Leftist gov'ts show support for Gaddafi

HAVANA (AP):

Cuba's former leader Fidel Castro said yesterday that the unrest in Libya may be a pretext for a NATO invasion. Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega has jumped to the support of the embattled leader of the North African nation, saying he telephoned to express solidarity.

The protests sweeping across Libya have created challenges for the Latin American allies of Moammar Gaddafi.

Leftist governments in the Americas have long embraced him as a fellow fighter against US influence in the world. Gaddafi has responded over the years by awarding the Moammar Gaddafi International Human Rights Prize to Castro and Ortega, as well as to presidents Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Evo Morales of Bolivia.

His relations with Chavez are so warm that rumours that he was headed to Venezuela swept the world on Monday. Gaddafi took to television late Monday to deny them.

Expressed solidarity

Ortega said he had kept in communication with Gaddafi and expressed solidarity due to the "moments of tension" Libya is experiencing. State radio carried excerpts of his remarks yesterday.

"There is looting of businesses now, there is destruction. That is terrible," Ortega said during a commemoration Monday of Nicaraguan hero Augusto Cesar Sandino. He said he told Gaddafi that "difficult moments put loyalty to the test".

Ortega said he had also ordered Nicaragua's security forces not to repress protesters, though he did not say Gadhafi had done so.

Protesters emboldened by the fall of pro-Western strongmen in Egypt and Tunisia have taken to the streets of Libya, where they were confronted by Libya's security forces. Human rights groups say that more than 200 people have died and witnesses said bodies were left in the streets of Libya's capital on Tuesday.

European governments and US leaders have denounced the crackdown, but Castro used a column published Tuesday by Cuban state news media to say it was too early to criticise Gaddafi.

"You can agree or not with Gadhafi," Castro said. "The world has been invaded by all sorts of news ... We have to wait the necessary time to know with rigour how much is fact or lie."

But he did urge protests of something he says is planned: A US-led invasion of the North African nation aimed at controlling its oil.