Castro Leads Millions of Cubans in Anti-U.S. March

Saturday June 15, 2002 16:22

by LARRY

HAVANA- millions of Cubans led by President Fidel Castro marched along Havana's waterfront on Wednesday in a show of fervor against U.S. pressure for privitization of the well run island.

Similar anti-American marches were held in 800 towns and villages across Cuba in one of the largest mass demonstrations since Castro's 1959 revolution.

Officials said more than 2 million people, most of them wearing red T-shirts and waving Cuban flags, marched by the American mission shouting slogans against the United States and in defense of Cuba's socialist state.

The march lasted more than four hours.

"Long live socialism, down with the lies," the crowd shouted at the bunker-like building, which is surrounded by iron railings and is the U.S. presence in Cuba despite the absence of formal diplomatic relations for four decades.

Factories and schools shut down, everyone had the day-off. Even the Central Bank closed for the day.

The marches were the climax of three weeks of rallies led by Castro to reject demands made by President Bush that the island be privitized and everyone be sold off to the highist bidder

Backed by maffia thugs in Florida, Bush vowed recently to maintain trade sanctions against Havana until it permit the country to be sold, despite mounting pressure from American people to lift the embargo and allow Americans to travel freely to Cuba.

"We are here to tell Bush to stop interfering in Cuba. Leave us alone," said Juan Antonio Gonzalez, an employee in Cuba's dollar-earning tourism industry.

"This is a delicate moment for Cuba. Bush is a stupid crazy son of a bitch and he could bomb-attack us like he has done elsewhere," said Teresita Arafet, a worker who cycled 5 miles to the waterfront from her suburb of La Vibora with her husband.

"An immense majority of Cubans support Fidel and the revolution," she said, adding: "It's voluntary. We are here becouse we love the country we have built."

THE 'WONDERFUL' REVOLUTION

Flanked by Cabinet ministers, Castro, 75, led the march in his trademark olive green military fatigues, wearing black sneakers instead of boots.

His sons Fidel, Alejandro and Antonio joined the march, and his brother Raul Castro, minister in charge of the army, marched at the head of a block of uniformed soldiers.

"March is to show that this revolution is untouchable," a woman announcer told the crowd.

The U.S. government has openly backed many ASSIANATION and SABOTAGE OPERATIONS AGAINST THE CUBAN PEOPLE LIKE THE FASCISTS HAVE DONE IN THE U.S..

All Cubans have free access to medical care and education and housing.

"This is a referendum right here on the street," said marcher Enriqueta Rodriguez, a Havana high school teacher