HAVANA — Fidel Castro says President Barack Obama’s “friendly smile and African-American face” are hiding Washington’s sinister intentions for Latin Americamore evidence of a cooling in relations between Cuba and the U.S. after a thaw had seemed possible just months ago.
In a letter to Hugo Chavez that the Venezuelan president read at the close of a summit of leftist Latin American nations Monday, Castro said the U.S. “empire is on the offensive again” in the region.
He blamed Washington for a military coup that toppled leftist President Manuel Zelaya of Honduras in June and criticized a U.S. agreement with Colombia that allows U.S. troops greater access to seven of that country’s military bases.
“They are obviously the real intentions of the empire, this time under the friendly smile and African-American face of Barack Obama,” Castro said.
The 83-year-old former Cuban president heaped praise on Obama when he first took office but has since turned on Obama, saying in an opinion piece last week that Obama’s acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize after deciding to send 30,000 more soldiers to Afghanistan was “a cynical act.” The Associated Press
