President Fidel Castro led hundreds of thousands of Cubans in a mass protest in Havana today against new steps taken by the US to squeeze Cuba's economy and topple its communist government.
Workers and students wearing red shirts and soldiers and military cadets in uniform marched waving small Cuban flags along Havana's waterfront past the American diplomatic mission, shouting slogans against US President George W. Bush.
"Bush, you fascist, there is no aggression that Cuba cannot resist," they chanted during the six-hour march organized by the government. It was one of its largest rallies in years.
Officials said 1.2 million people marched to repudiate what they see as US meddling.
President Castro denounced as "ruthless and cruel" measures adopted last week by the White House to step up support for Cuban dissidents and limit dollar remittances to Cubans and visits from their relatives in the United States.
The 77-year-old Cuban leader, wearing his trademark military fatigues and cap, looked frail and walked one mile with difficulty, at times leaning on a marcher.
The US measures aimed at speeding up democratic change on the Caribbean island were the latest in four decades of sanctions designed to oust Mr Castro, in power since a 1959 revolution.
"You have no right whatsoever, except for that of brute force, to intervene in Cuba's affairs ... and proclaim the transition from one system to another and take measures to make this happen," Mr Castro said in a speech.
He said Mr Bush had no moral authority to speak of freedom, democracy and human rights in Cuba when his election to the White House was a "fraud" and US troops were killing Iraqis.
"The unbelievable torture applied to prisoners in Iraq has rendered the world speechless," Mr Castro said. The government gave workers and school children the day off to join the march and brought Cubans into Havana in buses and trucks overnight from the countryside. Students were gathered at Havana University last night for the march.
In a move criticized as pandering to Cuban voters in Florida, Mr Bush decided to limit visits by Cuban Americans to relatives in Cuba to one every three years and restrict their cash remittances to immediate family members.
He also prohibited sending money to government officials and members of the ruling Communist Party, to deprive what he called a "tyranny" of financial resources.
Most Cubans receive dollars from relatives in the United
States to supplement their meagre wages and buy consumer goods
not available in peso shops.