3 328 Venezuelan youths are studying medicine in Cuba and that the figure is expected to reach 10 000 this year.

Fidel said that there are 44 Cuban and 18 Venezuelan specialists who are presently organizing a literacy campaign in Bolivia, while 105 Cuban doctors are already offering their services in that South American nation as part of Operacion Milagro. There are 4 512 Bolivian students on the island, a figure that is also bound to significantly increase, said Fidel.

Fidel Castro’s speech in Havana came after those of Bolivia’s Evo Morales and Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez. The rally at Havana’s Revolution Square marked the first anniversary of the signing of accords by Cuba and Venezuela that led to the implementation of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas.

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