Castro To Attend U.N. Summit
Cuban President Fidel Castro has requested a visa to attend the U.N. Millennium Summit in New York. This will be his first visit to the United States since the 50th U.N. anniversary celebration.
Other top officials who also requested visas would arrive in two Cubana de Aviation jets at an undisclosed date, and have already discussed preliminary security arrangements with the U.S. Secret Service and New York Police department, the Foreign Ministry said in a press statement.
The Millennium Summit, which begins Wednesday, will bring together more than 150 world leaders.
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"Now everything depends on the attitude that the U.S. government assumes, if it decides to repeat or not the situation with Alarcon," the statement said, referring to a decision last week to deny a U.S. visa to Ricardo Alarcon, the leader of Cuba's national assembly.
In Washington, a senior U.S. official hinted Thursday, though, that Alarcon would be given permission to attend the summit.
Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque brushed aside reports that anti-Castro Cuban exiles were pressing the U.S. government to deny the Cuban president a visa or to arrest him for "crimes against humanity." "There is no threat or risk that is capable of frightening anybody in our country," Perez told a news conference.
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