Castro angers Argentina with comments on economy

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina (Reuters) --

Cuban leader Fidel Castro angered the Argentine government
by saying its beleaguered economy had got a "stay of
execution" from Washington but would soon "explode" anyway.

The president of Communist-run Cuba told the left-leaning
Argentine newspaper Pagina 12 that Argentina and other Latin
American nations burdened with a total $950 billion in
foreign debt "and unbelievable poverty" had "lost all
independence."

Citing U.S.-led aid packages dating back to the "Brady Plan"
Latin American debt bailout of a decade ago to major aid
packages from the International Monetary Fund in recent
months for countries such Brazil and Argentina, he said:
"Latin America is like those people on death row in the
United States: They appeal and appeal and after 23 years go
to the electric chair. You have been given a stay of
execution; they have given you some pills, some bonds and
other things."Now, with or without annexation, you are going
to explode," Castro said. "The system will explode with
annexation and so will neo-liberalism."

His comments brought an immediate response from Argentine
President Fernando de la Rua's spokesman, Juan Pablo Baylac,
who told reporters: "Argentina is not going to explode."The
Cuban leader, who offered his condolences for the recent
attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon but has
condemned the bombing of Afghanistan, said the "neo-liberal"
or market economy was already in crisis before this
violence."One favor the people who committed the attack in
New York have done for imperialism is that they will now
blame the sabotage for the failures of neo-liberalism," he
said.  "Because it was already finished, it was already in
crisis.  ..."


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