INFIDELITY

Castro makes powerful foes: Cuban leader delivers anti-Western rant, calls Spanish, Italian prime ministers fascists (Isabel Vincent, 6/14/03, National Post)

Cuban leader Fidel Castro seems to be losing all of his friends in the West.

In an anti-Western rant delivered in Havana late Wednesday, the septuagenarian Communist leader denounced the European Union, accusing it of adopting a "Nazi-fascist policy" against Cuba. The EU, formerly a reliable supporter of the Cuban leader, had decided to adopt diplomatic sanctions in response to Mr. Castro's brutal crackdown on dissidents and independent journalists in April. The EU said that it would be limiting its political and cultural contacts with Cuba.

In a three-hour speech, which was followed a day later by a government-ordered protest march in front of European embassies in the Cuban capital, Mr. Castro said the EU's policy "must have been written in a drunken state, if not with alcohol, in a state of Euro-centric drunkenness." He also called the Spanish and Italian prime ministers, Jose Maria Aznar and Silvio Berlusconi "fascists" and "bandits."

Canada is also seeking greater pressure on Cuba, urging the Organization of American States to impose diplomatic sanctions to protest the regime's execution of three ferry hijackers this spring, and the jailing of high-profile independent journalists and political dissidents.

Both Canada and the EU have historically supported Cuba and opposed Washington's economic embargo against the island.

It's a brave new world when even the Euros tire of sleeping with the enemy. Posted by Orrin Judd at June 14, 2003 9:28 AM