Castro Plans to Attend U.N. Summit in U.S.

Fidel Castro, who has made a career of battling U.S. influence in the region, announced Friday that he is coming to the United States to address next week’s U.N. Millennium Summit with his vision of the future, Cuban officials said.

It would be the Cuban president’s first visit to the United States since 1995. Cuba has requested visas for Castro, 74, and other top officials and has already discussed preliminary security arrangements with the Secret Service and the New York Police Department, the Foreign Ministry said in a press statement.

The Millennium Summit, which begins Wednesday, will bring together more than 150 world leaders at the United Nations in New York.

The Cuban delegation will speak out against “the growing tendency of a small and powerful group of countries”--the United States among them--”to violate the U.N. Charter” by not consulting the General Assembly on key decisions, said Cuban Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque.

The U.S. is obliged to grant Castro a visa under a U.N. rule that requires the host country to grant visas to officials attending U.N. meetings.

Nevertheless, Sen. Jesse Helms, (R-N.C.) demanded Friday that neither Castro nor any other high-ranking Cuban official be allowed into the country for the summit. The Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman said Cuba has been mistreating U.S. visitors.

When asked about Helms’ demand, U.N. spokesman Fred Eckhard cited the host country agreement but noted: “There is a small caveat to that, that if there are overriding national security concerns, visas can be denied. But otherwise, that’s a matter between the United States and Cuba, so I wouldn’t want to comment further.”