MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Castro tirade gets wild cheers from Argentinean crowd

Thousands of Argentinean students and leftist sympathizers were enthralled by a harangue delivered by Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who paraded his “pacifist” convictions, blasted the United States and reminisced about Che Guevara.

What was supposed to have been a laid-back question and answer session with students at the University of Buenos Aires Law School, turned into an open-air mass rally Monday in which a crowd of more than 10,000

Much of the rambling speech consisted of Castro's stock-in-trade tirade against the United States, which he accused of seeking a pretext to invade his country. But "we Cubans are a people that will never surrender not while there's still one man left on his feet to fight back.

"Our country has no chemical or biological weapons. Instead, we carry out scientific research to cure diseases and create vaccines.

Never will we carry out preventative attacks against anyone.

"Amy country that is guided by ideas of justice is sure to accomplish great things, o matter how poor it may be. The United States may allow the free movement of capital and merchandise but not of human beings," he claimed.

The 76-year-old Cuban leader came for Sunday's inauguration of President Nestor Kirchner, only his third trip to 'the country since seizing power in Cuba in 1961 and the first in 44 years, Red flag-waving admirers implored him to talk about Ernesto "Che" Guevara, the Argentinean-born doctor who became Castro's comrade-in- arms and a revolutionary icon until he was killed in Bolivia.

"You can't possibly imagine how sensitive that Argentinean was. He was an extraordinary human being, and excellent communist, and a believer in voluntary hard work. He was one of the least selfish persons I've ever known. "But none of that would be important were it not for the fact that there exists millions and millions of people just like him," he told the crowd that braved the chilly weather to hear him hold forth on the front steps of the Law School.