Castro, Chavez blast US on TV
2005-08-22 10:37
Havana - Cuban President Fidel Castro and Venezuelan counterpart Hugo Chavez, two major irritants of the United States, on Sunday made a joint television appearance in which Chavez accused Washington of destroying the world.
The two Latin American leaders, wearing olive military uniforms and known for their lengthy speeches, talked for five hours and 40 minutes in a special broadcast of Chavez' weekly radio and television show, Hello Mr. President, from Cuba's western Pinar del Rio province.
The two leaders, in the program televised in their respective nations, brushed off US charges that their governments exercised a destabilising influence in Latin America.
'US imperialism a threat'
"US imperialism represents the greatest threat weighing on the world," Chavez said, calling the US the "great destabiliser" and "the destroyer of the world".
Chavez also touted socialism over capitalism.
"Capitalism privatises health care and education," he said. "We are building the socialism of the 21st century."
The Venezuelan leader travelled to Cuba on Saturday to attend the graduation of 1 600 medical students from across Latin America who had studied here for free.
Taking a sarcastic tone, Castro told Chavez: "You already know, we cannot make a student study because that would be destabilising, we cannot invite patients to get medical care because that is destabilising."
The pair traveled to the town of Sandino in a jeep with the top down, passing by throngs of people waving Venezuelan and Cuban flags.
Castro and Chavez sat at a huge desk at the open-air event, which was televised in their respective countries.
The foreign ministers of both countries were in attendance, as well as Nicaragua's leftist Sandinista former president, Daniel Ortega, and former Salvadoran guerrilla leader Schafik Handal.
Sharing a disdain for US policy
When Castro asked how Salvadorans would react to a US invasion of Venezuela, Handal said: "Hundreds of thousands of us must go fight in Venezuela."
Chavez, a leftist and former paratrooper, has become Castro's strongest ally in the region as the two share a disdain for US policy.
The Venezuelan president has accused Washington of backing efforts to overthrow him and Castro's Cuba has endured a four-decade US embargo.
Venezuela and Cuba have strengthened military ties and in April signed 50 trade agreements touted as an alternative to US free-trade deals with Latin America. They are partners in a new Latin American television network, Telesur, which was launched last month.
During their marathon television appearance, Castro and Cuba also hailed their plan to provide eye care to at least six million Latin Americans in the next 10 years as part of their "Operation Miracle".
- AFP