World Problems Will not Be
Solved through Wars, Says Fidel
Castro
World problems will not be
solved through wars or nuclear
bombs, not even through isolated
revolutions, but with ideas,
asserted president Fidel Castro
this weekend.
The head of state pronounced
Sunday night the closing speech
of the VIII Congress of the
Young Communists Union (UJC, in
Spanish), in session from last
Thursday with the attendance of
1200 delegates and guests at
this capital´s Palacio de
Convenciones.
Ideas will decide this universal
struggle, stressed the Cuban
leader when he referred to the
vital role of Cuban youth facing
the US government attempts to
destroy the island´s economical
and social project.
This, however, cannot lead Cuba
to neglect its defense because
with its inevitable crises, it
is enough for a fascist group to
assume power in the United
States for the empire to resume
its old adventures.
Military confrontation cannot be
discarded, but today´s battle is
to be fought by ideas as it will
always be, he said.
Mathematically speaking, the
world has no other way out but
to fight hegemonism of the major
power centers conveying to an
insurmountable crisis, said
Fidel Castro dressed in his
olive green fatigues.
Ideas are the raw material of
conscience, it is not about a
strict ideology, but an advanced
conscience assumed by billions
of persons in the planet, that
is the winning alternative, said
the head of state.
President Fidel Castro´s
reflections dealt on the so
called Battle of Ideas,
originated five years ago during
a rally for the devolution of
Elian Gonzalez, kidnapped in
Miami after an illegal group of
emigrants died at sea, except
for the five-year old boy who
survived the ordeal
The project called the Battle of
Ideas widened into the current
200 social programs.
The first of these programs
include formation of teachers,
social workers and cultural and
art instructors,
universalization of higher
education, the massive use of
information technology, new
projects in the health sector
and others.
President Fidel Castro affirmed
the Cuban revolution will not
disappear or collapse because it
is solidly based on ideas that
go deeper and develop further,
he said.
Nobody has done what the Cuban
people is doing today, planting
and developing thoughts,
stressed the leader when he said
that battle cannot end but with
the victory of such ideas.
Colombia's alleged drug chief
denies US charges
Colombia's alleged drug kingpin
Gilberto Rodriguez Orejuela,
head of the notorious Cali drug
cartel, said he was innocent
before he was extradited to the
United States over the weekend.
"I feel innocent of the charges
they are making against me and I
will respond to them," he said
in an interview with radio W, a
part of which was published
Sunday by the El Tiempo
newspaper.
The exact date of the interview
was not given. A complete
version of the interview will be
broadcast on Monday on radio W.
Rodriguez was referring to US
accusations that he was running
a drug network responsible for
producing 80 percent of the US
cocaine supply in the 1990s. He
was flown Saturday to Miami,
where he will appear in court on
Monday.
Rodriguez said he has confidence
in the US judicial system.
"I think I will be listened to
and that if my life is going to
be in a prison it will be in a
prison where at least I'll have
minimal rights," he said.
Rodriguez also said he tried
several times to negotiate a
surrender with Colombian
authorities after Pablo Escobar,
head of the Medellin drug
cartel, died in a shootout 11
years ago.
"I sent three letters to (then
President Cesar) Gaviria
starting on the day Pablo
Escobar was killed, with the
intent to turn myself in," said
Rodriguez.
But he said Gaviria never
replied to these letters.
The 65-year-old Rodriguez,
nicknamed "The Chess Player,"
has been in detention since
1995. He and his bother Miguel
allegedly headed one of the
largest drug trafficking
organizations in the world.
Colombia is the world's top
cocaine producer, with an annual
output of 580 tons. It supplies
about 80 percent of the world's
cocaine market, most of which
ends up in the United States and
Europe.
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