Castro Protests EU Decision With March

["Walter Lippmann" <walterlx@xxxxxxx>]

(There's nothing to compare this with, even
May Day, which is a predictable event and
for which everyone is prepared. Today's
double mass marches, one in Habana
Vieja and the other in Mira Mar were called
on one day's notice. Cubans often complain
about many things. "No es facil" (It isn't easy)
as they say very often here. But whatever the
Cubans complain about, in a pinch and when
they are called to respond, they do respond.
People were happy, combattive, friendly,
glad to see someone from the US.

Before the march many were sitting around,
chit-chatting with friends and neighbors, but
at the moment the march began, everyone
stood up at attention and sang the national
anthem. Then we all marched filling the
entire expanse of the Malecon, from Galeno
and the Malecon around past the Spanish
Cultural Center, past the Spanish embassy,
and on to the Prado where we broke up.

The embassy itself was sealed off with a big
show of Cuban army people, diplomatic
police (Cuban) and a special branch of the
National Revolutionary Police, the PNR.
Among these were a sprinkling of what we
rarely see here, Cuban police women.
The protest's goals were politically clear,
but the Cuban authorities also wanted to
make certain no one took their anger at
the actions of the Spanish regime out on
the physical embassy site. I assume that
this same pattern occurred at the Italian
embassy in Mira Mar.

(A quick photo from the AP via Yahoo today:
http://makeashorterlink.com/?X1CD247E4
This poster says, "Aznar, we have been sold
to the US in 1898, today you sell your country
to the empire."

(Another slogans I saw and photographed
here were, "In Cuba there are no captain
generals and there won't be another recon-
centration." This refers to the period of the
Cuban war for independence from Spain in
1898. The Spanish colonial governor was
called the captain general and by "another
reconcentration" they refer to a tactic where
the Spanish forced Cubans to live in special
controlled zones, perhaps analagous to the
strategic hamlets the US created in Vietnam
and in Guatemala.

(Another:
Aznar, puppet, Cuba must be respected

(Another:
Burlusconi: We are not in the era of Caesar,
Nero or Mussolini.

(Another:
Aznar: If in 1898 you couldn't defeat us,
don't even think about it a hundred years later.

(Cubans of all ages, shapes, sizes, colors,
genders and social strata came out today in
response to the leadership's call to protest.
Fidel spoke last night until 12:30 PM.

(The political message of this mobilization
might be summarized with the phrase
"Don't Tread On Me" Wandering through
the crown people sometimes came up to
me, asked me to photograph them and
asked where I'm from, so I told them.

(One group, middle-aged black workers
who were clearly not political activists,
said simply that they were here not just
to defend Cuba, but to speak out for
the peoples' of the entire world. They
also passed me a small drink of rum,
poured out of a bottle into a makeshift
"glass" made up of a torn beer can.

(While there were a tiny number of
folks drinking, no one at all was
drunk. (I personally checked on all
the hundreds of thousands and can
affirm their sobriety...<g>

(The final paragraph of Anita Snow's
report is a terrible falsification when
she reports that the US and their
paid Cuban agents denied charges
that they were "working to subvert
the island's socialist system." How
can she honestly report the denials
while omitting the facts which Cuba
put forth to document its allegations?

Further, knowing as Anita Snow does
that the Helms-Burton laws precisely
call for the overthrow of the Cuban
government, she can't honestly site
their "denials" unless she colludes
with them, as she evidently does.

(Another example of the kind of press
"freedom" Washington wants to impose
on Revolutionary Cuba.)
============================

Castro Protests EU Decision With March
By ANITA SNOW
The Associated Press

HAVANA (AP) - President Fidel Castro led hundreds of
thousands of Cubans Thursday in a march outside the Spanish
Embassy to protest the European Union's decision to review
its relations with the island over human rights concerns.

Surrounded by security men and his closest aides, the
76-year-old Castro led a river of people past the white,
colonial Spanish mission.

``Down with fascism,'' an announcer chanted over a public
address system along the coastal highway in Old Havana.
``Long live the revolution!''

Marchers carried small red, white and blue Cuban flags and
ridiculed Spain's Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar as a
``little Fuhrer'' for aligning his nation with the United
States.

U.S. and European officials have protested Cuba's
imprisonment of 75 political dissidents for terms of up to
28 years and its execution of three men who hijacked a
ferry.

``Aznar, marionette! Cuba will be respected,'' one man
shouted over a loudspeaker.

Several miles to the west, Castro's brother and designated
successor, 72-year-old Defense Minister Gen. Raul Castro,
headed a march outside Italy's Embassy in the Miramar
neighborhood.

Both marches were broadcast live on state-run television.

The marches, which paralyzed traffic and business in the
nation's capital, came in response to the European Union's
announcement last month that it would review its policies
toward Cuba.

The 15-nation bloc is the economically struggling island's
largest source of trade and tourism.

Using tough language usually reserved for Washington,
Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque lashed out Wednesday at
the EU, singling out Spain for allegedly funding dissident
groups supported by the United States.

Perez Roque also criticized Italy for cutting numerous
cultural and cooperation programs with Cuba to protest the
crackdown on the opposition and the firing-squad executions
of the three men who hijacked the ferry and tried to reach
the United States.

``After exhausting its patience and capacity for dialogue
and tolerance, Cuba feels obliged to reply to what it
considers to be the European Union's hypocritical
behavior,'' the foreign minister said at a news conference.

In Brussels, Belgium, on Wednesday, EU spokesman Diego de
Ojeda declined to specifically address Cuba's charges,
instead repeating the bloc's desire to ``to integrate Cuba
back into the community of democratic and market economy
nations.''

In its statement last week, the EU said it was ``deeply
concerned about the continuing flagrant violation of human
rights and of fundamental freedoms of members of the Cuban
opposition and of independent journalists.''

EU members unanimously agreed to cut down on high-level
governmental visits, reduce participation of member states
in cultural events on the island and review relations
overall.

In April, the 75 activists were sentenced to prison terms
ranging from six to 28 years on charges of working with
American diplomats to subvert the island's socialist system.
Both the dissidents and U.S. officials deny the allegations.

06/12/03 09:11 EDT