Summary

TAPE: EF01/0377 IN_TIME: 22:44:28 DURATION: 2:06 SOURCES: APTN RESTRICTIONS: DATELINE: Havana, 1 May 2001 SHOTLIST: 1 Wide aerial shot of crowd in plaza 2 Wide shot of crowd 3 Castro in audience (with Elian's father Juan Manuel Gonzalez to his left) 4 Wide shot of crowd 5 SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Fidel Castro, President of Cuba After heroic resistance to 42 years of genocidal embargo, we entered the new millennium with renewed energy and multiplied efforts 6 Wide aerial shot of crowd 7 SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Fidel Castro, President of Cuba What can you expect today, from a few bourgeois and oligarchic countries without political or ethical principles, that voted together with the United States in Geneva, because of opportunism or cowardice, to serve on a silver platter pretexts and justifications to a government of the extreme right of the United States with the objective of maintaining a genocidal blockade 8 Wide pan of audience 9 SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Fidel Castro, President of Cuba For Cuba, it's absolutely clear that the so-called Free Trade Area of the Americas in the conditions, timetables, strategies, objectives and procedures imposed by the United States leads inexorably to the annexation of Latin America by the United States 10 Wide shot of audience 11 Soldiers marching with flags 12 Wide shot of soldiers marching down steps STORYLINE: Cuban President Fidel Castro denounced the U-S embargo and urged workers to protest international criticism of Cuba's human rights record at a rally in Havana where thousands of Cubans gathered for May Day labour celebrations Castro also invited Cubans to march past the U-S government's mission in Havana in an act of defiance The protest, part of May Day labor celebrations worldwide, also came as Cuba approaches the first anniversary of Elian Gonzalez's return from the United States after a bitter custody battle which came to echo the wider political conflicts characterising the two countries longtime antagonistic relationship Marchers on Tuesday were also there to protest the recent U-N condemnation of Cuba for its rights record The Czech Republic's proposal to condemn Cuba, strongly supported by the United States, was approved by the U-N Human Rights Commission in Geneva on April 18 10 nations abstained Castro also made a point of denouncing the proposed Free Trade Area of the Americas He claims that the hemispheric trading bloc represents U-S efforts to impose its will on Latin America