Cordoba, July 22, 2006. (RHC)-- Cuban and Venezuelan presidents Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez rallied thousands of supporters after the end of the Mercosur summit in Cordoba, Argentina. Addressing more than 150,000 people, the Cuban leader praised Venezuela's entry into Mercosur. He said that "Mercosur was once just four countries. Now it is improved and is expanding." "Ole! Ole! Fidel!" the crowd chanted as some waved red flags with the image of Argentina-born Ernesto Guevara, who spent several boyhood years in Cordoba before joining Cuba's revolution. Workers, student and jobless protest groups took part in the rally. Also present were leaders of the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo, the famous human rights activists whose sons and daughters disappeared during Argentina's 1976-83 dictatorship. The Cuban president said that Cuba would continue to survive a more than four-decade-old U.S. economic blockade. "In the neoliberal world everyone is talking about globalization, about the globalization of goods and services. But nobody is talking about the globalization of solidarity among nations," he said. Fidel praised Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez for emulating Cuba's programs to send doctors to Latin America's poor with free medical care and train teachers to boost literacy in a struggling region.
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