At almost every stop during his rousing three-day tour of Jamaica, Castro volunteered something unflattering about the nations of Latin America -- usually related to their shunning of Communism and post-revolutionary Cuba.
``I shall remind you, I cannot ignore it, of when the whole of Latin America except for Mexico severed relations with Cuba,'' Castro fumed at one point. ``When they became accomplices of the aggressions against our country and accomplices of the (U.S.) economic blockade.''
He also belittled Latin American health and educational systems and even blamed those nations for the disproportionate power of the United States.
``If the rest of Latin America had done what Cuba did,'' he said, referring to the Communist takeover he led four decades ago, ``we would not be living today in a world of one homogeneous power,'' Castro told a town hall meeting in Kingston.
On the eve of Emancipation Day for former British colonies in the region, Castro, in mid-praise of Caribbeans, suddenly turned his sights on Latin America.
``Independence and freedom in this hemisphere began with the struggle put up by the slaves, whereas in Latin America there was not an awareness or sense of independence,'' he claimed, without elaborating.
Castro's ties with Latin American governments have been sour since the U.S. embargo was imposed in 1962.
While the Cuban revolution was supported by many grassroots organizations and political parties across the hemisphere, Latin American governments, with the exception of Mexico, failed to jump to Cuba's defense, partially because of U.S. pressure. Also in 1962 and again at Washington's behest, Cuba was ousted from the Organization of American States.
Castro, who appears to be angling for admission into the Caribbean Community, has seemed to suggest that he is not ready to return to the OAS, although some area leaders are pushing for it.
Several times during his Jamaican visit, he compared Latin America unfavorably with the Caribbean.
``Latin America has been independent for 200 years. However, the Caribbean countries, which have been independent for 35 or 40 years, have better rates of education, better health rates.''
Despite Castro's ample criticism of Latin America, he pledged to ``defend the cause of the Latin American peoples and countries as exploited countries, as countries that were kept in poverty and underdevelopment for so long, as countries that were plundered.''
© Copyright 1998 The Associated Press