Castro leads protest against US embargo
President Fidel Castro led a sea of Cuban demonstrators past the US diplomatic mission today to protest at new US measures aimed at squeezing the island’s economy and pushing out Castro.
Tens of thousands of protesters, many of them wearing red shirts and waving small Cuban flags made of paper, marched on the oceanfront Malecon boulevard in the government-organised protest.
Dense crowds filled several miles of the six-lane Malecon and stretched far up streets feeding into it.
Fervent announcers led the crowd in chants of “Long live free Cuba! Fascist Bush!”
The 77-year-old Castro, dressed in his usual green military uniform and field cap, appeared to walk with difficulty as he led the march for about 750 yards before getting into a waiting car and leaving.
Addressing the crowd, Castro denounced and ridiculed US President George Bush, saying he was a fraudulently elected leader trying to impose “world tyranny”, but promising that Cuba would never become a “neo-colony” of the United States.
Castro said the march was “an act of indignant protest and a denunciation of the brutal, merciless and cruel measures” that Bush announced last week to tighten the 44-year US embargo of the island.
The measures included restrictions on money transfers and family visits, increased efforts to transmit anti-Castro television to Cuba and appointment of a coordinator to plan a transaction from socialism to capitalism.
