Castro enjoys renewed popularity in Latin America

Posted on Tue, May. 27, 2003 By Kevin G. Hall Knight Ridder Newspapers

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina - Cuban dictator Fidel Castro's ability to draw more than 10,000 Argentine supporters to an off-the-cuff outdoor speech on a cold night illustrates the aging communist strongman's resurgent appeal in Latin America.

In the 1990s, when Latin American nations undertook free-market reforms that yielded economic booms, most leaders kept their distance from Castro. But most countries in the region are now in economic crisis, poverty is rising and Castro's identification with efforts to lift the poor is back in vogue.

Leftists wary of privatization and unbridled open markets now rule in Chile, Brazil, Venezuela and Ecuador. Politicians described as center-left and populist rule in Peru, Paraguay and Argentina. Only war-ravaged Colombia and Bolivia have clearly conservative presidents.

Castro stole the show at Sunday's inauguration of Argentine President Nestor Kirchner. Two years ago in Mexico, Cuba's human rights record earned him cold shoulders from regional leaders. But on Sunday, Argentine lawmakers received Castro with thunderous applause, overlooking his recent jailing of prominent artists and dissidents and the summary trial and execution of three ferry hijackers.

On Monday night, Castro was to deliver an address at the University of Buenos Aires law school, known for promoting human rights in a country where 30,000 are believed to have been killed by military dictatorships in the 1970s and 1980s.

Hordes of listeners - thousands more than the law school's auditorium could hold - overran security guards and trampled those inside. That forced the postponement of what was to be the first address by Castro on the native soil of Cuban revolutionary icon Ernesto "Che" Guevara. The event was moved outside onto university steps, where hours later thousands arrived to hear a trademark fiery Castro speech that lasted more than two and a half hours.

What is Castro's appeal? One explanation is the failure of U.S.-espoused economic reforms to narrow social gaps, followed by the election of a new batch of leftist leaders in South America who are friendly to Castro's social views.

"The neo-liberal idea has received a colossal blow," Castro said Monday night, wearing a suit but no overcoat despite temperatures in the high 40s. Now 76, Castro was overcome by emotion several times during a rambling speech that ranged from blasting President Bush to eulogizing Guevara, who was killed in Bolivia in 1967.

Carlos Manfroni, a conservative Argentine political analyst, blames rampant corruption for the failure of the economic policies of the 1990s to improve the lot of the poor and for the gains of Castro supporters in South America.

"When countries fail because they cannot combat corruption effectively, this discredits the free market and leads to nostalgia for positions that are more statist and protectionist," he said. "This is what opens the microphones again for the left."

To most Americans, Castro is associated with Cuba's Cold War alliance with the Soviet Union and exiles fleeing his regime on makeshift rafts. In Latin America, he's revered for standing up to the United States and for providing universal access to health care and higher education.

"People are blaming the United States for their bad economic situations," said Yosdany Piloto, a Cuban living in Argentina who was upset by Castro's warm reception.

"They (the students) should go live in Cuba to see what it is like," he said.

Castro reminded his large crowd Monday that life is tough in the United States. He said the cost for getting a medical degree in the United States now was estimated at about $200,000, while Cuba has granted 10,000 scholarships for Third World students to study medicine under its respected health-care system.

By offering free medical training, "Cuba has saved Third World countries some $2 billion," Castro boasted to the cheering crowd.

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, Castro's closest Latin American ally and a political protege, called this week in Argentina for creating a new political and economic bloc in Latin America.

One of the first tests of whether that bloc can be formed may be the ongoing talks to create a Free Trade Area of the Americas by 2005. All nations in the hemisphere except Cuba began negotiating the trade pact in 1994, but Brazil, Argentina and Venezuela now have signaled they may want to strengthen regional economies before concluding a trade deal with the United States.

U.S. Trade Representative Robert Zoellick is in Brazil this week, in part trying to determine whether Brazil and its allies intend to stick to the timetables agreed to back in 1994.