(7 Apr 2002)
1. Wide shot of rally
2. Two shots of President Fidel Castro entering rally area
3. Wide of gathering
4. Fidel Castro
5. Wide of Cuban flag
6. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Felipe Perez Roque, Cuban Foreign Minister:
"The world knows that the government of the United States which attempts to condemn Cuba in Geneva (through the UN Human Rights vote) is the same one protecting the Israeli regime, the one who has provided the weaponry which today assassinates the children and the civilian population of Palestine."
7. Cutaway of Fidel Castro
8. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Felipe Perez Roque, Cuban Foreign Minister:
"We warn the American diplomats, wherever they are... 'don't think we don't know'... We know more than they think, that they are violating the stipulations and the spirit of that accord which gave birth to the Section (Interest Section). Their actions violate the 1961 Vienna Convention on diplomatic relations."
9. Cutaway of people listening
10. SOUNDBITE: (Spanish) Felipe Perez Roque, Cuban Foreign Minister:
"However, the (American) empire, now humiliated because of its inability to achieve its goal, despite its power, now tries with the pressure we've been telling you about, to condemn Cuba at any cost. This year has been difficult for them, so we are sure that in the end, probably using terror, they will attempt a new manoeuvre against Cuba."
11. Wide of audience
STORYLINE:
Cuba's foreign minister lashed out at the United States on Saturday over allegations that U.S. officials are distributing radios so Cubans can listen to pro-American broadcasts.
Speaking before tens of thousands of people at a weekly government rally, Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque warned Washington "our patience has limits." Roque also accused the United States of conducting "electronic espionage" at its office in Havana.
Washington has not responded to the allegations.
Cuba complained to the United States earlier this week about alleged distribution of more than 500 shortwave radios tuned to the U.S. government's Radio Marti station, which is run by Cuban exiles opposed to Fidel Castro's government.
On a Thursday night television show, the Cuban government said the Americans gave the radios to "small, discredited groups that they direct," an apparent reference to dissident organisations in Havana.
During Saturday's speech, which was carried live on state television and radio, Perez Roque also accused the Americans of monitoring Cuban communications. "You cannot tell your girlfriend a secret that they won't find out," he said. Castro, who stood in the front row of the crowd, did not address the gathering.
Perez Roque said that actions by American officials in Cuba violate diplomatic norms as well as the spirit of the agreement that established the U.S. Interests Section in Cuba in 1977 under then-President Jimmy Carter.
"Our patience has limits," Perez Roque said. "We are warning the American diplomats ... that they not believe that we don't know" of their activities.
The U.S. mission performs consular services and otherwise represents American interests in Cuba without full diplomatic relations, which were severed at the height of the Cold War in the early 1960s.
Cuba has always resented the Radio Marti broadcasts from the United States to Cuba, which it views as an attempt by its enemies to undermine the government here. The broadcasts began in 1985 during the administration of then-President Ronald Reagan. Cuba has jammed them in the past.
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