HAVANA — Cuban revolutionary leader Fidel Castro criticized Canada and the United states in a letter titled “Stephen Harper’s Illusions” ahead of an Americas summit in Colombia.
Both Canada and the U.S. have opposed Cuba’s presence at the event, which brings together 34 heads of state and government to discuss regional co-operation and a reduction of physical barriers to integration.
In his letter, which was published on the website of Cuba’s official news agency, Castro accused Canadian mining companies of inflicting “incredible damage” in Latin American countries while in pursuit of gold, precious metals and radioactive materials. He also made note of “the damage caused by the Yankees” who forced Canada “to look for oil by extracting it from huge extensions of sand that are impregnated with that fluid, thus causing an irreparable damage to the environment of that beautiful and extensive country.”
A good deal of the of Castro’s note was dedicated to mocking idea that U.S. President Barack Obama could wear a “guayabera” shirt at the upcoming summit, while opposing Cuba’s presence at the event.
News reports have said a noted Colombian designer is making a series of guayaberas for Obama to wear at the summit of the Americas in Cartagena, April 14-15.
Castro, whose brother Raul formally succeeded him as president in 2008, offered a history lesson on the origins of the light, tropical shirt, asserting that it was created in an area of Cuba that is watered by the Yayabo River.
“That’s why they were originally called yayaberas,” he wrote in an article published in the Cuban press.
Other accounts say the shirt’s name may have come from the guayabas, or guavas, that could be carried in the large pockets that are sewn into the shirt’s pleated front.
“What’s curious, dear readers, is that Cuba is forbidden from attending this meeting, but not the guayaberas. Who can stop laughing? We must hurry up and tell Harper,” Castro said.
Other Latin American countries had pressed for Cuba’s inclusion in the summit, but Washington has been reluctant to end a five-decade-old policy of isolating the only one-party communist state in the Americas.
Castro, while president, delegated his duties to Raul in 2006 in what was said to be a temporary transfer of powers, but the move became permanent two years later.
AFP with files from National Post