[NYTr] Castro criticizes socialist Latin American leaders

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

[Well, it's not quite as Reuters' headline-writers would have it.
Fidel praised statements by Chavez, Evo Morales, Daniel Ortega
and said that Che Guevara would have been pained by what passed for
socialism from many of the others but was actually cynical ad copy, or
basically lies. He blasted only El Salvador's President by name.
Fidel wasn't critical of real socialism.  To call Chile's Bachelet a
"leftist" is ridiculous, and of course the USA's slave state El
Salvador's government has no socialist program.  It's not clear
what the point of this article is, but it seems Marc Frank is trying to
make it appear as though Fidel Castro has somehow "split" with
"socialist leaders" in Latin America. No one so far has mentioned
Ecuador's Correa. But Marc's statement that "almost all 19 leaders"
at the summit are leftists is frankly absurd. -NY Transfer]

The Ibero-American Summit is a meeting of Latin American and Spanish
leaders held every year. Until his illness, Fidel was almost always the
star of the event. 


Reuters - Nov 11, 2007
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20071111/wl_nm/cuba_castro_dc

Castro criticizes socialist Latin American leaders

By Marc Frank 

HAVANA (Reuters) - Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro openly
criticized Latin America's socialist-leaning presidents for the first
time on Sunday.

Castro also praised Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and his other
revolutionary regional allies in a commentary carried by official Cuban
media on the Ibero-American summit in Santiago, Chile.

Nearly all 19 leaders who attended the summit were leftists, but there
was debate over the region's future and the closing speeches on
Saturday were marked by sharp exchanges between Chavez and Spanish
leaders.

"I listened with great sorrow to the speeches pronounced from
traditional left positions at the Ibero-American summit," Castro wrote.

He was apparently referring to the presidents of Brazil, Chile, Uruguay
and others who advocate social democracy with capitalism.

"I felt proud of the pronouncements of various leaders, revolutionary
and courageous," he said of the heads of state from Venezuela, Bolivia
and Nicaragua, who believe government and economic structures must be
radically altered and a new relationship developed with the United
States.

"Chavez's criticism of Europe was devastating. The Europe that
precisely tried to dictate lessons at this Ibero-American summit,"
Castro said.

Spain's King Juan Carlos told Chavez on Saturday to "shut up" as the
Venezuelan leader tried to interrupt a speech by Spain's socialist
prime minister, Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero.

Zapatero was criticizing Chavez for calling former Spanish Prime
Minister Jose Maria Aznar a fascist.

The 81-year-old Cuban leader is recovering from a series of intestinal
surgeries that forced him to temporarily hand over power to his brother
Raul Castro in July 2006.

(Editing by Mohammad Zargham)

(via REUTERS TV/Reuters)