Replies

Castro Tells May Day Crowd U.S. Threat Grows*** HAVANA (Reuters) - Millions of Cubans took to the streets on Thursday in May Day activities called to defend the nation from what President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) said was the threat of attack by the United States, which he said justified a recent crackdown on political dissidents.

Castro set the tone Thursday morning in a televised speech he dubbed "Cuba and the Nazi-Fascism" delivered at a huge gathering in Havana's Revolution Square, as smaller rallies and marches unfolded across the Communist-run Caribbean island.

Castro charged the Bush administration was out to assassinate him or invade the country, stating that he was not worried about being killed, but rather about a U.S. attack. "If the solution were to attack Cuba like Iraq, I would suffer greatly because of the cost in lives and enormous destruction it would bring Cuba. But it might turn out to be the last of the (Bush) administration's fascist attacks, because the struggle would last a very long time," he said.

Cuba is smarting from a deluge of international criticism from friends and foes over the sentencing of 75 dissidents to long prison terms, and the execution of three men who hijacked a ferry in a failed bid to reach the United States. Castro insisted the repression came because Cuba was under threat from Washington. The 76-year-old revolutionary icon, in power since his 1959 rebellion toppled a U.S.-backed dictatorship, warned critics, particularly on the left, their words could be used to justify a U.S. invasion.

"We would not want those who have, in our opinion, attacked Cuba unjustly ... to have to suffer the infinite sorrow they will feel if one day our cities are destroyed and our children and mothers, women and men, young and old, are torn apart by the bombs of neo-fascism," said Castro, dressed in his customary military garb.

Castro's words were bound to stoke rising fear among Cubans that the United States, frustrated by more than four decades of failed efforts to topple him and encouraged by success in Iraq, might resort to military force. "In Miami (home to many anti-Castro Cubans) and Washington they are now discussing where, how and when Cuba will be attacked or the problem of the revolution will be solved," Castro said.***