Castro speech reflects Marxist roots in call for change

Castro

Cuban leader and Clinton have brief encounter

In this story: First day of Millennium Summit 'Conquest, colonization, slavery and plunder' RELATED STORIES, SITES

By Jonathan D. Austin
CNN.com writer

UNITED NATIONS (CNN) -- Cuban President Fidel Castro threw down the gauntlet at the United Nations on Wednesday, decrying what he said was domination and exploitation by "three dozen developed and wealthy nations" over the rest of the planet.

He also called on the "wealthy and powerful nations to compensate their former colonies for the harm done to them over the centuries," and said it is the job of the United Nations "to save the world; not only from war, but also from underdevelopment, hunger, disease, poverty, and the destruction of the natural resources indispensable to human life."

First day of Millennium Summit

One of 60-some leaders invited to speak during the first day of the U.N. Millennium Summit, Castro, speaking in Spanish, painted a bleak picture of the health of the planet. "Chaos rules in our world, both within borders and beyond. Blind laws are offered up as divine norms that will bring the peace, order, well-being and security that our planet needs.

VIDEO Fidel Castro shares his view of the world Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)     MESSAGE BOARD Millennium Summit

"This is what they would have us all believe; three dozen developed and wealthy nations that hold a monopoly of economic, technological, and political power, have joined us here in this gathering to offer us more of the same recipes that have only served to make us poorer, more exploited and more dependent."

Castro, founder of the first communist state in the Western hemisphere, was quick to take the U.N. itself to task, saying there has been no effort in its 50-year history "to turn it into a body which is truly representative of the interest of all the peoples of the world."

Referring to the United States, with which Cuba has had constant political conflict since the 1959 revolution that brought him to power, Castro said, "the principal of sovereignty cannot be sacrificed to an abusive and unfair order in which a hegemonic superpower, backed by its own power and strength, attempts to have its say on everything. That, Cuba will never accept."

'Conquest, colonization, slavery and plunder'

But he was willing to spread the blame for the many sins he says have been inflicted on Third World nations.

"It cannot be forgotten that current underdevelopment and poverty have resulted from conquest, colonization, slavery and plunder ... by the colonial powers, and from the emergence of imperialism and the brutal wars motivated by new divisions of the world."

Reminiscent of his 1979 U.N. speech reporting the Havana conference of non-aligned countries, Castro again called for a worldwide economic realignment: "There is nothing in the existing economic and political order that can serve the interest of humankind. It is therefore unsustainable. It must be changed."

He also blamed the world's wealthy nations for the failure to eradicate disease and poverty.

"Age old diseases of the Third World nations such as malaria, tuberculosis and others equally lethal have not yet been eradicated, while new epidemics such as AIDS threaten to exterminate the population of entire nations. This while wealthy countries continue to invest enormous amounts of money in the military, and in luxury items, and while a voracious plague of speculators exchange currency, stocks and other real or fictitious values amounting to trillions of dollars a day."

Earlier Wednesday, Castro and U.S. President Bill Clinton met briefly following a luncheon, administration and U.N. sources told CNN.

The sources said Castro initiated the encounter, approaching Clinton as he was preparing to leave the luncheon ballroom. A senior administration official said the two men "exchanged a few words," adding that it was "not a substantive encounter."

CNN White House Correspondent Major Garrett contributed to this report.

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United Nations
  • Millennium Summit

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