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 News from Around the Americas | November 2005 
Castro Lauds Maradona's Plans to Join Anti-Bush Protests at Americas Summit
 Canadian Press
| | Cuban President Fidel Castro (L) and Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona play with a ball during an interview in La Havana, October 26, 2005. (Canal 13/Handout/Reuters) |
Buenos Aires, Argentina - Cuban leader Fidel Castro told Argentines in a taped interview with soccer legend Diego Maradona that he welcomed the athlete's plans to take part in anti-U.S. protests at the coming Summit of the Americas.
Maradona, who travelled last week to Cuba to conduct the interview for his popular weekly talk show, is to ride in a celebrity protest train Thursday taking opponents of U.S. President George W. Bush from Buenos Aires to the Argentine resort of Mar del Plata for the summit.
Bush arrives in Mar del Plata the same day for the summit with 33 Latin American and Caribbean leaders. Thousands of protesters started massing in the town Monday to hold a "people's summit" to air their gripes against the Bush administration.
Castro told Maradona in the interview broadcast Monday night that the United States has a "very pestilent name" and he welcomed efforts by protesters to orchestrate dissent against Bush.
As for Maradona, the Cuban president added: "I'm happy that you are going to be there."
Speaking to reporters in Argentina on Sunday, Maradona cited the U.S. invasion of Iraq as one reason he opposes the Bush visit. "No to Bush!" Maradona declared. "We're going to say it in the streets: Fellow Argentines, we will be waiting for you at the march."
Bush opponents have vowed to gather thousands of anti-Bush demonstrators in Mar del Plata for a peaceful citywide march Friday, the day the summit begins.
Security is being tightened in the popular resort 370 kilometres south of Buenos Aires, with some 10,000 police and security forces already deployed ahead of the summit.
Leaders are expected to hold talks on free trade, job creation and other issues, including bolstering democracy throughout the hemisphere.
In the interview with Maradona, Castro predicted that U.S. efforts to lower trade barriers across the Americas - an ambitious proposal called the Free Trade Area of the Americas - would ultimately fail. Free trade efforts have lost steam since the first Americas summit in 1994.
Castro has frequently chided U.S. efforts to organize the proposed trade group, saying it constituted an effort by the United States to "annex" Latin American nations.
Castro is the only Latin American leader who will not attend the summit. He is not permitted to participate because Cuba is not a member of the Organization of American States, which organizes the summit.
Maradona, 45, who retired from soccer in 1997 amid battles with cocaine addiction and other health problems, led Argentina to the 1986 World Cup title and 1990 final. In 2000, FIFA, the world governing body for soccer, chose him and Pele as the greatest players in soccer history. |
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