By Dalia Acosta
HAVANA, Aug 24 1998 (IPS)

Cuba’s President Fidel Castro ended his visit to the Dominican Republic with a call for the Caribbean, Central America and South America to join forces against the United States.

Castro likened the United States to an elephant against which Latin America must fight like a bull, using its “strength and bravery” to balance the might of its opponent.

“We are living in an era of global problems and the solutions must be global,” said the 72 year-old leader Sunday to thousands of Dominicans in the main square of Bani, 60 kilometers from Santo Domingo.

“Each nation must fight and do all it can to advance within the narrow margins allowed for negotiation in the world of unipolar hegemony,” added Castro, showing himself optimistic over the future of the developing South.

Castro was received in Bani – birthplace of Major General Maximo Gomez, hero of the Cuban independence movement – “as one of the most important men this century,” capable of “changing the direction of the world,” according to his hosts.

Cuba’s president arrived in Santo Domingo Thursday for the Caribbean Forum Summit for Heads of State and Government, along with leaders of the Caribbean Community (Caricom) and Haitian president Rene Preval.

He also responded to an official invitation from President Leonel Fernandez to visit the Dominican Republic, barely four months after the reestablishment of diplomatic relations suspended for 38 years.

“The Caribbean is incomplete without Cuba,” said Dominican Secretary of State, Max Puig, summing up thus the main message to come out of the Caribbean summit and weekend visit.

In an attempt to show how links are still present even after such a long period without diplomatic relations, he visited sites of the common history of both nations, and the leaders swapped the highest honours each State has to offer.

The Cuban leader also spoke with former Dominican presidents Juan Boch and Joaquin Balaguer, along with Peggy Cabral, widow of the leader of the opposition Social Democrats, Jose Francisco Pena Gomez.

This was the second chapter of Castro’s plan for rapprochement in the Caribbean, aiming to reinsert Cuba in the world economy and to scupper the United States’ policy of isolating the nation.

With this in mind, Castro toured Jamaica, Granada and Barbados earlier this month, speaking for Caribbean unity as the only route to survival in the midst of the globalisation process.

Cuba left the Caribbean Forum, held Friday and Saturday, as a full member with Caricom support for future membership of this entity and its participation in negotiations of a future agreement with Europe.

The Caribbean summit agreed a common stance for negotiations between the European Union and the group of African, Caribbean and Pacific countries (ACP) starting in September.

Havana will participate as an observer in negotiations which should lead to the approval of a programme to substitute the fourth Lome Convention, a mechanism regulating the way European aid reaches the ACP.

Castro also made some promises to the regional nations.

Before his Caribbean peers he swore Cuba would never try to compete with tourist development in the Caribbean, a sector seen as the force behind integration, trade and investments in this region.

He had also been made to promise Cuba would not try to compete with the other Caribbean forum states for the European sugar market, which will give export quotas limited to the small English speaking States of the region.

In Bani, Castro announced Cuba’s decision to help build a school here with resources coming from a prize granted to leaders at the forefront in education and health.

The collaboration with Bani complemented an aid package for Caricom, announced by Castro early this month, which includes 1,000 grants per year for education in medicine, languages, and marine biology, amongst others.

Havana will fund extensions to the main hospital in Grenada to include 120 additional beds and offer 100 grants exclusively for Grenadan students, as well as the opportunity of competing for the 1,000 regional scholarships.

Grenada will be supplied with cut price cement and steel and help from Cuban technicians to end construction on the island’s only sports stadium, and a programme of visiting Spanish teachers will be organised for a few months.

“The way forward is for our experiences to gradually unite and hopefully afterwards we can join with those of Central America and South America, constituting a force to stand up to our extremely powerful northern neighbour,” said Castro.

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