Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has called on US President George W. Bush to lift the trade embargo on the island.
HAVANA: Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro has called on US President George W. Bush to lift the trade embargo on the island, according to the Spanish news agency EFE.
A brief statement from Castro released here Sunday also quoted the Cuban leader asking US "not to threaten the world with nuclear war".
The statement was read on state television Sunday by the head of the elections precinct where Castro -- who voted in municipal elections Sunday at the undisclosed location at which he has been recovering from a serious intestinal illness for more than a year -- is registered.
"Bush is obsessed with Cuba," Castro said, adding, "Sovereignty is not negotiable".
The Cuban leader's illness forced him to temporarily turn over power to his younger brother Raul and there had been much speculation here over whether he would appear to vote in the municipal elections.
The 81-year-old Castro has not appeared in public since July 26, 2006 and during his 15 months of convalescence has only been seen in photographs and videos, most recently in a Sep 21 interview on Cuban state television.
Castro called on Bush to end the "genocidal blockade", referring to the trade embargo imposed by the US on Cuba nearly half a century ago, "his support for terrorism" and "his murderous Cuban adjustment law, his policy of dry feet and wet feet" that allows Cubans who reach American soil to obtain legal residency.
Under 1994 immigration accords with Cuba, Washington adopted its "wet foot, dry foot" policy, under which Cubans who reach US soil are allowed to stay while those intercepted at sea are repatriated unless they can demonstrate a well-founded fear of persecution.
Havana blames Washington policy for the illegal flow of Cuban emigrants to the US.
"Their threats of preventively and by surprise attacking 60 or more dark corners of the world never intimidated us. He has already enjoyed his fruits in just one country: Iraq," Castro said.
"Do not attack anyone else, do not threaten humanity with nuclear war, the people will defend themselves and in that bonfire everyone would perish," Castro said, referring to statements Bush made last week about the need to keep Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons to prevent World War III.
The Cuban leader criticized Bush's "demanding and threatening tone" -- during an appearance earlier this month at which he discussed efforts to bring about a transition to democracy in Cuba.
Cuban television did not broadcast images of Castro voting, but it said the island's leader told the election official who visited him that the balloting "represented a forceful response to the threats of George Bush.
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