CUBA: 1 million attend May Day

More than 1 million Cubans participated in this year's May Day march in Havana. Addressing a huge rally in the city's Revolution Square, Cuban President Fidel Castro denounced the US government for giving sanctuary to the terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, responsible for the blowing up of a Cuban airliner that left 73 dead in 1976. Recalling that Cuba has renounced the right to try Posada and would accept to having him appear before a totally impartial international court located wherever the parties agree, Castro said: "Luis Posada Carriles isn't really an important character in himself, the important aspect of that character is that he is revealing to the world the incredible hypocrisy, the lies, immoral acts and the cynicism that the empire is using to subjugate the planet." A week earlier, Castro had announced that his revolutionary government would raise the country's minimum wage by 255%. In an address on May 4, Castro said the turnout for this year's May Day march had expected all expectations. He noted that the international corporate media did not dispute the turnout of 1.3 million people announced by the rally's organisers.

From Green Left Weekly, May 11, 2005.

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From GLW issue 626