Castro tries to prop up his Venzuela buddy and keep Cubans poor

Reuters/NY Times:

Convalescing Cuban leader Fidel Castro blasted U.S. President George W. Bush's biofuel plan as ''genocidal'' in an editorial on Wednesday, saying it would worsen global hunger.

The column published as ``Reflections of the Commander in Chief'' in the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma was the second in a week by Castro attacking Bush's proposals to increase the use of foodstuffs like corn for fuel to run cars.

It was the latest sign the 80-year-old revolutionary who has not appeared in public since undergoing surgery eight months ago is feeling better and keeping abreast of world affairs.

Unable to give speeches, the formerly verbose Castro has taken up the pen to attack his ideological nemesis, the U.S. government, focusing on the Bush administration's plan to increase fuel production from renewable crops instead of oil.

Ethanol production topped the agenda at Bush's meeting with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva at Camp David last week. The United States and Brazil are the world's top producers of the biofuel.

``At Camp David, Bush declared his intention to apply this formula on a world scale, which means none other than the internationalization of genocide,'' Castro wrote.

...

If Castro were an economic genius why is Cuba so poor? It is poor because he clings to a ridiculously in efficient communist economic model. Right now he is getting subsidies from Hugo Chavez who would be threatened by the use of bio fuels instead of Venezuelans oil.

If he had any intellectual honesty he would see that bio fuels would add wealth to the Cuban economy by increasing the market for its sugar cane exports. Heck he might even start domestic production reducing his reliance on Chavez.

Others have noticed that ethanol is making Castro and Chavez nervous. Luddite thinking has gotten Castro and Cuba where it is today.

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