Posted on 12/23/2005 12:00:02 PM PST by NormsRevenge
HAVANA - Fidel Castro on Thursday called the top American diplomat to Havana a "gangster," stepping up his communist nation's attack on the new U.S. mission chief and dissidents.
Castro referred to new U.S. Interests Section chief Michael Parmly as "that little gangster," and his predecessor James Cason as the "former gangster," in one of several addresses at a regular session of Cuba's National Assembly.
"I don't know which one is worse," Castro told lawmakers during a session that dealt primarily with year-end economic reports.
Castro's comments were broadcast on state television Thursday evening, after the American mission had closed for the day and Parmly could not be reached immediately for comment.
Parmly had declined to comment earlier this week, when he was criticized on a state television program for likening communist government supporters who harass dissidents to Nazi "brownshirts" and Ku Klux Klan members.
"Round Table," the nightly program featuring pro-government pundits, went after well-known dissidents, using audiotapes of telephone conversations and videotapes of their activities in an attempt to portray them as paid agents of the U.S.
Both the dissidents and American authorities have repeatedly rejected Havana's charges that Cuban government opponents are on Washington's payroll.
One videotape, apparently made secretly by the government's intelligence services, showed leading opponent Martha Beatriz Roque buying refrigerators for a gathering of dissidents in Havana in April.
An audiotape was also played in which Roque was heard telling someone on the telephone: "if this causes the Yankees to invade Cuba, it's all the same to me." Repeated attempts to reach Roque by telephone Thursday were unsuccessful.
Before the Tuesday show, Cuban officials had said very little about Parmly, who arrived in Havana in September.
But Parmly apparently hit a nerve during a Dec. 10 gathering at his residence to mark Human Rights Day.
Speaking to a group that included dissidents, Parmly praised the opposition while accusing Castro's government of repressing its citizens to cling to power.
Parmly singled out as "particularly disgusting" a practice in which government supporters surround dissidents' homes and hurl insults.
"The regime resorts to busing in its modern-day equivalent of Nazi 'Brown shirts' or Ku Klux Klan members to do its dirty work," he said then.
In a separate address Thursday, Castro said Europe should condemn the United States for plans to build a wall on its border with Mexico, where hundreds of immigrants die trying to cross every year.
The U.S. House of Representatives last week authorized building 700 miles of fence along the 2,000-mile U.S.-Mexico border.
Cuban President Fidel Castro gestures during the year-end session of the Cuban parliament in Havana December 22, 2005. Castro said on Thursday the economy grew a spectacular 11.8 percent this year based on a locally devised formula, after 15 years of hard times that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union. REUTERS/Claudia Daut
Cuban President Fidel Castro listens to a speaker during the year-end session of the Cuban parliament in Havana, December 22, 2005. Castro said the economy grew a spectacular 11.8 percent this year based on a locally devised formula, after 15 years of hard times that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union. REUTERS/Claudia Daut
Hey EU...Spain has walls at it's North African outposts.
Michael Parmly, chief of the U.S. Interests Section in Havana, talks with journalists during tan interview in this Thursday, Dec. 8, 2005 file photo, in Havana, Cuba. Cuba attacked Washington's new top diplomat in Havana as provocative on Tuesday, Dec. 20, 2005, 10 days after he met with dissidents and likened Communist Party supporters to Nazi 'brown shirts' and Ku Klux Klan members. Former communist youth leader Randy Alonso, moderator of state television's nightly 'Round Table' program, said the Dec. 10 celebration of Human Rights Day at the residence of Parmly was 'a new provocation against our people.' (AP Photo/Jorge Rey)
Somebody tell me why we don't go in and overthrow this communist PITA regime?
They are the ones causing most of the other problems in South America.
Who cares what the world thinks.
We will dance on his grave, and then we will forget where he was buried.
A few years from now even Cuban kids will not know who he was.
I expect him to leave this earth before Bush leaves office. No connection between the two, but the clock is ticking.
Why wont he just die?
Check out those photos, he doesn't look that good to me. I'd guess he is close to packing it in.
Regards,
GtG
Castro's on his tenth U.S. President. Think about it.
It will depend on how fast his
is Parkinson's disease progresses.
And here I keep hoping it will be lead poisoning.
Unless they clone him...oh no!
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