Millions of Latin Americans rally to mark Labour Day
Millions of Latin Americans took to the streets on Sunday to mark Labour Day and demand higher pay, more jobs and better work conditions, while Cuba called for a lift of US blockade and sanctions against it.

More than 1 million Cubans gathered in Havana's Revolution Square to celebrate the holiday. They demanded that the United States lift the four-decade sanctions against Cuba and condemned the United States for abusing the prisoners detained in Guantanamo Bay.

Fidel Castro Ruz, president of the Council of State and Council of Ministers, said at the rally that Cuba did not collapse after decades of US sanctions and blockade and this shows a failure of Washington's anti-Cuba policy.

He criticized the United States for harboring Cuban terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who is reportedly in the United States and is believed to involved in the 1976 bombing of a Cuban civilian airliner that killed all the 73 people on board as well as a failed attempt to assassinate Castro with explosives in Panama in November 2001.

He said the Posada case "reveals the empire's (the United States') immense hypocrisy, lies, and singular cynicism."

Millions of Cubans attended rallies held throughout the country.

In Brazil, about 2 million people gathered in Sao Paulo and marched through the downtown to demand better pay, tax cuts and more employment.

In Venezuela, thousands of people held peaceful demonstrations in Caracas and called for higher pay and better working conditions.

In Mexico City, tens of thousands of people gathered in the Zocalo Square. They protested the government's failure to improve employment and demanded better pay.

Similar rallies also were held in Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia.