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Panama, Colombia
for High Investment Flow
Panamanian Indigenous
University Students
Demand Rights
Cuba, Venezuela Make ALBA Real
Castro speaks live
for first time since July 2006
Rescuers resume search for 10
missing in collapsed Colombian
mine |
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Castro speaks live for first
time since July 2006
Cuban leader Fidel Castro spoke
by telephone on Sunday with his
visiting Venezuelan counterpart
Hugo Chavez, his first live
appearance on Cuban airwaves
since July 2006.
"The world is filling with
Vietnams today facing up to a
tyrannical power" of the United
States, Castro told Chavez in
the latter's weekly television
and radio program Alo Presidente.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro spoke
by telephone with his visiting
Venezuelan counterpart Hugo
Chavez on Sunday in a live TV
show, the first of its kind
since July 2006.
Castro signed off by saying that
he had to take a pill, claiming
"we are winning."
"There is electricity in the
air," Chavez said, which means
everyone was electrified to hear
Castro.
The show, broadcast from the
eastern Cuban city of Santa
Clara, also aired a 17-minute
documentary of Saturday's
four-hour Castro-Chavez meeting.
Castro, 81, appeared fragile but
alert in the video, in which he
discussed the Argentine
guerrilla leader Ernesto
Guevara, better known by his
nickname Che, a key figure in
the 1959 Cuban revolution.
"The ideas of the revolution
have been sown all across Latin
America, and today's
circumstances are more
susceptible than ever for these
ideas to sprout for the
revolution that Che Guevara
spoke of," said Castro in a red,
white and blue track suit while
sitting on a cushion in an
armchair.
Chavez's program commemorated
the 40th anniversary of
Guevara’s death. Born in 1928 in
Argentina, Guevara was one of
Castro's most important
commanders during Cuba's 1959
revolution. Later he gave up his
high position in Cuba to become
a guerrilla fighter in Bolivia.
The U.S. Central Intelligence
Agency helped launch a Bolivian
military operation in 1967 in
which Guevara was captured and
executed.
Cuban leader Fidel Castro spoke
by telephone with his visiting
Venezuelan counterpart Hugo
Chavez on Sunday in a live TV
show, the first of its kind
since July 2006.
In 1995, the Cuban government
said it had found Guevara's
remains, which were returned to
Cuba and buried in 1997.
During the program, Chavez
described Castro as "sowing
consciousness and of new times",
saying that "we have a
commitment to continue sowing,
resowing, harvesting and pushing
for the salvation of humanity."
Chavez said that humanity is
faced with a choice between
Socialism or barbarity.
After the meeting, Chavez said
Castro has recovered. "He is in
good spirits and has a very good
color."
Castro was last seen in public
in July last year, when he
temporarily handed over his
power to Defense Minister Raul
Castro to undergo an intestinal
surgery.
The show was broadcast live from
Ernesto Guevara Place, where
Guevara's bones are kept in a
gigantic mausoleum. Also with
Chavezon the show were Cuban
high-ranking officials including
Vice President Carlos Lage
Davila, Information Minister
Ramiro Valdes Menendez and
Foreign Minister Felipe Ramon
Perez Roque. Guevara's widow and
four children were also present.
Chavez arrived in Cuba on Friday
for an official visit. He is
expected to meet Cuba's interim
leader Raul Castro on Monday. |
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Cuban leader Fidel Castro (R) greets his
Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez in
Havana October 13, 2007. |
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