HAVANA - President Fidel Castro (news - web sites) joined hundreds of political activists from across the Western Hemisphere on Monday to coordinate regional opposition to a U.S.-backed free trade agreement for the Americas.
"Latin America is not a free and happy partner, but an instrument" of the United States under the proposed Free Trade Area for the Americas, said Cuba economist Osvaldo Hernandez. The group was meeting through Thursday.
The proposed accord known as FTAA will be used to "make up the United States' commercial deficit," said Hernandez, who predicted the pact would only widen the gap between the region's rich and poor.
Evo Morales, leader of Bolivia's coca farmers, called on Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and Presidents-elect Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva of Brazil and Lucio Gutierrez of Ecuador to reject the FTAA.
"For the first time in Latin America, the empire can be defeated," Morales said, referring to the United States.
Argentine Nobel Peace laureate Adolfo Perez Esquivel is also among the nearly 1,000 activists from 41 countries at the gathering.
U.S. President George W. Bush hopes to have the agreement in place by 2005.
Cuba, which has not had diplomatic relations with the United States for more than four decades, was not invited to join the pact.
Castro's government fiercely opposes the FTAA, saying it is an attempt by the United States to economically "annex" Latin American and Caribbean countries.
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