Cuba celebrates May Day

Castro attacked the US and Latin America

By Daniel Schweimler BBC correspondent in Havana

More than one million people gathered in Havana's Revolution Square to celebrate May Day.

The Cuban authorities said there were six million across the whole country.

Cuban President Fidel Castro made his customary speech praising the achievements of his 43 years in power and criticizing the United States for what he called the deficiencies in the rest of Latin America.

The buses began arriving around Havana's Revolution Square before first light from all over western Cuba. When the Cuban authorities say one million people will attend the May Day festivities, then one million people attend.

Peaceful affair

Stretching as far as the eye can see across the main square and down all the approach roads, Cubans from a population of 11 million attended the rally, on one of the most important days in the Cuban calendar.

Even little Elian Gonzalez was there for the celebrations

It is a peaceful affair with no room for protest, a celebration of the gains of the Cuban Revolution and an opportunity to criticize the country's enemies - the US always being at the top of the list.

Mr Castro, in his customary military uniform, and a string of other speakers criticized US economic policy, Washington's support for Israel and the war in Afghanistan.

Isolation

Cuba has become increasingly isolated from its former allies in Latin America, but it was the Mexican leadership that came under specific attack in what has become a bitter and personal dispute between the presidents of the two countries.

Mr Castro is still visibly angry over his claim that Mexican President Vicente Fox asked him to leave early from a United Nations meeting in Monterrey in March because the Americans did not want him to bump into US President George W Bush.

Cuba, said Mr Castro, was the most independent, just country in the world because it did not bend to pressure from the US.

The crowd, meanwhile, waved their flags and then simply returned home.