Fidel speaks out again on biofuels as well as Brits captured in Iran

Cuban newspaper Granma published another article today by former dictator Fidel Castro where he reiterated criticisms of U.S. biofuel usage. Under the headline “The Internationalization of Genocide” Fidel asks if the desire by industrialized countries to use corn and other foodstuffs as biofuels comes at a severe cost to underdeveloped nations. Fidel also accused British navy personnel currently being held in Iran of invading Iranian maritime territory and compared it to “provocations" by Cuban exile group Brothers to the Rescue.

Much like last week’s article, Granma has only published it in Spanish; hence, here are a few key translated quotes:

• Nobody in Camp David [during the meeting of the U.S. and Brazil presidents] has answered the fundamental question: where and who will administer…corn and other cereals that the U.S., Europe, and other rich countries want to produce…as ethanol for large corporations?
• The colossal waste of cereal to produce fuel…will only serve to save 15% of the fuel used by automobiles in rich countries. President Bush…declared his intention to apply this formula on a global scale which means nothing else than an internationalization of genocide.
• The capture of British soldiers in Iranian waters is similar to the provocations by the so-called “Brothers to the Rescue” when they ignored President Clinton’s orders to incur into Cuban waters. (Editor’s note: Castro is referring to this 1996 incident where the Cuban air force shot down two civilian planes).
• [In response to comments made by the Bush administration on hunger in Cuba] I am obligated to remind them that infant mortality in Cuba is less than in the U.S. I can assure that there is not a single Cuban without free health care. Everyone has an education and an offer for a job despite nearly half a century of economic embargo and the intent of the U.S. government to starve and economically choke the Cuban people.
• The U.S. completely ignores world opinion against all forms of nuclear weapons.
• The worse is yet to come; a new war to assure the production of gas and oil which places the human species on the border of a holocaust.

Links- CNN, BBC News, Granma, The Latin Americanist, Miami Herald

Image- CNN