Sao Paulo Forum meeting opens in Havana

Via NY Transfer News * All the News That Doesn't Fit


[You'd never know it from the article's headline, but the meeting
described is the 10th Sao Paulo Forum, which will include debates on
how best to oppose the USA's Free Trade Area of the Americas (FTAA),
and is a regular international event attended by leaders of many
countries. Reuters' reporter makes it sound as if a bunch of "Latin
American leftists" have come to talk to Fidel. -- NY Transfer]


Latin American left meets in Havana with Castro

HAVANA, Dec 4 (Reuters) - Hundreds of left-wing politicians and
activists from across Latin America began a four-day meeting in
Havana on Tuesday in a bid to unite their efforts against American
and capitalist influence around the world.

Cuban President Fidel Castro, a symbol of the Latin American left
since his 1959 revolution and establishment of a socialist society on
the Caribbean island, joined 400 delegates at the opening of the 10th
meeting of the Sao Paulo Forum.

Other attendees included Brazilian opposition leader Luis Inacio Lula
da Silva of the Workers Party, and Nicaragua's former president,
Daniel Ortega.

Subjects up for debate were opposition to the planned Free Trade Area
of the Americas, the U.S. reaction to the Sept. 11 attacks, American
involvement in the anti-cocaine "Plan Colombia," the U.S. naval
presence on Puerto Rico's island of Vieques and "neoliberal"
tendencies in the global economy.

"It is not right for a handful of big powers to monopolize all the
riches and development ... while at the same time stay immune from
the consequences of political, economic and social polarization,"
said Jose Ramon Balaguer, a senior figure from the Politburo of
Cuba's ruling Communist Party.

He added the U.S. response to Sept. 11 was "a crude attempt to step
up an old imperialist tactic of presenting as criminals those who
oppose its dictates, especially in the left and popular movements."

Brazil's Lula had warm words for the 75-year-old Castro, who will
celebrate the 43rd anniversary of his revolution on New Year's Day.
"Fidel, although your face has a few wrinkles, your soul is clean,
because you have stuck to your ideals," he said.

Although still venerated by many on the left, Castro's critics say he
distorted his revolution into a dictatorship.

15:57 12-04-01


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