Fidel Castro Optimistic over Regional Integration
Cuban President Fidel Castro highlighted the spirit and results of the Cuban-Venezuelan agreements signed last week as part of the Bolivarian Alternative for the Americas (ALBA, in Spanish).

In a TV appearance on Thursday night, the Cuban president praised the accords Cuba and Venezuela will implement in the sphere of medicine and education and their benefits for the other countries of the region.

´This will be the Latin American Miracle Operation,´ stated the Cuban leader, alluding to this kind of operation existing in Venezuela, in which almost 20,000 Venezuelans affected with cataract and other eye diseases recovered their sight, assisted by the Cuban physicians.

The statesman stressed that ALBA is diametrically opposed to the FTAA (Free Trade Area of the Americas), and accused the US of trying to recolonize Latin America with this project. This trade scheme emerged at the 1st Summit of the Americas held in Miami in 1994.

The ALBA, an initiative by President Hugo Chavez, is defined as the integration among peoples and not with the empire, such as the FTAA, said Fidel Castro.

At the closing of the 1st bilateral meeting for the application of the ALBA held in Havana last week, Cuba purchased $412 million of Venezuelan products, to be sold at affordable prices on the Cuban market.

The president highlighted advantages of these agreements, which are based on the bilateral principle of complementary productivity, rationality, saving resources and access to new markets.

On the other hand, Fidel Castro said the country will continue working on encouraging pensions and minimum wages, measures which were announced some days ago.