Frei Betto: Cuban Sovereignty Essential
Brazilian friar Frei Betto, emblematic figure of liberation theology, said Thursday he will defend Cuban sovereignty with those who fight for socialism.

In exclusive online statements to Prensa Latina, the friar, who has a long and close relation with the island, repudiated the attitude of the US government and its disrespect for that essential principle for over 40 years.

He spoke of the blockade of the Caribbean nation and the illegal use of the Guantanamo naval base as a prison of alleged terrorists, as well as frequent airspace violations.

Betto also slammed the White House aggressions on the island"s sovereignty, which contravene the UN policy and all international regulations.

The spiritual academic also signed, along with 13,650 international figures, the document "Cuba"s Sovereignty Must Be Respected," published on August 7 in Havana.

For Betto, to preserve the island sovereignty is something invaluable, essential for those who fight for a world in which goods are shared and everybody has an honorable life.

As to the Bush plan, aimed at an alleged democratic transition in Cuba, he stated that the real transition took place here in 1959, when the country stopped being an empire"s slave to be a free and sovereign nation.

Author of 48 books, among them the international volume Fidel and Religion, he has lucid prose and deep analytic intelligence.